As someone who's watching this video in 2024, this explanation of power through soft power, hard power and smart power is extremely well explained and creates a sense of organisation for something as chaotic as power.
The thing is, I'm watching this from 2020 and the way Joseph Nye could anticipate that we have no control over pandemics ans tha China would be passing the USA in certain matters is unbeliavable.
he defined power diffusion as power moving to non-state actors, and the EU and BRICs are all comprised of state actors. It's a power shift; the US isn't declining, like everyone thinks, but it is becoming weaker because relative to China, it is growing at a snail's pace, so although the US is growing, it's not fast enough to make up the ground China is gaining.
the term is actually pretty useful. I understand that it might not be relevant to your life but for people embedded in the foreign policy process it actually is. Soft Power is referring to the types of political persuasion and coercion employed by governments that does not stem directly from the military or physical aggression (using hard power). Joining trade unions, facilitating local alliances, strengthening local economies and interdependencies--these are all soft power tactics.
From the year of 2022, we stilllive in an era of hard power. We are witnessing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a deadlock in dealing with climate change due largely to nation-states' ambitions, fierce Sino-U.S. competitions, and so on. Soft power is itself important, but hard power is the very nature of international politics.
Concealment lie at his finnest expresion by Joseph Nye. But if you understand what he is concealment you get the answer what are you looking. Its great to listen Joseph Nye.
Joseph Nye, I'd like to tell you there's a picture in my mind, an old man dressed well on a Sunday morning went to church, he entered the lift, smiled to the stranger with a fake smile. He pretended to be a good gentlemen, and talked about "don't be afraid of the rising China". There're tons of people like this but no one even mentioned that the rise of China or Asia means many poor people are getting out of poverty! I wish the next decade we see rise of Africa, south America, or rise of the poor people in America. Joseph Nye, you're not a professor, and not a gentleman with a open and warm heart, is that the soft power you're talking about?
you got a better shot of China calling in those loans in Africa and within a year every single black person in the continent will be speaking Chinese and wondering where there government is to protect them... Cause thats exactly what China's fixing to do...
There is a confusing meaning among "Soft Power" and "Public Diplomacy" and sometimes 'Propaganda. It's like a business of academic to paraphrase several similarly meaning concepts, if you read them carefully you got what i mean
Pretty shallow, as tends to be the case with TED talks. (Short version = people will do stuff for you if they like you.) But there's an implication of depth and I'd like to hear more from him. I may have to pull up some of his other videos here.
The Rolex ad at the end is funny, because their depth claims are non relevant to a human diver. Are they marketing their watches for robots now or what ?
@WyldOrbit Actually it does, and it should comfort you too since it means that a World War or even a Cold War between the U.S. and China is much less likely due to the information age.
No, it is meant to contrast with traditional 'hard power'--it really isn't difficult to understand, and its usage within the theme of this man's conversation is really appropriate. It is a relatively broad term; it is indicating the shift in the international politics paradigm from flexing military might in a multipolar world, to a more 'warless' international stage where competing actors vie for influence and power with diplomatic methods that recognize our increasing interdependence.
This is remarkable content. I recently read a book with a similar theme, and it was absolutely astonishing. "The Art of Meaningful Relationships in the 21st Century" by Leo Flint
It is broad, just as the types of military action a state can take are very broad; covert operations, war, supplying arms to rebels, assassinations, drone strikes, air operations, etc. It doesn't make the term less useful.
@AirForceJuan3 well if your just starting to read foucault and have not read other philosophers etc i would recommend purchasing a book that is about foucault that summarizes or condenses is works...a good starting book would be Understanding Foucault....i dont recommend reading his texts inicially because they are dense and his way of composing is very tangled/intrinsic/complex etc.
Assistindo para realizar um trabalho da disciplina de Gestão Cultural, Faculdade de Políticas Públicas - UEMG (Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais), em 2022, muito show!
@delatroy In political science, there is a very defined definition of "power" and because he is a historian, it is reasonable to assume that he is referring to power (political science).
@ToniSkit I've just bought a book that among other things is about Foucault... Sounds interesting. Do you happen to know any book, documentary or something else about his work?
