The End of the Long American Century Trump and the Sources of U.S. Power Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

[Tom Jigme Wheat]

The End of the Long American CenturyTrump and the Sources of U.S. PowerRobert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

-excerpt-

"The Trump administration misses a major dimension of power. Power is the ability to get others to do what you want. This goal can be accomplished by coercion, payment, or attraction. The first two are hard power; the third is soft power. In the short term, hard power usually trumps soft power, but over the long term, soft power often prevails. Joseph Stalin is thought to have once mockingly asked, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” But the Soviet Union is long gone, and the papacy lives on.

The president seems inordinately committed to coercion and the exercise of American hard power, but he does not seem to understand soft power or its role in foreign policy"

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/end-long-american-century-trump-keohane-nye

[Tom Jigme Wheat]

   Thomas Wheat

Excellent article. Trump is wrong to think hard power trumps soft power as like Machiavelli said it is better to not only be feared but to be loved as well. Trump's ceding of America's soft power only creates a vacuum our adversaries like China and Russia are happy to fill. However, while I agree we need international trade and globalization in some form and to the extent that such globalization has accrued mostly positive outcomes for the US in the western hemisphere and Europe the outsourcing of a large portion of our manufacturing base to China is a direct national security threat. This threat is also posed by our ever growing transnational corporate industrialists who exported our jobs to an increasingly authoritarian communist--capitalist china which has made the US itself question the inviolability of democracy. Furthermore there is a rush to return to isolationism and deevolution of the role of science and the ability to discern objective truths about power and the abuse of power in US politics and the corporate sphere which by itself is inherently undemocratic, is inherently destabilizing and will ultimately end our sovereignty as democratic citizens if not stopped by a consensus among the masses that can drown out the fake news propaganda that reinforces the ignorance and greed that justifies oligarchical rule.

[Tom Jigme Wheat]

" Trump’s coercive and transactional approach is already producing concessions with the promise of more to come. As Machiavelli once wrote about power, it is better for a prince to be feared than loved. But it is better yet to be both feared and loved. Power has three dimensions, and by ignoring attraction, Trump is neglecting a key source of American strength. In the long run, it is a losing strategy." "The Trump administration misses a major dimension of power. Power is the ability to get others to do what you want. This goal can be accomplished by coercion, payment, or attraction. The first two are hard power; the third is soft power. In the short term, hard power usually trumps soft power, but over the long term, soft power often prevails. Joseph Stalin is thought to have once mockingly asked, “How many divisions does the Pope have?” But the Soviet Union is long gone, and the papacy lives on." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/end-long-american-century-trump-keohane-nye