Joseph Nye, R.I.P.

Nye developed the concept of "soft power" -- but he did so much more.

My last newsletter discussed the death of American soft power and the possible effects that would have on U.S. foreign policy. My analysis was predicated on Joseph Nye’s original conception of the term, which he initially developed in 1990 and then fleshed out in multiple subsequent books.

Based on a PolicyCast podcast he recorded last month, it would seem that Nye would have agreed with my assessment. He said, “When you come into office, the first things you say are that you’re going to take Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally, no matter what; or you say that we’re going to retake the Panama Canal, which reawakens all of the Latin American suspicions about American imperialism; or you abolish AID, which is an agency which makes Americans look more benign through its assistance. Basically, these suggest that you’re not even thinking about America first, you’re thinking about America alone.”

In a cruel twist of fate, American soft power was not the only death recorded this week. On Wednesday the Harvard Kennedy School of Government announced that Nye himself had passed away at the age of 88:

Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, whose ideas on the nature of power in international relations influenced generations of policymakers, academics, and students and made him one of the world’s most celebrated political thinkers, has died at the age of 88.

Nye developed the concepts of soft power, smart power, and neoliberalism during six decades as a Harvard professor. He joined the faculty in 1964 right after earning his doctoral degree and went on to become a major force in developing the modern John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as dean from 1995 to 2004.

Nye also put his ideas into practice in government, serving in key U.S. national security roles in the Carter and Clinton administrations and leading a host of transnational policy organizations such as the Aspen Strategy Group, which he helped found. That combination of academic rigor, engagement, and hands-on government service informed and enriched his research and teaching.

Those who knew him best remember Nye as an unfailingly kind, generous colleague and friend who was devoted to his wife, Molly, who died in December, and their three sons and nine grandchildren.

I’m not entirely sure Nye gets credit for coining neoliberalism, but he did develop the idea of complex interdependence with Robert Keohane. Between that and soft power, Nye deserves credit for developing multiple important concepts decades ago that continue to be relevant in current debates about international relations.

Joe was not just an ivory tower scholar, however. He might have been the Platonic ideal of a scholar who easily bridged the divide between theory and policy. As he recounted in his memoir A Life in the American Century, Nye also served in the U.S. government multiple times, with stints as deputy secretary of state, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. He also served as Dean of the Kennedy School in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In other words, Nye survived and thrived as a scholar, a policymaker, and an administrator. It is a rare person who can excel at all three roles. As Nicholas Burns noted, “Joe was a protean man — founding father of the Kennedy School, brilliant academic, admired senior government official. What really stood out for me was Joe's commitment to be a servant leader in everything he did. Literally hundreds of us count Joe as our indispensable mentor.” Similarly, Dennis Wilder, a former CIA official and White House adviser to George W Bush, told the Financial Times that, “I guess the big thing about Joe was, to me, he is the perfect academic who is able to do the highly theoretical international relations thinking and then turn it into policy.”

I got to know Joe over the last two decades through multiple conversations on a variety of panels, roundtables, and conferences. What always struck me about Joe was how he carried himself as a senior scholar. Like Bob Jervis, Nye was devoid of the pettiness that often consumes even senior academics. He was always generous with his advice, and he was never perturbed by serious debate. To put it more plainly, I want to be like Joe Nye when I grow up.

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World has made no secret of its concerns about American foreign policy in 2025. The United States is facing a precarious moment, one in which the D team is running the national security machine and running it badly. This is a moment when the wise counsel of Joe Nye would have been valuable. He will be missed.