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COFFEY power (for example, diplomacy, public diplo- in concert with others.” Taking a multilateral given current fiscal straits, we must distinguish Book Review macy, exchanges, assistance/training programs) approach, the administration will mobilize all between those missions and initiatives vital to to attract and persuade foreign publics will be available resources in a “blend of principle and national safety and prosperity and those that critical in a global information age. The cyber pragmatism” to revitalize international institu- are merely desirable and, therefore, expend- The Future of Power age diffuses power, placing more dangers outside tions, reach beyond governments to nonstate able. Our oldest commitments belong to the By Joseph S. Nye, Jr. the control of even powerful states. States will actors and people, and join others to solve shared first category: U.S. security guarantees and PublicAffairs, 2011 still play the dominant role on the world stage, problems. Setting forth an ambitious global military presence in the Middle East, East Asia, 300 pp., $27.99 but that stage will become more crowded and agenda in a “new American Moment,” Secretary and Europe. Our newer commitments of the ISBN: 978–1–58648–891–8 unruly. In coming decades, the rising power of Clinton seemed heedless of limits and the need last 20 years—nation-building in such places other state and nonstate actors will challenge a to set priorities. America must do it all. “What as Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and still preponderant America. The United States, do we give up on? What do we put on the back- Afghanistan—are expendable.4 Similarly, John REVIEWED BY JOHN W. COFFEY therefore, will need “power with others as much burner?” she asked. Council President Richard Mearsheimer urges a return to America’s tra- as power over others. America’s capacity to Haass raised the awkward question of money. ditional “grand strategy of offshore balancing” maintain alliances and create networks will be With U.S. debt nearing the size of gross domes- aimed at preventing a hostile hegemon from n his latest book, Joseph Nye presents a an important dimension of the nation’s hard tic product and deficits running at $1.5 trillion a dominating the same three vital areas.5 comprehensive examination of the multi- and soft power.” year, Haass objected, how can America conduct Professor Nye’s book has won wide acclaim, I faceted dimensions of power and advances In what he calls liberal realism, Nye pro- foreign policy as if it had unlimited resources. yet how new is smart power? Apart from a novel a framework for what he calls “liberal realism.” poses an American “smart power strategy” cen- The Secretary answered that making the right diffusion of power in the cyber age, if smart Nye writes for the “intelligent reader” rather tered on multilateralism and partnering in the decisions will be “very tough.” power means the adroit marshaling of hard and than an academic audience and offers a set of context of a global information age. Based on Neither the Secretary’s agenda nor Nye’s soft resources in a multilateral approach to com- recommendations for a smart power strategy in a synthesis of interests and values, this strategy book takes sufficient account of the Nation’s fis- mon problems, what, if not smart power, was the 21st century.1 Smart power, he explains, is gives priority to national interests, but consid- cal peril and its consequences for America’s role the post–World War II American statecraft that “the combination of the hard power of coercion ers values “an intangible national interest.” in the world. Nye claims that the country can created the international security and politico- and payment with the soft power of persuasion Tradeoffs and compromises are inevitable, Nye solve its debt problem with consumption taxes economic architecture that underlay seven and attraction.” concedes. While according an unexceptionable and expenditure cuts to pay for entitlement pro- decades of security and prosperity benefiting According to Nye, the problem confronting primacy to securing national survival, his grand grams once the economy recovers. He overlooks much of the world? all states in the new century is the increasing strategy recommends all manner of multina- the daunting political task of reducing entitle- Nye counsels restraint in democracy pro- number of threats (for example, international tional good works. ment programs themselves, the main driver motion, but he elevates our values to an “intan- financial instability and terrorism) outside their Nye notes that his concept of smart power of the country’s unsustainable debt. Richard gible national interest,” and his liberal realism control resulting from a diffusion of power from has influenced the Obama administration’s Haass and Roger Altman have issued a dire fis- invites an ambitious foreign policy. The Obama states to nonstate