Time for some smart power
by Andrew Shearer
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19 February 2009 2:57PM
Give it a break, Carl. Hard power is obviously important. But surely soft power matters too? Before it was so powerfully debunked on Tuesday, one or two serious ‘foreign policy practitioners’ seemed to find the concept useful.
There's Tony Blair, for example, and Robert Gates (Obama’s Defense Secretary), Henry Kissinger and Bambang Yudhoyono. Kevin Rudd doesn’t seem to mind it either: he used it in his inaugural National Security Statement. And apparently the idea hasn’t always been too ‘squishy’ or ‘ill defined’ to be wheeled out in academe. (Readers may wish to note the author's name on that last link.)