'computing and communication costs have fallen 1000 fold between 1970 and the beginning of this century' - this must be wrong. I make it out in price / performance terms as 1,052,672 times as cheap
The part about china catching up to us and the citizens, might be true to live to where we are, but we are slowly declining, as more countries come onto the world stage and the world gets flatter. So we might drop a lot and be closer to china sooner than he expects.
Respond to this video... When he says "sticks" He is referring to carrots and sticks. Otherwise known as rewards and punishments in psychology. Carrots are rewards and sticks are punishment.
Who is watching in 2020? The global goods need to be addressed by the big power and here in 2020, Donald Trump even doesn't understand the potential threat of Covid-19
@InTheSticks1881 "how our current monetary system is slowly destroying us" I couldn't agree more, but I might have used the term: "Enslaving us" as well.
Economically yes, but politically and militarily they flexing their muscles. This year alone, they've gotten into diplomatic rows and military standoffs with the Philippines and Vietnam over control of the South China Sea AND with Japan over the Senkoku Islands. In the past, they've had hostilities with all the South China Sea nations. The government propaganda machine makes it look like all the other countries are at fault, making the public anxious for the military to prove its superiority.
@WyldOrbit I think what he was arguing was that the notion of a world power is much different in the information age than it was in the 20th century and that classically speaking China would become a world power by 2050, but that way of thinking is outdated. Clearly you are thinking in an outdated fashion. For one thing, China already has an enormous amount of American corporations working there, which is something unprecedented in world history.
When a term becomes to "inclusive" to encompass too many things of different nature, it will become over-abstractive and over-generalized to be useful. It will end up as obstrusive as the useless and notorious term "zeitgeist", of which scholars like to play with as to show off how "profound" the knowledge they possess. It's kinda like the notorious law makers who like to make simple things complicated so that they could monopolize the trade and make their services costly~
1980s was the end of America. We have a massive government, but no one wants to pay for it since Reagan. Also, we didn't transfer over to Silicon valley as our education system sucks. Posted at 8:20 in the video
In my opinion the part where says that a state has the upper hand in power if it has 'a better story' is not a soft power. It sounds more like propaganda, which is something different from the soft power. Am I right? Does anyone have the same opinion or am I completely wrong?
@AtheistSweden Redistribution of wealth and fight against actual accumulation of power, is an Anarchist claim, normally, anarchist fight together with socialist. We both fight accumulation of power in banks and corporations, but difference is that socialist believe in government as manager of those goods/means, and we believe government is useless (as said, redistribute is what I aim for, not management by a central state). Look up the CNT-Barcelona union, and who we asociate with.
Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr., también conocido como Joe Nye, es un geopolitólogo y profesor estadounidense, cofundador, junto con Robert Keohane, de la teoría del neoliberalismo de las relaciones internacionales, desarrollada en el libro Poder e Interdependencia en 1977.
@fitobcnfito The concentration of power was created by the politicians that convinced people that state must be strong and that people can have their cake (free market) and eat it too (social assistance, "free education" etc). Once the politicians got enough power to screw things up, they did. The solution is for the state NOT to have the power to screw things up. You cannot think that the government is the solution to the problem of government, can you?
@InTheSticks1881 The problem is concentration of power in the hands of the few, not capitalism. But free market fanatics (not as Sweden,) have allowed and helped that concentration by the only rule of market. Goverment should interfere here, and redistribute power so it's a fear situation, and real freedom
@thebytegrill it's no different from telling the government to put a troll button on fox news. If you don't agree with it, then don't look at it. Saying another's comment as trolling is kind of trolling in itself.
@logossfera No I don’t, I'm an anarchist, but in order to be fear and have real freedom and real free market, we need first to redistribute in equality the means. Right now, situation is not fear or free, and we cannot live corporations do as they will, because what they want is to concentrate even more power, and they can in the actual status quo.
