Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is an American
political scientist. He and
Robert Keohane co-founded the
international relations theory of
neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book ''Power and Interdependence''. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and
complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and
world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of
soft power
In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (contrast hard power). In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defin ...
and explained the distinction between it and hard power. His notion of "smart power" ("the ability to combine hard and soft power into a successful strategy") became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the
Clinton Administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
and the
Obama Administration
Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...
.
Nye is the former Dean of the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University, where he currently holds the position of University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. In October 2014,
Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to the
Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
He is also a member of the
Defense Policy Board. He has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 1964. He is a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a foreign fellow of
The British Academy. He is also a member of the
American Academy of Diplomacy.
The 2011 Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey of over 1,700 international relations scholars ranked Nye as the sixth most influential scholar in the field of international relations in the past 20 years. He was also ranked as one of the most influential figures in American foreign policy. In 2011, ''
Foreign Policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
'' magazine named him on its list of top global thinkers. In September 2014, ''Foreign Policy'' reported that international relations scholars and policymakers both ranked Nye as one of the field's most influential scholars.
Life and career
Education
Nye attended Morristown Prep (now the
Morristown–Beard School) in
and graduated in 1954. He then attended
Princeton University, from where he graduated ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' with a B.A. in history in 1958. He was a member of
Phi Beta Kappa and won th
Myron T. Herrick Thesis Prize His senior thesis was titled "Death of a Family Firm: An Entrepreneurial History of the American Preserve Company." During his time at Princeton, Nye was vice president of the
Colonial Club
Colonial Club is one of the eleven current eating clubs of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1891, it is the fifth oldest of the clubs. It is located on 40 Prospect Avenue.
A private social club for underg ...
, a columnist for
The Daily Princetonian, and a member of the
American Whig–Cliosophic Society
The American Whig–Cliosophic Society (Whig-Clio) is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States. Its precursors, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, wer ...
's
Debate Panel. After studying
Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) as a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
at
Oxford University's
Exeter College, he obtained his PhD in
political science from Harvard University in 1964. Nye's doctoral dissertation was on regional integration in East Africa.
Career
Nye joined the Harvard faculty in 1964 and served as Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at
John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1985 to 1990 and as Associate Dean for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1989 to 1992. Nye also served as Director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1989 to 1993 and Dean of John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2004. Nye is currently (as of July 2018) University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus.
Nye and his colleague Keohane have been characterized as key figures in the development of a discipline of international political economy, largely as a result of their authorship of ''Power and Interdependence''.
Nye's influences include
Karl Deutsch and
Ernst Hass.
From 1977 to 1979, Nye was Deputy to the
Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology and chaired the
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the State Department's
Distinguished Honor Award in 1979. In 1993 and 1994, he was Chairman of the
National Intelligence Council, which coordinates intelligence estimates for the President, and was awarded the Intelligence Community's Distinguished Service Medal. In the
Clinton Administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
from 1994 to 1995, Nye served as
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and was awarded the Department's Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Nye was considered by many to be the preferred choice for
National Security Advisor in the
2004 presidential campaign of
John Kerry.
He is the chairman of the North American branch of the
Trilateral Commission and the co-chair of the
Aspen Strategy Group. He is also a member of the
Atlantic Council
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...
's Board of Directors. Nye has also served as a trustee of
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
and
Wells College. He was on the Board of Directors of the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
, the Guiding Coalition of the
Project on National Security Reform, the Advisory Board of
Carolina for Kibera
Founded in 2001 by Rye Barcott, Salim Mohamed, and the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, CFK Africa (previously Carolina for Kibera) is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Re ...
, and the Board of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has been awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize by
Princeton University and the Charles E. Merriman Prize by the
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
. In 2005, he was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the
University Philosophical Society of
Trinity College Dublin and has been awarded honorary degrees by ten colleges and universities. In 2010, Nye won the Foreign Policy Distinguished Scholar Award from the
International Studies Association. In 2009, he was made a Theodore Roosevelt Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
In October 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board. The group meets periodically to discuss strategic questions and to provide the Secretary and other senior Department officials with independent informed perspectives and ideas.
In November 2014, Nye was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in recognition of his "contribution to the development of studies on Japan-U.S. security and to the promotion of the mutual understanding between Japan and the United States."
Nye serves as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance, and served on the
Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace from 2017 until its conclusion in 2019.
Nye coined the term
soft power
In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (contrast hard power). In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defin ...
in the late 1980s, and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in ''
Foreign Policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
'' in 1990. Nye has consistently written for ''
Project Syndicate
Project Syndicate is an international media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on a variety of global topics. All opinion pieces are published on the ''Project Syndicate'' website, but are also distributed to a wi ...
'' since 2002.
Personal life
Nye and his wife, Molly Harding Nye, have three adult sons. He is a member of a
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America, both P ...
church.
Bibliography
* ''
Pan Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
and East African integration'' (
Harvard University Press, 1965)
* ''Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization'' (
Little Brown and Company, 1971)
* ''Transnational Relations and World Politics'', co-authored with
Robert O. Keohane
Robert Owen Keohane (born October 3, 1941) is an American academic working within the fields of international relations and international political economy. Following the publication of his influential book ''After Hegemony'' (1984), he has beco ...
(
Harvard University Press, 1972)
* ''Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition'', co-authored with Keohane (Little Brown and Company, 1977;
Longman, 2000)
* ''Living with Nuclear Weapons''. A Report by the Harvard Nuclear Study Group (Harvard University Press, 1983)
* ''Hawks, Doves and Owls: An Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War'', co-authored with
Graham Allison and
Albert Carnesale (
Norton, 1985)
* ''Nuclear Ethics'' (
The Free Press, 1986)
* ''Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power'' (
Basic Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.
H ...
, 1990)
* ''Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History, 7th ed.'' (Longman, 2008)
* ''
The Paradox of American Power
''The Paradox of American Power'' is a book written by political scientist Joseph Nye and published in 2002.
According to Nye, a nation has never had as much cultural, economic, and military power as currently wields the United States of America. ...
: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go it Alone'' (
Oxford University Press, 2002)
* ''Power in the Global Information Age: From Realism to Globalization'' (
Routledge, 2004)
* ''Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics'' (
PublicAffairs
PublicAffairs (or PublicAffairs Books) is an imprint of Perseus Books, an American book publishing company located in New York City and has been a part of the Hachette Book Group since 2016.
PublicAffairs was launched in 1997 by Peter Osnos. ...
, 2004)
* "Soft Power and American Foreign Policy." ''
Political Science Quarterly'' 119.2 (2004): 255-70.
* ''The Power Game: A Washington Novel'' (PublicAffairs, 2004)
* ''The Powers to Lead'' (Oxford University Press, 2008)
* ''The Future of Power'' (PublicAffairs, 2011)
* ''Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era'' (
Princeton University Press, 2013)
* ''Is the American Century Over?'' (
Polity
A polity is an identifiable Politics, political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relation, social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize ...
, 2015)
* ''Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump'' (Oxford University Press, 2020);
Essays and reporting
*
See also
*
Globalism
Globalism refers to various patterns of meaning beyond the merely international. It is used by political scientists, such as Joseph Nye, to describe "attempts to understand all the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns ...
References
External links
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nye, Joseph
1937 births
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
American political scientists
American Rhodes Scholars
Atlantic Council
Center for a New American Security
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
Commissioners of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace
Harvard University alumni
International relations scholars
Harvard Kennedy School deans
Harvard Kennedy School faculty
Living people
Morristown-Beard School alumni
National Bureau of Asian Research
Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
People from Morristown, New Jersey
Political liberals (international relations)
Princeton University alumni
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class
United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense