Soft Power and American Foreign Policy JOSEPH S. NYE, JR. Anti-Americanism has increased in the past few years. Thomas Pickering, a seasoned diplomat, considered 2003 “as high a zenith of anti- Americanism as we’ve seen for a long time.” 1 Polls show that our soft power losses can be traced largely to our foreign policy. “A widespread and fashion- able view is that the United States is a classically imperialist power.... That mood has been expressed in different ways by different people, from the hockey fans in Montreal who boo the American national anthem to the high school students in Switzerland who do not want to go to the United States as exchange students.” 2 An Australian observer concluded that “the lesson of Iraq is that the US’s soft power is in decline. Bush went to war having failed to win a broader military coalition or UN authorization. This had two direct conse- quences: a rise in anti-American sentiment, lifting terrorist recruitment; and a higher cost to the US for the war and reconstruction effort.” 3 A Gallup Interna- tional poll showed that pluralities in fifteen out of twenty-four countries around the world said that American foreign policies had a negative effect on their attitudes toward the United States. A Eurobarometer poll found that a majority of Europeans believe that the United States tends to play a negative role in fighting global poverty, protecting the environment, and maintaining peace in the world. 4 When asked in a Pew 1 Interview, NPR, Weekend Edition, 13 July 2003. 2 Richard Bernstein, “Foreign Views of U.S. Darken After Sept 11,” New York Times, 11 Septem- ber 2003. 3 Paul Kelly, “Power Pact,” The Australian, 26 July 2003. 4 Eurobarometer #59, Spring 2003. JOSEPH S. NYE, JR., Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, is Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Nye has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1964, during which time he also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Sci- ence and Technology. He is the author of numerous books and articles on national security policy. Political Science Quarterly Volume 119 Number 2 2004 255