The Ambivalence of Soft PowerSoft Power and the Future of US Foreign Policy, Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023. £90.00. 256 pp.

AbstractIn Soft Power and the Future of US Foreign Policy, Hendrik W. Ohnesorge has collected interesting and worthwhile essays demonstrating that values, policies and personalities – as well as artists and performers, philanthropic foundations, universities, corporations and churches – are elements of American soft power. These cultural resources add to a nation’s global reputation and influence. Factors afflicting America’s reputation today include the declining quality of life for many sectors of American society, the country’s inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent foreign-policy disasters, and the coercive use of soft power itself. None of the contributors scrutinise the gap between promise and performance in US public diplomacy, but it seems clear that hard power undergirds soft power, and that the ability to call upon a uniquely abundant variety of means to project power is still what distinguishes the United States from all its competitors.Key words: Antony Blinkencorruptioncultural diplomacydevelopmenthard powermodernisation theoryElon MuskJoseph Nyepublic diplomacysoft powerUS Agency for International DevelopmentWashington Consensus Notes1 US Department of State, ‘U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken Launches Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, Music Icon and Former U.S. Jazz Ambassador Music Director Quincy Jones Receives Inaugural Peace Through Music Award’, 27 September 2023, https://www.state.gov/u-s-secretary-of-state-antony-j-blinken-launches-global-music-diplomacy-initiative-music-icon-and-former-u-s-jazz-ambassador-music-director-quincy-jones-receives-inaugural-peace-through-music-awar/.2 See Alex Kliment, ‘What We’re Listening To: US Tries Out Hoochie Coochie Diplomacy’, GZERO, 28 September 2023, https://www.gzeromedia.com/what-were-listening-to-us-tries-out-hoochie-coochie-diplomacy.3 See Inderjeet Parmar and Michael Cox (eds), Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2010).4 Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, Soft Power: The Forces of Attraction in International Relations (Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, 2019).5 See Alan Beattie, ‘How the US and Europe Can Beat China’s Belt and Road’, Financial Times, 29 June 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/2a0814cb-afdd-4c9a-8f5e-09f07ceb3d64. Of course, disasters can ensue when China endows a less-developed country with an airport. See Daisuke Wakabayashi, Bhadra Sharma and Claire Fu, ‘China Got a Big Contract. Nepal Got Debt and a Pricey Airport’, New York Times, 16 October 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/business/nepal-pokhara-airport-china.html.6 See US Agency for Global Media, ‘Statement from CEO Amanda Bennett on Hamas Attack on Israel’, 11 October 2023, https://www.usagm.gov/2023/10/11/statement-from-ceo-amanda-bennett-on-hamas-attack-on-israel/. The agency also runs Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, as well as networks for Asia, Cuba and the Middle East.7 See US Department of State, ‘Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Allen Travels to Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, and Chile’, 11 October 2023, https://www.state.gov/under-secretary-of-state-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs-allen-travels-to-fiji-vanuatu-australia-and-chile/.8 US Department of State, ‘2022 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting’, 9 December 2022, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/FINAL_2022_ACPD_AnnualReport_508Ready.pdf.9 Daniel F. Runde, The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power (New York and Brentwood, TN: Bombardier Books, 2023), p. 209.10 United States Agency for International Development, ‘Democracy Delivers’, https://www.usaid.gov/.11 See American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, ‘U.S. Foreign Assistance to Egypt’, 2023, https://www.amcham.org.eg/information-resources/trade-resources/egypt-us-relations/us-foreign-assistance-to-egypt.12 United States Agency for International Development, ‘FY 2023 Budget Justification’, https://www.usaid.gov/cj/fy-2023. See also Carl Hulse and Catie Edmondson, ‘House G.O.P. Prepares to Slash Federal Programs in Coming Budget Showdown’, New York Times, 8 March 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/us/politics/house-republicans-deficit-budget-biden.html.13 See European Commission, ‘Recipients and Results of EU Aid’, https://commission.europa.eu/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/human-rights-non-eu-countries/recipients-and-results-eu-aid_en.14 Christopher Layne, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Soft Power’, in Parmar and Cox (eds), Soft Power and US Foreign Policy, pp. 70–1.15 Joseph S. Nye, Jr, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: PublicAffairs, 2004), p. 11.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDavid W. EllwoodDavid W. Ellwood is a senior adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS–Europe) in Bologna, Italy.