The only fear i have in the 21st century.. is the fear created by military industrial complex and greedy politicians in the developed countries, they will the one that create fear through greedy politicians as their puppets/spokesmen- woman. We will see exploding of research in military technologies and exploding in military hardware business, making the top 1% richer and richer, especially in the military industry
How do they have a leap frog? They have capitolized off of Americas need for cheap labor... its been done for past 2 centurys..LMAO.. Nothing China is doing economically is genuine or innovative... There idea of innovation is taking a I phone and rebranding it as a G-phone... smdh
@AtheistSweden disculpa por el inglés, gracias por la corrección. Yes I am, but to have a free society, you have to start from freedom and equality, what is not FAIR, is to have all the power accumulated in few people, and now pretend that is a freedom what so ever. You first have to take that power away from the greedy bankers and corporations, and give it away; distribution in equality is the fairest thing to do. Later on: Anarchy and freedom to trade, or not.
I really disagree with Nye about a power transition of West to East. It’s completely misleading. Germany, for example, is one of the most developed economies of the World and one that belongs to the western traditions and backgroud. And I don't see any economic shift from germany to somewhere in Asia. Not to mention the United States.
@giansideros India held 24% of the worlds GDP under the Mughal Empire(India), then the empire disintegrated and the British took advantage and defeated the reveal empires fighting against each other in India. And create British Raj. British god filthy rich off of India, but India slipped into intense poverty.
maybe we can view this not as a power shift, but as a power diffusion. US will remain its dominance, but its power will also be balanced by the rising power such as EU, BRICs or other non-western nations. then we will see a world with fewer wars and instability.
@fitobcnfito The reality that free market capitalism is far closer to archism than redistribution of wealth. Why? because it allows nature to takes it's course, in which the ruthless will always accumulate power and crush those that make it possible for them. Socialism seeks to intervene and make the world safer, fairer and happier for all, hence the term 'social justice'.
cool dude. some projections are a bit wrong. US is smaller economy than China today. Asia GNW more than any other continent. And China leads world technological progress not USA.
@WyldOrbit Maybe, but that is a highly irrational fear. I myself do not much care if China overtakes the U.S. economically, as long as the U.S. keeps on making the money. So my reaction to that is w/e
@TheGodlessGuitarist thank you for your kind words, do as you wish. Still, I will believe we should redistribute all the means (since actual distribution enslaves people, and is not fair), and then let people do with no government, in anarchy. You can belive as you wish, I'll do as I want. Adios simpático
This is a really interesting talk, but he sounds like a text book. Repetitive with subject headings, focus questions, and gradual introduction of topics. Also, a minorly irritating American bias.
I like the way he speaks it's very calm.
As someone who's watching this video in 2024, this explanation of power through soft power, hard power and smart power is extremely well explained and creates a sense of organisation for something as chaotic as power.
Joe Nye, the political science guy.
Joe Nye the PolSci guy
JOOOEEE NYYYYYEEE THE POLSCI GUYYY
JOE JOE JOE JOE JOE JOE!
The thing is, I'm watching this from 2020 and the way Joseph Nye could anticipate that we have no control over pandemics ans tha China would be passing the USA in certain matters is unbeliavable.
How's that unbelievable?
I mean he is wrong... China is nowhere near surpassing the US.
he defined power diffusion as power moving to non-state actors, and the EU and BRICs are all comprised of state actors. It's a power shift; the US isn't declining, like everyone thinks, but it is becoming weaker because relative to China, it is growing at a snail's pace, so although the US is growing, it's not fast enough to make up the ground China is gaining.
U’ll be the next joseph nye
Great talk. Quality TED!
I think it's hilarious that the first suggested video is sailor moon.
Soft power.
Hi, Mr Nye! You are doing a nice job giving us some explanation about global power shifts! I am enjoying it a lot! My congratulations!
When ever i want sleep i am gonna watch this. i had slept 3 times while watching this.
U too
the term is actually pretty useful. I understand that it might not be relevant to your life but for people embedded in the foreign policy process it actually is. Soft Power is referring to the types of political persuasion and coercion employed by governments that does not stem directly from the military or physical aggression (using hard power). Joining trade unions, facilitating local alliances, strengthening local economies and interdependencies--these are all soft power tactics.
Interesting to listen to now. It was great interviewing Joseph Nye on our show recently.
un gran crack el tío Joseph Nye
Going to put it on my wish list. =P
You're very right. Thank you for making me less dumb. I should have looked it up first.
everytime i read his works i am left disapppointed. his concepts of power is actually really obscure
Brilliant!
I am watching this because of my assignment.....
