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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Sino-American War Of Words: Soft Power As Coercion, Lucas Deane Myers
The Sino-American War Of Words: Soft Power As Coercion, Lucas Deane Myers
Political Science Honors Projects
Soft power is typically understood to involve attraction, or the influence an actor gains through the positive image of its institutions, ideals, and culture. However, this conception underplays the coercive side of soft power. Attractiveness is not a pre-existing, unchanging condition but a socially constructed reality that allows the attractive actor to exercise discursive power over other actors. Soft power conflicts appear, therefore, as a “war of words.” In such wars of words, participants utilize coercive soft power, or representational force, to reify a narrative and self-identity into social reality while simultaneously detracting from the opponent’s. Utilizing discourse analysis, I …
Swords Into Stethoscopes: How The U.S. Military Could Conduct Medical Diplomacy, Oliver Kendall
Swords Into Stethoscopes: How The U.S. Military Could Conduct Medical Diplomacy, Oliver Kendall
Political Science Honors Projects
Since the early 1960’s, Cuba and China have won international appreciation by sending doctors abroad to help where they are needed. While there was surprise in some quarters when U.S. military personnel were deployed to combat Ebola in the last months of 2014, the Department of Defense actually has a long history of medical activity. In its current form, DoD medical outreach cannot likely garner soft power in the way that the Chinese and Cuban programs can, but with a few modifications, the U.S. military could be a serious conductor of medical diplomacy that would save countless lives and benefit …