Limitation
Soft power has been criticized as being ineffective by authors such as Niall Ferguson in the preface to Colossus. Neorealist and other rationalist and neorationalist authors (with the exception of Stephen Walt) would generally disregard soft power since they assume for theoretical purposes that actors in international relations respond to only two types of incentives: economic incentives and force.
As a concept, it is often hard to distinguish between the effects of soft power and other factors. For example, Janice Bially Mattern asserts that George W. Bush's use of the phrase "you are either with us or against us" was an exercise in soft power, since no explicit threat was included. However, rationalist authors would merely see this as an 'implied threat', and that direct economic or military sanctions would likely follow from being 'against us'.
Read more about this topic: Soft Power
Famous quotes containing the word limitation:
“The French are certainly misunderstood:Mbut whether the fault is theirs, in not sufficiently explaining themselves; or speaking with that exact limitation and precision which one would expect ... or whether the fault may not be altogether on our side ... I shall not decide.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)