Rhetoric of Soft Power

Craig Hayden is assistant professor of international communication at the School of International Service at American University. He has taught at the University of Virginia’s Department of Media Studies and at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. Craig was named a Research Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy in 2009. He blogs at the International Media Argument Project (www.intermap.org).

Hayden (American Univ.) offers a welcome, much-needed analysis of what has become one of the most discussed concepts in international relations--soft power. Joseph S. Nye's concept of soft power has gained much attention in recent years, yet a thorough theoretical analysis has been sorely lacking. Hayden provides this analysis by merging this concept with the notion of public diplomacy, which he defines broadly as purposive attempts by actors to communicate in global media, cultural, and information spaces. In the author's own words, the book's goal is "to develop a theoretical treatment of soft power and public diplomacy through an interdisciplinary investigation of what is demonstratively a transnational, interdisciplinary phenomenon." The book succeeds in this goal. One of Hayden's main contributions is to not only offer a fresh analysis of US debates over the use of soft power in light of increased anti-Americanism in recent years. He also offers a rich comparative analysis of how soft power is deployed in the crucial states of China, Japan, and Venezuela, demonstrating how the key soft power notions of influence and persuasion are conceived of differently in different national contexts. Summing Up: Highly recommended.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Evaluating Soft Power: Toward a Comparative FrameworkChapter 3: Japan: Culture, Pop Culture, and the National BrandChapter 4: Venezuela: Telesur and the Artillery of IdeasChapter 5: China: Cultivating a Global Soft PowerChapter 6: United States of America: Public Diplomacy 2.0 and 21st Century StatecraftChapter 7: Conclusion