Хорошее выступление, отдельное спасибо переводчику. I enjoyed that
😂😂😂
From the year of 2022, we stilllive in an era of hard power. We are witnessing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a deadlock in dealing with climate change due largely to nation-states' ambitions, fierce Sino-U.S. competitions, and so on. Soft power is itself important, but hard power is the very nature of international politics.
Then negotiate with Russian arms dealers by your self. Good luck🤪
Concealment lie at his finnest expresion by Joseph Nye. But if you understand what he is concealment you get the answer what are you looking. Its great to listen Joseph Nye.
Joseph Nye, I'd like to tell you there's a picture in my mind, an old man dressed well on a Sunday morning went to church, he entered the lift, smiled to the stranger with a fake smile. He pretended to be a good gentlemen, and talked about "don't be afraid of the rising China". There're tons of people like this but no one even mentioned that the rise of China or Asia means many poor people are getting out of poverty! I wish the next decade we see rise of Africa, south America, or rise of the poor people in America. Joseph Nye, you're not a professor, and not a gentleman with a open and warm heart, is that the soft power you're talking about?
you got a better shot of China calling in those loans in Africa and within a year every single black person in the continent will be speaking Chinese and wondering where there government is to protect them... Cause thats exactly what China's fixing to do...
Bro was even wearing NB at that time, he definitely knew what was up
Joseph Nye the Power Guy
i could have written this speech after my first yr macroeco module...too simplistic
Oh you actually thought he was talking to you didnt you?
You should read "The Accidental Superpower" and "The Absent Superpower" by Peter Weihan.
When Britain ruled the world, those so-called scholars never predicted Britain would fail.
However, GOD is never predictable.
I want a Joseph Nye vs John Mearsheimer battle
What an amazing and insightful speech, a true genius of the subject
great explanation
There is a confusing meaning among "Soft Power" and "Public Diplomacy" and sometimes 'Propaganda. It's like a business of academic to paraphrase several similarly meaning concepts, if you read them carefully you got what i mean
Pretty shallow, as tends to be the case with TED talks. (Short version = people will do stuff for you if they like you.) But there's an implication of depth and I'd like to hear more from him. I may have to pull up some of his other videos here.
The Rolex ad at the end is funny, because their depth claims are non relevant to a human diver. Are they marketing their watches for robots now or what ?
@WyldOrbit Actually it does, and it should comfort you too since it means that a World War or even a Cold War between the U.S. and China is much less likely due to the information age.
No, it is meant to contrast with traditional 'hard power'--it really isn't difficult to understand, and its usage within the theme of this man's conversation is really appropriate. It is a relatively broad term; it is indicating the shift in the international politics paradigm from flexing military might in a multipolar world, to a more 'warless' international stage where competing actors vie for influence and power with diplomatic methods that recognize our increasing interdependence.
He seems a bit nervous but he made a gr8 speech non the less.
This is remarkable content. I recently read a book with a similar theme, and it was absolutely astonishing. "The Art of Meaningful Relationships in the 21st Century" by Leo Flint
It is broad, just as the types of military action a state can take are very broad; covert operations, war, supplying arms to rebels, assassinations, drone strikes, air operations, etc. It doesn't make the term less useful.
@AirForceJuan3 well if your just starting to read foucault and have not read other philosophers etc i would recommend purchasing a book that is about foucault that summarizes or condenses is works...a good starting book would be Understanding Foucault....i dont recommend reading his texts inicially because they are dense and his way of composing is very tangled/intrinsic/complex etc.
I got the same name as this guy
he seems to have a really simple concept of power
Assistindo para realizar um trabalho da disciplina de Gestão Cultural, Faculdade de Políticas Públicas - UEMG (Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais), em 2022, muito show!
@Issphitikozs
He is referring to basic psychology of motivation. Carrots and sticks. This is otherwise known as rewards and punishments as motivation.
@delatroy
In political science, there is a very defined definition of "power" and because he is a historian, it is reasonable to assume that he is referring to power (political science).
@ToniSkit
Thank you very much, Toni. =D
@ToniSkit
I've just bought a book that among other things is about Foucault...
Sounds interesting.
Do you happen to know any book, documentary or something else about his work?
