Joseph Nye
Encyclopedia
Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr. is the co-founder, along with Robert Keohane
Robert Keohane
Robert O. Keohane is an American academic, who, following the publication of his influential book After Hegemony , became widely associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism in international relations...

, of the international relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

 theory neoliberalism
Neoliberalism in international relations
In the study of international relations, neoliberalism refers to a school of thought which believes that nation-states are, or at least should be, concerned first and foremost with absolute gains rather than relative gains to other nation-states...

, developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence
Complex interdependence
Complex interdependence in international relations is the idea put forth by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye that states and their fortunes are inextricably tied together. The concept of economic interdependence was popularized through the work of Richard N. Cooper...

. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power
Soft power
Soft power is the ability to obtain what one wants through co-option and attraction. It can be contrasted with 'hard power', that is the use of coercion and payment...

. 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.
Nye is currently University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, and previously served as dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...

. He also serves as a Guiding Coalition member for the Project on National Security Reform
Project on National Security Reform
The Project on National Security Reform is a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S...

.

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
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, and after studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics PPE as a Rhodes Scholar at Exeter College
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

 at Oxford University, obtained his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 from Harvard. He attended Morristown Prep (now the Morristown-Beard School
Morristown-Beard School
Morristown-Beard School is a coeducational college-preparatory day school, serving students in sixth through twelfth grade, located in Morristown, in Morris County, New Jersey. Morristown-Beard School is the product of the 1971 merger of two institutions, Miss Beard's School for girls, founded in...

) in Morristown, New Jersey
Morristown, New Jersey
Morristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 18,411. It is the county seat of Morris County. Morristown became characterized as "the military capital of the American Revolution" because of its strategic role in the...

 and graduated in 1954.

Nye originally joined the Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 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
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

 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
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
In America, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs or ASD is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Secretary of Defense on international security strategy and policy on issues of DoD interest related to the governments and defense...

 in the Clinton Administration, and was considered by many to be the preferred choice for National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor (United States)
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...

 in the 2004 presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...

 of John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

. 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
Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...

.

In 2005, Nye was voted one of the ten most influential scholars of international relations in the USA.

He is the co-chair of the Center for a New American Security
Center for a New American Security
The Center for a New American Security is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank established in 2007 by co-founders Michèle Flournoy and Kurt M. Campbell which specializes in U.S. national security issues...

 Cyber Security Project, on the Advisory board of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy
USC Center on Public Diplomacy
The University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy is a joint academic research, teaching and training center created and run jointly by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations.Center leadership is...

 as well as on the International Editorial Board of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Cambridge Review of International Affairs is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on international relations....

, the editorial board of Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

, the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...

, the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform
Project on National Security Reform
The Project on National Security Reform is a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S...

, the Advisory Board of Carolina for Kibera
Carolina for Kibera
Founded in 2001 by Rye Barcott, Salim Mohamed, and the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, Carolina for Kibera is a 501 international non-governmental organization based in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. CFK has an office and youth center in Kibera, as well as support services based at the Center for...

, and the Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and Ambassador David Manker Abshire, originally as part of Georgetown University...

. He has been awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize by Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and the Humphrey Prize by the American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...

. 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
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

.

Nye has published many works in recent years, the most recent being The Future of Power (2011, ISBN 978-1586488918), 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
The Paradox of American Power
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...

(2002). Nye coined the term soft power
Soft power
Soft power is the ability to obtain what one wants through co-option and attraction. It can be contrasted with 'hard power', that is the use of coercion and payment...

 in the late 1980s and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

in the early 1990s. He is the chairman of the North American branch of the Trilateral Commission
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...

.

Nye and his wife, Molly Harding Nye, have three adult sons.

External links

  • Column archive at Project Syndicate
    Project Syndicate
    Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...

  • Conversations with History interview with Harry Krelsler at the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies in April 1998
  • 'Joseph Nye - Viet Nam 2010' Coffee is soft power of Viet Nam
  • '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
    Guernica Magazine
    Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy...

    in October 2008
  • Nye's profile at the Trilateral Commission
    Trilateral Commission
    The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...

    , 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
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    , 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
    Daniel Drezner
    Daniel W. Drezner is currently a professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the author of several books, the author of many Op-Ed pieces in major publications, a blogger, and a commentator.In 2005, he was denied tenure by the University of...

     on Bloggingheads.tv
    Bloggingheads.tv
    Bloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...

  • Audio: Joseph Nye in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
    The Forum (BBC World Service)
    The Forum is the BBC World Service's flagship discussion programme. It brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world to try and create stimulating discussion, informed by highly distinct academic, artistic and cultural backgrounds.-Format:Each...

  • Soft Power, Smart Power and Intelligent Power A lecture in honor of Joseph Nye
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