The Paradox of American Power is a book written by political scientist Joseph Nye and published in 2002.
According to Nye, a nation has never had as much cultural, economic, and military power as currently wields the United States of America. Yet, at the same time, a nation has never been so interdependent with the rest of the world. Nye describes 'hard' and 'soft' power and asserts that maintaining and maximizing soft power is fundamental to keeping the U.S. the worldwide leader. Nye asserts that China, Japan, India, Russia, and the European Union have the pre-conditions necessary to be superpowers.
Nye also writes about humanitarian intervention in conflicts around the world, the multilateralism and unilateralism and the American public opinion engagement in U.S. foreign policy. Nye attempts to prove that America requires, not only hard, but also soft power in order to maintain a position in global affairs.
Famous quotes containing the words paradox, american and/or power:
“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“Failure or success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)