Why the United States Needs Soft Power

During Obama’s presidency, he needs to focus on increasing United States soft power (non-military influence) hegemony. After the eight years we’ve had Bush, our soft power has been on a steady decline due to a variety of reasons: his lack of cooperation with foreign leaders, the overall war in Iraq, the Katrina disaster, Abu Ghraib, and more. Soft power is at a low right now, and the United States cannot stay a major world power if it doesn’t have the ability to convince other countries of its viewpoints without resorting to military force.

A decline in soft power has many practical implications. Soft power, while not as apparent as the more military-oriented hard power, is actually the most important type of power for a hegemon like the United States. A lack of soft power means a decrease in foreign talent arriving to the United States, less trust in U.S. companies, the growth in other countries soft power, and the very real possibility that anti-American sentiment grows so high that it creates an influx of recruits to terrorist organizations. In addition to that, soft power helps solve for the problems of terrorism, war, human and drug trafficking, and disease control. This is because it allows for multilateral cooperation between countries and an increase in the power of the United States to persuade other countries of its views. In fact, soft power is even better than hard military power because war requires the loss of life and intimidation only increases tensions between countries while soft power increases trust in America

Now there’s the issue of how exactly to increase this soft power. The election of Obama has probably already put soft power on the rise because he is a universal face of change, but that alone is not enough. Obama needs to begin open diplomatic contact with all of the major world powers, and conduct peaceful negotiations with North Korea and Iran, something Bush was not a big fan of. Another thing he can do is invest in alternative energy and mandate the lowering the carbon emissions of the United States. Ever since Bush left an unsigned Kyoto Protocol on the table, the United States stopped being a leader in emission reduction. If we take a step forward for alternative energy, we can restore our position as a world leader in renewable technology and inspire other countries to join in. This could alleviate some of the problems of global warming as well.