@InTheSticks1881 secret is oz. is nice :) great historian
'computing and communication costs have fallen 1000 fold between 1970 and the beginning of this century' - this must be wrong. I make it out in price / performance terms as 1,052,672 times as cheap
The part about china catching up to us and the citizens, might be true to live to where we are, but we are slowly declining, as more countries come onto the world stage and the world gets flatter. So we might drop a lot and be closer to china sooner than he expects.
Respond to this video... When he says "sticks" He is referring to carrots and sticks. Otherwise known as rewards and punishments in psychology. Carrots are rewards and sticks are punishment.
Who is watching in 2020? The global goods need to be addressed by the big power and here in 2020, Donald Trump even doesn't understand the potential threat of Covid-19
Why isn't Noam Chomsky on ted?
The Rolex advertisement was almost as interesting as the speech.
There must be fear in America when Asia rises.
Number one China should thank him .He helps China see her problems...
@InTheSticks1881 "how our current monetary system is slowly destroying us"
I couldn't agree more, but I might have used the term: "Enslaving us" as well.
Economically yes, but politically and militarily they flexing their muscles. This year alone, they've gotten into diplomatic rows and military standoffs with the Philippines and Vietnam over control of the South China Sea AND with Japan over the Senkoku Islands. In the past, they've had hostilities with all the South China Sea nations. The government propaganda machine makes it look like all the other countries are at fault, making the public anxious for the military to prove its superiority.
@WyldOrbit I think what he was arguing was that the notion of a world power is much different in the information age than it was in the 20th century and that classically speaking China would become a world power by 2050, but that way of thinking is outdated. Clearly you are thinking in an outdated fashion. For one thing, China already has an enormous amount of American corporations working there, which is something unprecedented in world history.
When a term becomes to "inclusive" to encompass too many things of different nature, it will become over-abstractive and over-generalized to be useful. It will end up as obstrusive as the useless and notorious term "zeitgeist", of which scholars like to play with as to show off how "profound" the knowledge they possess. It's kinda like the notorious law makers who like to make simple things complicated so that they could monopolize the trade and make their services costly~
1980s was the end of America. We have a massive government, but no one wants to pay for it since Reagan.
Also, we didn't transfer over to Silicon valley as our education system sucks.
Posted at 8:20 in the video
It's like a diplomacy version of Bill Nye
sound is digitally modified?
In my opinion the part where says that a state has the upper hand in power if it has 'a better story' is not a soft power. It sounds more like propaganda, which is something different from the soft power. Am I right? Does anyone have the same opinion or am I completely wrong?
Soft Power is absolutely nothing but Propoganda...lol...
what's the background music of the Ad in the end
Was Libya Smart Power or Soft Power?
Brasilia is the capital of Brazil
@AtheistSweden Redistribution of wealth and fight against actual accumulation of power, is an Anarchist claim, normally, anarchist fight together with socialist. We both fight accumulation of power in banks and corporations, but difference is that socialist believe in government as manager of those goods/means, and we believe government is useless (as said, redistribute is what I aim for, not management by a central state). Look up the CNT-Barcelona union, and who we asociate with.
Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr., también conocido como Joe Nye, es un geopolitólogo y profesor estadounidense, cofundador, junto con Robert Keohane, de la teoría del neoliberalismo de las relaciones internacionales, desarrollada en el libro Poder e Interdependencia en 1977.
😅😊🎉
@proteanview nice words, but the US is a super power, you really can't argue the point you're trying to.
well everything is not going one way.. say hello to Corona virus
@fitobcnfito
The concentration of power was created by the politicians that convinced people that state must be strong and that people can have their cake (free market) and eat it too (social assistance, "free education" etc). Once the politicians got enough power to screw things up, they did. The solution is for the state NOT to have the power to screw things up. You cannot think that the government is the solution to the problem of government, can you?
@InTheSticks1881 The problem is concentration of power in the hands of the few, not capitalism.
But free market fanatics (not as Sweden,) have allowed and helped that concentration by the only rule of market. Goverment should interfere here, and redistribute power so it's a fear situation, and real freedom
@thebytegrill it's no different from telling the government to put a troll button on fox news. If you don't agree with it, then don't look at it. Saying another's comment as trolling is kind of trolling in itself.
