Posts tagged as:

smart power

Heteropolarity, Security and Diplomacy: Not the Same Old, Same Old

January 16, 2012

Almost a decade ago, at an annnual conference of the International Studies Association, I heard my colleague James Der Derian from Brown University use the word heterpolar to describe the new world order. I had not come across the term before, and was uncertain as to its precise meaning. Still,  it struck me at the [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part III – The dilemma of smart power

February 28, 2009

The question of appropriate instrumentality raises an even more fundamental issue: does hard power plus soft power in fact equal smart power?
In my view, and notwithstanding popular assumptions to the contrary, the answer is: not necessarily.
The challenge associated with the promise of smart power strikes me, in fact, as crucial. While combining hard and soft power makes a certain [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part II – The things we carry

February 22, 2009

I would attribute the running down of diplomacy in recent years to a trio of developments related to the carry-over from the Cold War of certain habits of mind, or intellectual baggage, which have been hoisted into the globalization age from the preceding era. In a nutshell, in the face of the complex threats and [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part I – From buzz to becoming

February 13, 2009

These should be heady days for diplomats. After a long stretch languishing in relative obscurity, the willingness to explore diplomatic alternatives to the use of armed force in the pursuit of international policy objectives has become suddenly, well, fashionable.
The arrival of the Obama administration, and especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President [...]

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