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Soft Power Reading List (Early 2023 Edition)

Preprint · January 2023

CITATIONS READS

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Daniele Carminati
Beijing Foreign Studies University
15 PUBLICATIONS 19 CITATIONS

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Daniele Carminati International Relations January 2023

Soft Power Reader

Subsection
Highly Recommended
Self-Promotion

Theory
Seminal / Nye
Books
Nye, J. S. (1990). Bound to lead: The changing nature of American power. Basic books.
Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft power: The means to success in world politics. Public affairs.
Nye, J. S. (2004). Power in the global information age: From realism to globalization.
Routledge.
Nye, J. S. (2011). The Future of Power. Public Affairs.
Articles
Nye, J. S. (1990). The changing nature of world power. Political Science Quarterly, 105(2),
177-192.
Nye, J. S. (1990). Soft power. Foreign policy, (80), 153-171.
Nye, J. S. (2008). Public Diplomacy and Soft Power. The annals of the American academy of
political and social science, 616(1), 94-109.
Nye Jr, J. S. (2009). Get Smart: Combining Hard and Soft Power. Foreign Affairs, 88(4),
160-163.
Nye, J. S. (2011). Power and foreign policy. Journal of political power, 4(1), 9-24.
Nye, J. S. (2014). The Information Revolution and Soft Power. Current History, 113(759):
19-22.
Nye, J. S. (2017). Soft power: the origins and political progress of a concept. Palgrave
communications, 3(1), 1-3.
Nye, J. S. (2019). Soft power and public diplomacy revisited. The Hague Journal of
Diplomacy, 14(1-2), 7-20.
Nye, J. S. (2021). Soft power: the evolution of a concept. Journal of Political Power, 14(1),
196-208.
Selection Beyond Nye
Books
Melissen, J. (Ed.). (2005). The New Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Parmar, I., & Cox, M. (Eds.) (2010). Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical,
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Routledge.
Hayden, C. (2012). The Rhetoric of Soft Power: Public Diplomacy in Global Contexts.
Lexington Books.

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Chitty, N., Ji, L., Rawnsley, G., & Hayden, C. (Eds.) (2017). The Routledge Handbook of
Soft Power. Routledge.
Snow, N., & Cull, N. J. (Eds.). (2020). Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy. Routledge.
Ohnesorge, H. (2020). Soft Power: The Forces of Attraction in International Relations.
Springer.
Articles
Melissen, J. (2005). Wielding soft power: the new public diplomacy. Netherlands:
Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Clingendael.
Gilboa, E. (2008). Searching for a theory of public diplomacy. The annals of the American
academy of political and social science, 616(1), 55-77.
Lee, G. (2009). A theory of soft power and Korea's soft power strategy. The Korean Journal
of Defense Analysis, 21(2), 205-218.
Kroenig, M., McAdam, M., & Weber, S. (2010). Taking soft power seriously. Comparative
Strategy, 29(5), 412-431.
Gallarotti, G. M. (2011). Soft power: what it is, why it’s important, and the conditions for its
effective use. Journal of Political Power, 4(1), 25-47.
Rothman, S. B. (2011). Revising the soft power concept: what are the means and mechanisms
of soft power?. Journal of Political Power, 4(1), 49-64.
Roselle, L., Miskimmon, A., & O’loughlin, B. (2014). Strategic narrative: A new means to
understand soft power. Media, war & conflict, 7(1), 70-84.
Vuving, A. (2009). How soft power works.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1466220
Vuving, A. (2019). The Logic of Attraction: Outline of a Theory of Soft Power.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3637662
Hayden, C. (2017). Scope, mechanism, and outcome: arguing soft power in the context of
public diplomacy. Journal of International Relations and Development, 20(2), 331-357.
Bakalov, I. (2019). Whither soft power? Divisions, milestones, and prospects of a research
programme in the making. Journal of Political Power, 12(1), 129-151.
Bakalov, I. (2020). Setting soft power in motion: towards a dynamic conceptual
framework. European Journal of International Relations, 26(2), 495-517.
Commuri, G. (2012). “Are You Pondering What I Am Pondering?” Understanding the
Conditions Under Which States Gain and Loose Soft Power. Power in the 21st Century:
International Security and International Political Economy in a Changing World, 43-57.
Carminati, D. (2021). The economics of soft power: reliance on economic resources and
instrumentality in economic gains. Economic and Political Studies, 10(1), 19-43.
Criticism
Lukes, S. (2005). Power and the Battle for Hearts and Minds. Millennium, 33(3), 477-493.
Womack, B. (2005). Dancing alone: A hard look at soft power. Japan Focus, 3(11), 1-8.
Mattern, J. B. (2005). Why soft power isn't so soft: representational force and the
sociolinguistic construction of attraction in world politics. Millennium, 33(3), 583-612.

