‘Father of soft power' US scholar Joseph Nye passes away at 88

Political scientist Joseph Nye, one of the theorists who coined the term “soft power” and helped shape US foreign policy thinking for decades, died on May 6 at the age of 88.

Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein announced former Dean Nye's death in an email to faculty, staff, and students Wednesday afternoon.

“It is impossible to capture Joe's intellectual contributions in a paragraph or a page,” Weinstein wrote in his email to Harvard Kennedy School affiliates. “In a century of unprecedented change in global politics, he was among the foremost thinkers to shape our understanding of contemporary international relations.”

Born in South Orange, New Jersey, in January 1937, Nye studied politics, philosophy and economics at Princeton University and Oxford University.

After earning a Ph.D in political science, Nye joined Harvard's faculty in 1964 and served in the Bill Clinton administration, which held the US Presidency from 1993-2001.

After serving as chairman of the National Intelligence Council in 1993-94, Nye held senior positions at the US State Department, the National Intelligence Council and the Department of Defense.

Widely recognized for developing the concept of soft power — the idea that countries can exert influence through cultural appeal, values and diplomacy rather than military force — Nye became a leading voice in liberal internationalist thought.

Over the course of his career, he held senior positions at several universities including Harvard and various international think tanks, and authored more than 10 books, including Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, Is the American Century Over?, and Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.