Soft Power, Hard Concept

Boxing Day, and I have restarted work on a paper I will be giving in Athens at the end of January.

As part of this work, I am thinking about the concept of "Soft Power", a term coined by Prof. Joseph Nye of Harvard University.

There's an interesting contribution to the debate here, by John Glen, in the UK edition of the Huffington Post.

Professor Nye, Q and A (watch)

His 2010 London lecture (watch)

His 2010 London lecture. Listen

The Wikipedia entry on Soft Power

It's the word 'power' that bothers me in this context. The term may be ok if confined to the idea that most countries have a cultural allure, or attraction for foreigners, important assets which shouldn't be undervalued.