actors. Military power has not policy. And so it has. In two speeches before cal forecast entailing huge spending cuts and administration’s smart power strategy joins become obsolete, but will continue to under- the Council on Foreign Relations,2 Secretary substantial tax hikes, and Michael Mandelbaum interests and values. Secretary Clinton declares pin international order and shape the agenda of State Hillary Clinton outlined the smart has written a bracing book explaining how that “democratic values are a cornerstone of our and political calculations of leaders. Economic power strategy “central to our thinking and our economic constraints will inevitably curtail foreign policy” and rejects what she calls a false resources will remain a tool of smart power as decision-making.” The “heart of America’s mis- America’s post–World War II activist foreign choice “between our security and our values.”6 well, although nonstate actors and market vicis- sion in the world today,” she stated, is to exer- policy with baleful effects for the stability and This expansive view of foreign policy recalls the situdes will constrain its exercise. The use of soft cise “American leadership to solve problems prosperity of the world.3 hubris of “democratic transformation,” what Nor does Nye, beyond a nod to recogniz- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice termed ing limits, come to grips with setting priorities a “uniquely American realism,” according to Dr. John W. Coffey served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy from 1986 to 1988 and as a Civil Servant at the Departments of Commerce and State for 15 years, among national interests in order to match which our national interests require an inter- retiring in 2005. limited means to ends. As Mandelbaum argues, national order reflecting our values.7 160 | BOOK REVIEW PRISM 2, no. 4 PRISM 2, no. 4 BOOK REVIEW | 161 COFFEY power (for example, diplomacy, public diplo- in concert with others.” Taking a multilateral given current fiscal straits, we must distinguish Book Review macy, exchanges, assistance/training programs) approach, the administration will mobilize all between those missions and initiatives vital to to attract and persuade foreign publics will be available resources in a “blend of principle and national safety and prosperity and those that critical in a global information age. The cyber pragmatism” to revitalize international institu- are merely desirable and, therefore, expend- The Future of Power age diffuses power, placing more dangers outside tions, reach beyond governments to nonstate able. Our oldest commitments belong to the By Joseph S. Nye, Jr. the control of even powerful states. States will actors and people, and join others to solve shared first category: U.S. security guarantees and PublicAffairs, 2011 still play the dominant role on the world stage, problems. Setting forth an ambitious global military presence in the Middle East, East Asia, 300 pp., $27.99 but that stage will become more crowded and agenda in a “new American Moment,” Secretary and Europe. Our newer commitments of the ISBN: 978–1–58648–891–8 unruly. In coming decades, the rising power of Clinton seemed heedless of limits and the need last 20 years—nation-building in such places other state and nonstate actors will challenge a to set priorities. America must do it all. “What as Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and still preponderant America. The United States, do we give up on? What do we put on the back- Afghanistan—are expendable.4 Similarly, John REVIEWED BY JOHN W. COFFEY therefore, will need “power with others as much burner?” she asked. Council President Richard Mearsheimer urges a return to America’s tra- as power over others. America’s capacity to Haass raised the awkward question of money. ditional “grand strategy of offshore balancing” maintain alliances and create networks will be With U.S. debt nearing the size of gross domes- aimed at preventing a hostile hegemon from n his latest book, Joseph Nye presents a an important dimension of the nation’s hard tic product and deficits running at $1.5 trillion a dominating the same three vital areas.5 comprehensive examination of the multi- and soft power.” year, Haass objected, how can America conduct Professor Nye’s book has won wide acclaim, I faceted dimensions of power and advances In what he calls liberal realism, Nye pro- foreign policy as if it had unlimited resources. yet how new is smart power? Apart from a novel a framework for what he calls “liberal realism.” poses an American “smart power strategy” cen- The Secretary answered that making the right diffusion of power in the cyber age, if smart Nye writes for the “intelligent reader” rather tered on multilateralism and partnering in the decisions will be “very tough.” power means the adroit marshaling of hard and than an academic audience and offers a set of context of a global information age.

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