Joseph Nye
Joseph Nye | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 19, 1937 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (bachelor's degree) University of Oxford (master's degree) Harvard University (Ph.D. in political science) |
| Era | International relations theory |
| Region | Western Philosophers |
| School | Neoliberal institutionalism |
Main interests | International security, interdependence, globalization |
Notable ideas | Soft power/Hard power/Smart power, Complex interdependence |
Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is the co-founder, along with Robert Keohane, of the international relations theory neoliberalism, 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. His notion of "smart power" became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton administration, and more recently the Obama Administration.[1] Nye is currently University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University, and previously served as dean of University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also serves as a Guiding Coalition member for the Project on National Security Reform.
The 2008 TRIP survey of 1700 international relations scholars ranked him as the sixth most influential scholar of the past twenty years, and the most influential on American foreign policy.
Life and career
Nye graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, and after studying PPE as a Rhodes Scholar at Exeter College at Oxford University, obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He attended Morristown Prep (now the Morristown-Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey and graduated in 1954.
Nye originally joined the Harvard faculty in 1964, serving as Director of the Center for International Affairs and as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences. From 1977-1979, Nye was Deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology and chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
In 1993 and 1994 he was chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates intelligence estimates for the President. Nye also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Clinton Administration, and was considered by many to be the preferred choice for National Security Advisor in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost liberal thinkers on foreign policy, and is seen by some as the counter to renowned Harvard conservative Samuel P. Huntington.
In 2005, Nye was voted one of the ten most influential scholars of international relations in the USA.[2]
He is on the Advisory board of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy as well as on the International Editorial Board of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the editorial board of Foreign Policy, the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform, the Advisory Board of Carolina for Kibera, and the Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has been awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize by Princeton University and the Humphrey Prize by the American Political Science Association. In 2005 he was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin and in 2007 he was awarded an honorary degree by King's College London.
Nye has published many works in recent years, the most recent being The Future of Power (2011), Understanding International Conflicts, 7th ed (2009), The Powers to Lead (2008), The Power Game: A Washington Novel (2004), Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004), and The Paradox of American Power (2002). Nye coined the term soft power in the late 1980s and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in Foreign Policy in the early 1990s.
Nye and his wife, Molly Harding Nye, have three adult sons.[3]
Connections with Libya during Qaddafi Regime with the Monitor Group
In December 10 2007 an article by Nye appeared in the New Republic after Nye had meet with Libya's leader Muammar Qaddafi. While acknowledging Qaddafi autocratic approach to power the article went on to wonder if Libya was changing and reforming. The article summed up
"Has Qaddafi really changed? It is difficult to know for sure. He has always been a protean figure--part Bedouin libertarian, part revolutionary socialist-- and, obviously, his future actions will speak louder than any current words. But there is no doubt that he acts differently on the world stage today than he did in decades past. And the fact that he took so much time to discuss ideas-- including soft power--with a visiting professor suggests that he is actively seeking a new strategy".[4].
Though this article mention the Monitor Group as having having "enlisted" him it failed to disclose at the time of publication that Nye had been paid consultant working for the Monitor Group, which had been retained "not to promote economic development, but 'to enhance the profile of Libya and Muammar Qadhafi.'"[5] and that he was paid for the article. Mother Jones has since reported on the piece:
"Presumably, Nye was sharing his independently derived view of Qaddafi. Yet a source familiar with the Harvard professor's original submission to the magazine notes, 'It took considerable prodding from editors to get him to reluctantly acknowledge the regime's very well-known dark side.' And Franklin Foer, then the editor of the magazine, says, 'If we had known that he was consulting for a firm paid by the government, we wouldn't have run the piece.'"[5].
The New Republic article has since acknowledged that Nye was working as a paid consultant for Monitor Group[6]. Nye has acknowledge payment for the work with Monitor Group since[5].
References
- ^ Smart Power, The Huffington Post, November 29, 2007
- ^ http://mjtier.people.wm.edu/intlpolitics/teaching/surveyreport.pdf
- ^ http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~JNye/FullBio.html
- ^ [1], New Republic, Tripoli Diarist, December 10, 2007
- ^ a b c Corn, David (2011-03-03) From Libya with Love, Mother Jones
- ^ [2], New Republic, December 10, 2007
External links
- 'Of Might and Right', Joseph Nye's monthly commentary series for Project Syndicate
- Conversations with History interview with Harry Krelsler at the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies in April 1998
- 'Talking Power', interview in the Oxonian Review in March 2005
- 'Joseph Nye on Teaching America to be more British', interview with Theory Talks in May 2008
- 'How Soft is Smart?', interview on the US Presidential Election in Guernica Magazine in October 2008
- Nye's profile at the Trilateral Commission, where he is Chairman of the North American Group
- Nye's profile at the Harvard Belfer Centre, where he is a board member
- Nye's profile at Harvard University, where he is Distinguished Service Professor and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
- Video (with mp3 available) of discussion with Nye and Daniel Drezner on Bloggingheads.tv
- Audio: Joseph Nye in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
- Soft Power, Smart Power and Intelligent Power A lecture in honor of Joseph Nye