Soft power

Soft power requires patience but over the long term is stronger, more enduring than hard power.

"Soft power lies in the ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce. It means that others want what the United States wants, and there is less need to use carrots and sticks," wrote Joseph S. Nye, Jr., in 2003 for YaleGlobal Online. "Soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. When U.S. policies appear legitimate in the eyes of others, American soft power is enhanced. Hard power will always remain crucial in a world of nation-states guarding their independence, but soft power will become increasingly important in dealing with the transnational issues that require multilateral cooperation for their solution."

Soft power can be as mundane as jeans and other clothing or a pop song. It can be as lofty, the most intense literature and films that revolutionize the way others think and view the world. Governments have little control over soft power, and shouldn't try too hard, except to encourage curiosity and creativity and free thought. Coercion only puts people off in cross-culture interactions. Soft power comes with contentment, joy, fervor, kindness, the power of quiet example.

Soft power emerges from the aspirations and dreams of ordinary people - anywhere - and can strike when we least expect it.

Photo of clouds copyrighted by Axel Rouvin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Love and terror

Learn something new everyday, from the AP and The Washington Post ...

[General] Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and
teen-agers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said. Rather than transmitting emails to the other’s inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox,” the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and  read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.

"A January 2005 PBS special on al-Qaeda identified the tactic as one of several “terrorist tricks, alongside logging in from public Internet cafes,” reports Max Fisher in his Washington Post blog.

It's a good bet that it won't be long before Gmail and other free email services are tracking drafts - if they aren't already.

Image courtesy of Gmail.   

Force

Writing for Harvard Business Review, Morra Aarons-Mele points out in a free market, equipped with social media, "women with opinions are a force to be reckoned with." She points out that women dominate every social-media market and "Women are influencing each other's decisions through non-stop conversations on social media."