From Attraction to Narration: Rethinking Soft Power in the Age of Networked Communication

Abstract

The term "soft power" was developed by Joseph Nye (1990, 2004), and is now widely used in IR studies of non-coercive means of influence. But this conception of soft power and its workings have changed greatly over time, in the modern context of global power shifts. This paper tells the history and theory of soft power and develops the argument that it has grown from a resource-based basis of cultural attractiveness to a more intricate, discursive 'thing' affected by narratives, networks and digital communications. The argument of this study is grounded in classical realist tenets that emerged from Hans Morgenthau (1948) and Kenneth Waltz (1979) and that stretch a broader continuum of moving from material to ideational views of power. It then critically discusses constructivist and cultural theory such as Alexander Wendt (1992, 1999), Stuart Hall (1997) and Manuel Castells (2010), to elucidate how the concept of identity, representation, and communication has become a primary way of operating influence. It is this latter set of documents and capacities that make up soft power in the modern “network society,” as the paper asserts: in current society, soft power is no longer a product of inert culture; it's a product derived from the capacity to build, present, and carry out a narrative. This research tackles issues around the conceptual confusion of soft power and provides a more analytically sound framework in thinking about the process of soft power and influence in the twenty-first century by reconceptualising soft power as a dynamic and relational process.