Description: This book is a global comparative history of how "soft power" came to define the interregnum between the celebration of global capitalism in the 1990s and the recent resurgence of nationalism and authoritarianism. It brings together case studies from the European Union, China, Brazil, Turkey, and the United States.
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Review Quotes: This rich book discusses cultural influence in international relations as soft power through case studies on the United States, Europe, Turkey, Brazil, and China. Soft power's conceptual vagueness, ambiguity, and fecundity (in the form of its smart and sharp power descendants) have created an intellectual project of surprising generative capacity and have shaped diplomatic practices with wide circulatory potential.--Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University