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Daniele Carminati International Relations January 2023

Fan, Y. (2008). Soft power: Power of attraction or confusion?. Place Branding and Public
Diplomacy, 4(2), 147-158.
Hall, T. (2010). An unclear attraction: a critical examination of soft power as an analytical
category. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 3(2), 189-211.
Kearn, D. W. (2011). The hard truths about soft power. Journal of Political Power, 4(1), 65-
85.
Extra
https://softpower30.com [Old Ranking]
https://brandirectory.com/softpower/ [New Ranking]
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/the-benefits-of-soft-power
https://foreignpolicy.com/2006/02/23/think-again-soft-power/
https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/11/japans-gross-national-cool/
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/south-korea/2021-10-14/korean-invasion
https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/09/the-problem-with-soft-power/
https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/12/measuring-soft-power/
https://www.fpri.org/article/2021/03/building-soft-power-back-better/
https://www.e-ir.info/2019/09/01/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-debt-trap-or-soft-power-
catalyst/
https://www.e-ir.info/2020/07/03/the-state-of-chinas-soft-power-in-2020/
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/09/18/is-south-korea-the-new-quintessential-soft-power/
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/08/13/the-state-of-japans-soft-power-after-the-2020-olympics/
https://www.e-ir.info/2021/02/08/contextualizing-soft-powers-analysis-the-value-of-
attractive-national-features/

Empirical Cases (Asia-Pacific Focus)

Articles
Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft power and American foreign policy. Political science quarterly, 119(2),
255-270.
Gill, B., & Huang, Y. (2006). Sources and limits of Chinese ‘soft power’. Survival, 48(2), 17-
36.
Mingjiang, L. (2008). China debates soft power. The Chinese journal of international
politics, 2(2), 287-308.
Heng, Y. K. (2010). Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the softest of them all? Evaluating
Japanese and Chinese strategies in the ‘soft’power competition era. International Relations of
the Asia-Pacific, 10(2), 275-304.
Nye, J. S. (2012). China and soft power. South African Journal of International Affairs, 19(2),
151-155.
Goldsmith, B. E., & Horiuchi, Y. (2012). In search of soft power: Does foreign public opinion
matter for US foreign policy?. World Politics, 64(3), 555-585.

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Carminati, D. (2020). Playing Safe or Taking Risks? Comparing China and Japan's Soft Power
Strategies in Thailand. Asian Politics & Policy, 12(3), 316-336.
Books
Kurlantzick, J. (2007). Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World.
Yale University Press.
Watanabe, Y., & McConnell, D. L. (Eds.). (2008). Soft power superpowers: Cultural and
national assets of Japan and the United States. ME Sharpe.
Melissen, J. (Ed.) (2011). Public Diplomacy and Soft Power in East Asia. Springer.
Melissen, J., & Sohn, Y. (Eds.). (2016). Understanding Public Diplomacy in East Asia: Middle
Powers in a Troubled Region. Springer.
Zhu, Y., Edney, K., & Rosen, S. (Eds.). (2019). Soft power with Chinese characteristics:
China’s campaign for hearts and minds. Routledge.
Repnikova, M. (2022). Chinese Soft Power. Cambridge University Press.

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