Joseph Nye

Lonely at the top

The March 11 terrorist bombings in Spain show that the threat of terrorism remains dire. Removing Saddam Hussein from power did not reduce that threat, and intelligence agencies warn that it has in fact increased Al Qaeda’s ability to recruit. At the same time, the Iraq war has proven costly to America’s ability to attract others to our larger cause. The Bush administration has properly identified terrorism as the central focus of our foreign policy, but has been much less successful in choosing the most effective means to combat it. The administration understands hard military power, but it has largely failed to combine it with equally important soft power—the ability to get the outcomes we want by attracting others rather than coercing or paying them.

(Boston Globe, March 28, 2004)