After Rex Tillerson, hard or soft power?

Ved Nanda, denverpost.com

Image from article, with caption: CIA Director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, left, attends a lunch meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (not pictured) on Tuesday at the White House.

Excerpt:

Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya clearly signaled that hard power is not always effective in bringing about a desired change of direction abroad. The question simply is, how do we reach desired outcomes without force or economic coercion? The answer certainly does not lie in the kind of “hard power” budget proposed by Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, with its 29 percent reduction in funding to the Department of State and USAID. The “America First” slogan, telling others that they are secondary powers, does not augur well for persuading or attracting friends. This defense budget — almost 10 times more than State, USAID, and public diplomacy [JB emphasis] combined — does not show a good balance.

We have dynamic universities, civil society organizations, foundations and popular culture to project soft power abroad. What the U.S. needs in foreign policy is a fine balance of hard and soft power — a smart power based upon hard power, with a strong focus on diplomacy, education, culture and economic ties.