l as to several cyber-communities concerned with religion, work, and various
hobbies.”
st
American power in the early 21
century has dedicated itself to a revival of realist doctrine,
notably as expressed in the unilateralist view taken by key members of the George W.
Bush administration. The unilateralist view resists conceding American power to external
authorities and treaties, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, or the
Kyoto Accord. Soft power suggests an alternative path for American and other Western
governments, one sensitive to a world where states share responsibility with other political
actors.
The soft power regime does not replace the state system, though it may compete with it.
Rather, it adds an additional complicating layer to global politics, one outside direct state
control. Whether the actors in this layer are transnational corporations, NGOs, social
movements, or online communities, they define the limits of state power. Yet, these limits
need not reflect the eclipse of the state system, but a positive acknowledgement that many
of the problems that afflict the world—organized crime, poverty, AIDS, global warming—
are not solvable by states alone.
b. information and the paradox of plenty
Nye argues that there are three types of information:
(i) flows of data, e.g., news, raw data transmitted via the Internet, statistics
(ii) information that is used for advantage in competitive sit英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】uations, e.g., market
research that assists companies in developing new products
(iii) information that strategically gives one knowledge of one’s competitors,
e.g., corporate espionage, military surveillance Regardless of the type of information, information in general is conditioned by the
“paradox of plenty.” By this, Nye means our current media culture provides so much
information that it has become difficult to know what is important, resulting in a poverty of
attention. Attention, not information, is the new scarce resource. Such a condition is an
incentive to the development of editors, filters, and “cue-givers” (such as RSS, or “Real
Simple Syndication,” an Internet function that can tell us when a favourite blog or website
has been updated with new information). Discerning what editors and filters are valuable
and which are not—depending on our information needs, our ideological orientation, and
our general literacy—is itself difficult in an information-rich milieu. The result is that we rely
on the soft power force that is reputation and credibility to decide what to read and what to
avoid among the choices available to us.
Nye concludes the chapter by taking on the “speaking truth to power” persona. Knowing
that his readership includes American politicians and policy makers, he demonstrates the
soft power advantages that accrue to the U.S., a country with immense hard power
resources too. America’s status as an “open society
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