The Pros And Cons Of European Soft Power

Soft power has attracted significant attention in public and scholarly debates on foreign affairs in recent years. International relations, for some, is about power. It has been an expression of the fight between civilizations throughout history. Nowadays, the debate, for both academics and practitioners, is still actual. This is even furthermore asserted with the influence that European power can have over the globe. It is not a state, and, therefore, it is utterly interesting to examine that Europe can still have impact on world affairs without having that central state character.This essay will argue about economic and political benefits and disadvantages from European Soft Power and its efficiency in contemporary world. For the first time, the term 'soft power ' has been established by Joseph Nye in the late 1980s. Joseph Nye in his book Soft Power presented a defenition of soft power as follows: ‘A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries-admiring values,emulating its example,aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness-want to follow it.’(p.5) It is now used frequently and often incorrectly by political leaders, editorial writers, and academics around the world. So what is soft power? Soft power lies in the ability to persuade and attract,whereas hard power

Nevertheless, ineffective soft power strategies are usually the exception.On the contrary to soft power,hard power can lead to aggresive policy of the state towards other states and realistic approach will cause to the appearance of conflicts which might not be resolved in a peaceful way.Inefficiency of soft power sometimes pushes worldleaders to implement hard power policy,which infers the use of military and economic tools to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies. This form of political power is often aggressive, and is most effective when imposed by one political body upon another of lesser military or