News Desk
- Nye first joined Harvard’s faculty in 1964
- Served as dean of the Harvard Kennedy School
- Served in positions under presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton
- Nye authored 14 books and more than 200 journal articles
ISLAMABAD: Joseph Nye, a versatile and influential political scientist and US policymaker who coined the term “soft power,” a concept of nations gaining dominance through attractiveness, has died, Harvard University announced Wednesday. He was 88.
According to AFP, Nye, who died Tuesday, first joined Harvard’s faculty in 1964 and served as dean of the Harvard Kennedy School as well as in positions under presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
According to Harvard Crimson, in a post on X mourning Nye’s death, former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers praised Nye as a “profound scholar” and “dedicated public official.” “The modern university has far too few like him,” Summers wrote. “I will so miss learning from him but his writing and his example will influence me and many others for a long time to come.”
RIP Joe Nye. Profound scholar of international relations. Dedicated public official. Academic leader. The modern university has far too few like him. I will so miss learning from him but his writing and his example will influence me and many others for a long time to come.
— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) May 7, 2025
Host of CNN’s GPS Fareed Zakaria in a post on X, stated: “Joe was a great scholar, a generous teacher and thoroughly decent and ethical human being. A role model for me.”
Joe was a great scholar, a generous teacher and thoroughly decent and ethical human being. A role model for me. https://t.co/vbqLLrjgxp
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) May 7, 2025
Harvard Kennedy School in a post on X praised Joseph Nye by stating that the Harvard professor’s ideas on the nature of power in international relations influenced generations of policymakers, academics, and students and made him one of the world’s most celebrated political thinkers.
Joseph Nye, a Harvard professor whose ideas on the nature of power in international relations influenced generations of policymakers, academics, & students and made him one of the world’s most celebrated political thinkers, has died at the age of 88 https://t.co/ef7vS8eJ1f
— Harvard Kennedy School (@Kennedy_School) May 7, 2025
According to AFP, the author of 14 books and more than 200 journal articles, the neo-liberal thinker studied topics as varied as arms control and pan-Africanism but became best known for developing the term “soft power” in the late 1980s. As opposed to hard power, such as weapons and economic sanctions, soft power includes values and culture that can win over others.
“Soft power”
“Soft power — getting others to want the outcomes that you want — co-opts people rather than coerces them,” Nye wrote in a 2004 book on the topic.
Among other examples, he pointed to growing US influence in Latin America when Franklin Roosevelt instituted a “good neighbor policy” and, conversely, how the Soviet Union lost Eastern Europe through brutality even as Moscow’s hard power grew.
Soft power — getting others to want the outcomes that you want — co-opts people rather than coerces them.” – Joseph Nye
Sharply reduced US soft power
Trump, since returning to office in January, has sharply reduced US soft power, including through dismantling foreign assistance and cracking down on international students, and has sought to ramp up military spending.
In responses to AFP in February about how he saw Trump’s second term, Nye wrote: “Trump does not really understand power. He only thinks in terms of coercion and payment.”
“He mistakes short-term results for long-term effects. Hard coercive power (such as a threat of tariffs) may work in the short term while creating incentives for others to reduce their reliance on the US in the longer term,” he wrote to AFP by email.
Trump does not really understand power. He only thinks in terms of coercion and payment. He mistakes short-term results for long-term effects.” – Joseph Nye
“Our success over the past eight decades has also been based on attractiveness.”
But he said that US soft power had seen cycles in the past, pointing to the unpopularity of the United States during the Vietnam War.
“Trust in the US”
“We will probably recover somewhat after Trump, but he has damaged trust in the US,” he wrote.
Nye acknowledged the limitations of soft power alone. In his book, he wrote: “Excellent wines and cheese do not guarantee attraction to France, nor does the popularity of Pokemon games assure that Japan will get the policy outcomes it wishes.”
Nye was considered a possible national security advisor if John Kerry won the White House in 2004. He was also particularly active on Japan, where former president Barack Obama considered appointing him ambassador.
Always attentive to soft power, Nye took to the opinion pages of The New York Times in 2010 to criticise some in the Obama administration for seeking to play “hardball” with a new, inexperienced Japanese government over base relocation, calling for a “more patient and strategic approach” to the longtime US ally.
Focus on nuclear policy
Much of Nye’s time in government was focused on nuclear policy. He argued that the risk of nuclear weapons could have deterred major powers from entering World War I — but that the spread of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War posed new dangers.
“He was proudest of having contributed both intellectually… and practically (in the Carter and Clinton administrations) to preventing nuclear war,” fellow Harvard scholar Graham Allison said in a statement, according to AFP.
