‘“Power,” Harvard Professor Joseph Nye, Jr. tells
us “is the ability to alter the behavior of others to get what you want.
There are basically three ways to do that: coercion (sticks), payments
(carrots), and attraction (soft power).” Today’s American soft power—our
ability to influence others overseas through who we are and what we do—is
shrinking, as poll after poll shows. This loss of soft power reduces
America's ability to shape global developments in ways favorable to the
national interest. What can be done about this? 

There are several reasons for the decline of America’s soft power. The
most immediate is President George W. Bush’s aggressive foreign policy. Since
our internationally condemned attack on Iraq, our country is seen as the
illegitimate sheriff that shoots first and asks questions later. Contrast this
to the worldwide sympathy for the U.S. immediately after 9/11, when we were
considered the attacked, not the attacker. Due to our unilateralism, we have
lost the respect—to be sure, never universal—that we earned as a world leader
resisting the totalitarianisms of the twentieth century. 

Second to the aggression is the hypocrisy of Bush's rhetoric. The
president proclaims the pursuit of human freedom as his foremost goal while we
are becoming a parody of the Statue of Liberty, covered in prison torture garb
from Abu Ghraib, obsessed with our own security but with nothing liberating (or
even stabilizing) to offer to the rest of the world. Forget the
“democratization” programs (also called “transformational” ) hyped by Condoleezza Rice’s State
Department. For much of the world, the reality is that we prop up dictators in
Libya and Kazakhstan so long as they give us what we want. And, while claiming
that America cares about humanity, Bush disregards transnational issues such as
the global environment and supports visa regulations that offend foreigners who
wish to visit or study in the United States. 

A third reason for our loss of soft power is that, with over six years
of Bush’s “we’re just plain folks” rule, our cultural exports increasingly fail
to seduce overseas. To be sure, the best purveyors of American consciousness
abroad don't necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. government. Yet, judging
by the barometer of pop culture, American style is no longer as "cool" as
it was, despite the international success of some Hollywood blockbusters.
Culturally, we are more and more perceived as the old New World. “[T]he
American brand isn't at its shiniest,” U-2’s Bono  recently stated. “The neon is crackling."’ 

America's
Fading Glow