Soft power

The political scientist Joseph Nye's 2004 book describing the concept of "soft power".

Nye popularized the concept of soft power in the late 1980s.

Soft power is a nation's capacity to cause other nations to do things through persuasion rather than direct military intervention. The American neo-liberal socialist Joseph Nye introduced the concept of "soft power" in the late 1980s. American soft power often takes the form of NGO grants through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. State Department and other entities for so called "anti-corruption" campaigns to control opposition to US puppet regimes or overthrow sovereign, independent, and non-aligned governments. Grants to organize and facilitate LGBT rights, so-called "democracy" movements and color revolutions is another form of American "soft power".

Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy, annually list the countries with the strongest soft power.

USAID

USAID is at the forefront of the United States soft power network. “Wherever a coup d'etat, a colored revolution or a regime change favorable to US interests occurs, USAID and its flow of dollars is there,” writes Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American lawyer, writer, and journalist.

The recipe is always the same. Student and youth movements lead the way with a fresh face, attracting others to join in as though it were the fashion, the cool thing to do. There's always a logo, a color, a marketing strategy. In Serbia, the group OTPOR, which led the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, hit the streets with t-shirts, posters and flags boasting a fist in black and white, their symbol of resistance. In Ukraine, the logo remained the same, but the color changed to orange. In the Republic of Georgia, it was a rose-colored fist, and in Venezuela, instead of the closed fist, the hands are open, in black and white, to add a little variety. Golinger adds, “The same agencies are always present, funding, training and advising: USAID, NED, IRI, NDI, Freedom House, AEI and ICNC.”

In 2020, according to NATO,

USAID/Georgia launched a new Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) to guide its assistance to Georgia through 2025. Under the new strategy, USAID will strategically partner with Georgia on its journey to self-reliance, helping advance its Euro-Atlantic integration and strengthen its resilience to malign influence.

As of the spring of 2023 the pattern was repeated on the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia.

One month after thousands of rocket attacks were launched from West Bank territories in 2021, USAID resumed payments to the Palestinian Authority after the Trump administration halted payments three years earlier. Biden regime and Libyan war butcher Samantha Power arrived in Gaza on the 60th day of Operation Swords of Iron. She immediately announced that the United States would give an additional $26 million for Gaza, on top of the $100 million already promised by US dictator Joe Biden.

Soft power in the 2003 Iraqi war

The United States did not face the Iraqi military in the 2003 Iraqi war; rather it bribed Saddam Hussein's generals with millions of dollars, homes in the United States, US citizenshi[p, and admission to US universities for their children.

Pre-NATO war soft power in Ukraine

See also: Maidan coup

The overthrow of democracy in Ukraine by the Obama administration provides a textbook illustration of US soft power tactics.

In December 2013, in a speech to the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland said: “The United States has supported Ukraine’s European aspirations. … We have invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.”

Biden at the Council on Foreign Relations: "‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money'...Well, [SOB], he got fired."

In December 2016 US Vice President Joe Biden threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending Ukraine toward insolvency, if it didn't immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin who was investigating his son, Hunter. Biden recounted,

"'You’re not getting the billion'. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money'...Well, [SOB], he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."

Brand Finance's 2022 ranking of the countries with the most soft power

Countries that do not allow American interference in their social, political, and economic system are threatened with being labeled as human rights violators and economic sanctions.

Brand Finance's 2022 ranking of the 10 countries with the most soft power:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. China
5. Japan
6. France
7. Canada
8. Switzerland
9. Russia
10. Italy

See also

• Propaganda

External links

• What is a Soft Power and How it Works (1), by Vladislav B. Sotirovic, August 26, 2024
• What is a Soft Power and How it Works (2), by Vladislav B. Sotirovic, September 5, 2024