‘Soft power’ is a buzzword these days. what is it exactly? :npr

“Soft power” is a hot topic in Washington, DC these days.

Question: Does Donald Trump’s decision to cut off foreign aid mean the decline of soft power?

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) accused the administration in February 2025 of “recklessly undermining American soft power and providing China with a huge strategic opportunity.” speech On the Senate floor.

That same month, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a supporter of President Trump’s policies, Said He was a “big supporter of soft power”.

This raises another question for those who do not agree with foreign aid terminology: what exactly is soft power?

American political scientist Joseph Nee He is credited with popularizing this term. defined “The ability to obtain a preferred outcome by attraction rather than by coercion or payment.” But it can mean different things, depending on whether you have soft power or are influenced by it. He brought this to the public in his 1990 book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.

Since then, the term has become so much a part of the lexicon that there are people who try to quantify it. Over the past year, American soft power has declined on a variety of measures, ranging from perceived friendliness to working toward common goals such as climate action. david highCEO of BrandFinance, which produces annual soft power index Through surveys with 175,000 people worldwide.

“This is not surprising, because the current administration is shifting its foreign policy toward hard power and economic power and away from soft power,” High says, referring to aid cuts and America’s withdrawal from major international organizations. “I think that’s probably because there’s an impatience to get results. And one thing about soft power is that you can’t be impatient.”

NPR spoke to scholars of soft power around the world to understand how it can be defined and deployed through foreign aid.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

“Making people like you”

Samuel Brezis studies soft power and international development University College Dublin

How do you define soft power?
Soft power means getting other people to embrace what you want, to embrace your ideas, to embrace your worldview without any pressure. Basically getting people to like you because they like you.

What got you interested in the study of soft power?
My interest in this goes back 10 or 15 years to when China was really starting to emerge on the international stage and begin to compete with global norms, global ideas and go after hearts and minds in places around the world.

Can you give an example of a time when you’ve seen this play out in real life?
When I was living in Micronesia, the Chinese Embassy brought an acrobatic troupe that performed at a local college. It was a wonderful show. It was the greatest piece of entertainment anyone had seen there in years. This was 100% soft power at work, and definitely won the hearts and minds of the audience in that moment. Most soft power is based on moments that create cultural impact.

Where do you think American soft power stands today?
My impression is that soft power was that people from all over the world wanted to move to the United States. I think a good measure of what we’ve seen is that people are More reservations have started coming in About going to the United States. That was everyone’s dream. And some people have fewer objections to this going to chinaEspecially from places in the Global South. And I think that’s a really good indicator, because if I’m willing to do everything to leave my house and leave my family and start a new life, then I must really like something about what’s going on in that system, right? And so, the intensity of your desire to do that may be a good reflection of how much soft power that country is exercising.

“MTV was seen as the best source of entertainment”

Salvador Santino Reguilme, studies American soft power Leiden University in the Netherlands and its author Aid Empire: United States foreign policy and human rights in post-Cold War Southeast Asia

What got you interested in the study of soft power?
I originally come from the Philippines. Despite all kinds of abuses US government During the American occupation before World War II is one of the highest in the Philippines The public’s positive perception of American power in world politics. I think it’s attractive.

How do you define soft power?
To me, the soft power of a particular country refers to the tools that a state can actually use to shape positive perceptions of that country, such as the number of vaccines being distributed, but also ideological elements, for example, the number of students being sent on scholarships to the United States over the last few generations.

Any examples of times you’ve seen this play out in real life?
When I was growing up in the 1990s, American music via MTV was seen as the best form of entertainment rather than Filipino music. And in terms of education, most of my generation and my bright classmates chose to go to the United States for graduate studies.

I think the most solid program would be the Fulbright program (the one for this). International students who send them to America). A large number of our professionals and the country’s top leaders have studied in the United States and are now in politics, elected officials in powerful positions, even in the military. The Philippines had a president in the 1990s, Fidel Ramos, and he graduated from west point.

“No matter how powerful a state is, it cannot rely entirely on its own hard power.”

Oluwesan Tella heads future diplomacy University of Johannesburg

What got you interested in the study of soft power?
I realized that no matter how powerful a state is, it cannot rely solely on its hard power, and there are some tasks that require soft power. For example, if you are promoting democracy, you need soft power. If you want to fight terrorism, you need hard power. But there are situations that require both. Killing terrorists is one thing, preventing would-be terrorists from joining terrorist groups is another.

How do you define soft power?
Since I am an African scholar, my definition of soft power reflects the African reality. It is the ability of an actor to influence the behavior of other actors through its philosophy, its political values, foreign policies, and cultural exports.

Any examples of times you’ve seen this play out in real life?
After 9/11 and the war in Iraq, the image of the United States declined around the world. But the image of the United States in the context of Africa was stable. This is because George Bush implemented various US policies after 9/11 as he was trying to counter the influence of terrorists. This is why the US spent a lot of money in Africa through USAID and through PEPFAR –Program for HIV/AIDS. It was greatly appreciated, and has been a major source of American soft power until the Donald Trump administration.

Where do you think American soft power stands today?
I think it’s certainly been hit by the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts. But at the same time, among the major players in Africa, American soft power appears to be the most sophisticated and strongest. So even though a particular aspect of American soft power may decline, you won’t feel the impact as much.

“They were on time for appointments because Americans are on time”

John Alterman is President of Global Security and Geostrategy Center for Strategic and International Studies Washington DC. In

Can you remember a moment when you saw soft power at work in real life?
I was doing research in Egypt in the 1990s and people told me stories about Americans they met 40 years earlier who left with lessons and were treated as if it was yesterday. They were arriving on time for appointments because Americans were arriving on time for appointments. I met a man who told me he had an American instructor and whenever he asked the man a question, the American would say, why not? This was the only English he remembered and it shaped the next 40 years of his life. This kind of connection creates soft power, creating people who want to behave the way you want, not because you force them to.

What do you think is the United States’ most effective soft power tool?
People aspire to American education and medical care. People still view American medical care as the best in the world, even with scientific advances. And the United States has provided all kinds of humanitarian assistance.

But governments sometimes want to hide that they are accepting aid from the United States.

When I was doing research in Egypt, I learned that in the 1950s the US had given some trains to the Egyptians and the Egyptians had removed American aid symbols from the trains and painted them over. American officials became frustrated and there was discussion about how the US could weld the label onto the trains so that the Egyptians could not remove it.

What impact is the war in Iran currently having on American soft power?
I think the argument I’ve heard from people in the Middle East is that they are seeing the true face of the United States for their own interests, and that’s nothing new. It’s just that the United States is no longer trying to hide it. Amid the Iran war, there is certainly an understanding that people and governments are paying the price for American decisions. This is also happening in Asia and around the world where people are struggling with higher prices and shortages of some types of goods and disrupted shipping. He says that we did not ask for this. Nobody talked to us about this and we are paying the price every day.

But ultimately, I think the legacy and the impact on America’s soft power and reputation will not be assessed in April 2026. It will be assessed in April 2027 or 2028 when people will see what (the war) has done in the coming months and years.