Speak Softly and Carry a . . . What?
31st August 2009
Professor Nye is back with Soft Power and the promise of communication in the hands of smooth talkers like Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), Gandhi, Woodrow Wilson, Lee Hsien Loong, Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt (Franklin, but not Teddy), Truman, Reagan, and, of course, Barack Obama.
Everything wrong with Strategic Communication can be found in Professor Nye’s commentary. Anyone who would put that Gang of Suspects in the same room is selling a concept that is snake oil, academic snake oil. It’s great for tenure and op-ed and the Cool Table, but is it communication he’s talking about?
Nye’s soft power communication is soft, flabby, fluffy, plastic, gooey, and only a Lewis Carroll term where words mean what we want them to mean. It benefits Professor Nye, but anyone attempting to make practical application of his idea will find failure.
No wonder Admiral Mullen is mad as hell and not taking it anymore.