Comments on: President Obama’s First 100 Days

By: Major Mark Tromblee

Major Mark Tromblee — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:52:17 +0000

Where has all the Soft Power gone?
To this date, the Obama administration has yet to fulfill its lawful requirement to submit an annual National Security Strategy (NSS). This is of no surprise as the last such document was published in March 2006 and even the Bush administration as well as others were unable to fulfill this annual mandate. Among other things, this document outlines how the United States will use the four elements of national power (Diplomacy, Information, Military, and Economics). Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a Harvard professor that served under both the Carter and Clinton administrations, as soft or attractive power, has referred to one other aspect of power. Nye loosely defines soft power as ‘getting others to want what you want’. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States emerged a global hegemon. Due to its economic scale, scientific and technical leadership, location between two major oceans, military forces and alliances, and a universalistic culture it is almost assuredly certain that our nation was the envy of others and that other nations wanted at least some of what ‘we’ had.

Over time, our soft power has dwindled. Beginning with the so-called ‘brain drain’ when students from other nations received advanced degrees in medicine, the sciences and other disciplines from U.S. universities and then exported this knowledge back to their own country; to now where we have an economy in turmoil, practices by the government to increase government control over what used to be private industries, and decisions to act unilaterally versus as part of a coalition in what some may call an aggressive manner. Although some may disagree based upon continued tourism by ‘foreigners’ within our country or illegal immigration and workers within our borders, it is safe to say that our soft power has indeed decreased.
President George W. Bush’s NSS read much like Thomas P.M. Barnett’s theories about the functioning core and the non-integrating gap and the need to export democracy and globalization to the non-integrating gap to ensure peace and stability for the core. President Bush’s last NSS focused heavily on the use of Military and the use of economic sanctions to be used in the fashion of global meliorism. This NSS ignored both diplomacy and information of power and therefore was completely lacking as a grand strategy.

So, the question remains, what ‘soft power’ does President Obama have available to use, and how will he use all elements of national power to meet the goals of the United States during his tenure?

Major Mark Tromblee is currently a Student at the U.S. Army’s School for Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, KS. The statements, views, and opinions are of the author alone and do not express the policy, views, or opinions of the Department of Defense, the United States Army, the Command and General Staff College, or the School of Advanced Military Studies

By: JPS

JPS — Sat, 09 May 2009 04:23:07 +0000

here is a link to a convocation address that Obama gave at my alma mater, Carleton College, in 1999. Yes I was there…but I didn’t go. It is amazing how little his message has changed even after 10 years.

http://apps.carleton.edu/news/audio_video/?item_id=443057&av_file_id=443035

By: RHM

RHM — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:54:17 +0000

Watch him back peddle a little bit on Fox. - RHM

By: BW

BW — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:49:49 +0000

stratmore stock, 60 gage…

and don’t let it be your trepidation…

By: RHM

RHM — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:35:17 +0000

@BW Nobody has any idea what you're talking about. So, let's fill them in:

By: BW

BW — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:32:43 +0000

It holds a creese, can you rip it, sure…
It took me 25 years to design this card…

I guarantee crowds, results…what do you guarantee?

By: Kara

Kara — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:38:31 +0000

Randy, the best blog yet. Not because I wholeheartedly agree with you, but because you took a stand, said it plainly and didn’t nuance anything. As you said, we need more boldness (if that’s a word) around here. Well done.

By: David Cobb

David Cobb — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:58:45 +0000

Obama is doing great, given the crappy hand he was dealt. 100 days is an arbitrary number. The proof will be at the mid-term elections. If the Democrats can expand their lead in both houses, that will be a real stamp of approval.

Pakistan is such a basket-case. Literally. A basket of different tribes all thrown together into one country. The country was set up to fail. All the benefits of colonialism just keep coming…Rhodesia…Congo…Pakistan.

The Middle East is the grave-yard of Empire. We should get out of Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible. We are not welcome and the situation will never improve. We never learn from history.