Comments on: Soft Power http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/soft_power/ Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:32:40 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Christine http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/soft_power/comment-page-1/#comment-14583 Christine Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=5608#comment-14583 It may be presumptuous of me to cry foul to the Dean of the Harvard School of Government but lumping the entire military budget as "hard power" meant only for "launching bombs and not ideas" is a specious argument. The many special operations missions that are taking place, to include PSYOP, Civil Affairs, and Special Forces, are based upon his very definition of "soft power". Whether it's mine awareness, anti-narcotrafficking, or humanitarian operations, they all have the underlying mission of creating a favorable opinion of the US and its policies. Terrorist organizations make for strange bedfellows and undermining their influence in their host countries also undermines the influence and control that any other terrorist organization can exert. I would agree that the State Department could focus more of their efforts on Islamic countries but to categorically ignore the long reaching and proactive efforts of the military's "soft power" campaigns is quite narrow-minded. It may be presumptuous of me to cry foul to the Dean of the Harvard School of Government but lumping the entire military budget as "hard power" meant only for "launching bombs and not ideas" is a specious argument. The many special operations missions that are taking place, to include PSYOP, Civil Affairs, and Special Forces, are based upon his very definition of "soft power". Whether it's mine awareness, anti-narcotrafficking, or humanitarian operations, they all have the underlying mission of creating a favorable opinion of the US and its policies. Terrorist organizations make for strange bedfellows and undermining their influence in their host countries also undermines the influence and control that any other terrorist organization can exert. I would agree that the State Department could focus more of their efforts on Islamic countries but to categorically ignore the long reaching and proactive efforts of the military's "soft power" campaigns is quite narrow-minded.

]]> By: bryan http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/soft_power/comment-page-1/#comment-14584 bryan Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000 /?p=5608#comment-14584 Soft and Hard power sounds more like characters from a porn movie, but ... the concepts sound a lot like the positional authority and relational authority concepts used in business management books and in communication. --- Soft and Hard power sounds more like characters from a porn movie, but ... the concepts sound a lot like the positional authority and relational authority concepts used in business management books and in communication.

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