@logossfera No I don’t, I'm an anarchist, but in order to be fear and have real freedom and real free market, we need first to redistribute in equality the means.
Right now, situation is not fear or free, and we cannot live corporations do as they will, because what they want is to concentrate even more power, and they can in the actual status quo.
@Saerain "inertia is a property of matter"
The only fear i have in the 21st century.. is the fear created by military industrial complex and greedy politicians in the developed countries, they will the one that create fear through greedy politicians as their puppets/spokesmen- woman.
We will see exploding of research in military technologies and exploding in military hardware business, making the top 1% richer and richer, especially in the military industry
i think people from countries termed "developing" would benefit from learning from the East- countries that have leap frog-ed the process
How do they have a leap frog? They have capitolized off of Americas need for cheap labor... its been done for past 2 centurys..LMAO.. Nothing China is doing economically is genuine or innovative... There idea of innovation is taking a I phone and rebranding it as a G-phone... smdh
@TheProdigySupreme Too late. Go to a department store and look at where most things were made.
Money trumps all, when everything can be bought.
how about people power ? how about liberty , respect and prosperity ?
@AtheistSweden disculpa por el inglés, gracias por la corrección.
Yes I am, but to have a free society, you have to start from freedom and equality, what is not FAIR, is to have all the power accumulated in few people, and now pretend that is a freedom what so ever.
You first have to take that power away from the greedy bankers and corporations, and give it away; distribution in equality is the fairest thing to do.
Later on: Anarchy and freedom to trade, or not.
Oh man, I totally mis-read this. I thought it was Bill Nye giving a talk, not this guy...
You're much better off listening to Joe than Bill, IMHO.
I really disagree with Nye about a power transition of West to East. It’s completely misleading. Germany, for example, is one of the most developed economies of the World and one that belongs to the western traditions and backgroud. And I don't see any economic shift from germany to somewhere in Asia. Not to mention the United States.
Hahahaha what a fool. Just wait in 20 years.
@giansideros India held 24% of the worlds GDP under the Mughal Empire(India), then the empire disintegrated and the British took advantage and defeated the reveal empires fighting against each other in India. And create British Raj. British god filthy rich off of India, but India slipped into intense poverty.
Wow. This guy filled the theater, huh?
maybe we can view this not as a power shift, but as a power diffusion. US will remain its dominance, but its power will also be balanced by the rising power such as EU, BRICs or other non-western nations. then we will see a world with fewer wars and instability.
@fitobcnfito
The reality that free market capitalism is far closer to archism than redistribution of wealth. Why? because it allows nature to takes it's course, in which the ruthless will always accumulate power and crush those that make it possible for them. Socialism seeks to intervene and make the world safer, fairer and happier for all, hence the term 'social justice'.
cool dude. some projections are a bit wrong. US is smaller economy than China today. Asia GNW more than any other continent. And China leads world technological progress not USA.
That not what power mean as a human.
If you think of power in this way some countries will never see peace
Be a human for once
That is a lie
HOLY MAN!
@WyldOrbit Maybe, but that is a highly irrational fear. I myself do not much care if China overtakes the U.S. economically, as long as the U.S. keeps on making the money. So my reaction to that is w/e
Oops. He said al-CIA-da was a non governmental actor. I don't know about that!
@WyldOrbit not quite
RUclips needs a troll button right next to the spam button, with profiles getting troll points.
@TheGodlessGuitarist thank you for your kind words, do as you wish.
Still, I will believe we should redistribute all the means (since actual distribution enslaves people, and is not fair), and then let people do with no government, in anarchy.
You can belive as you wish, I'll do as I want.
Adios simpático
golden water
I wonder how all these 10 dollar words would look on poor, humble people.
This is a really interesting talk, but he sounds like a text book. Repetitive with subject headings, focus questions, and gradual introduction of topics. Also, a minorly irritating American bias.
That's my birthday #robertswint
mm why i would want a deep sea working rolex watch? mmm i just cat look at my iphone to look the time ... this is weird... watches are obsolete....
This guy should write all of our public schools history books.
What's with the laughing at 3:17 when he mentions the Catholic Church?
He is addressing a bunch of Leftists who hate religionists.