The theme this year is “power shifts,” and Angela Merkel referred to the importance of soft power in her keynote. But my strongest take-away of the day was a seasoned Asian diplomat telling me that in all his travels, he has never seen American soft power at such a low ebb. In his words, only the Israelis, Indians, and Vietnamese have a positive view of the U.S. Then he added, “and Iran, if you look only at the people, not the government.” But there is much speculation that the Administration will change that for the worse.

The Huffington Post → The Blog → Joseph Nye → Day One at Davos and the Low Ebb of American Soft Power

And who is Joseph Nye, you might ask? Some left-wing nut bent on anti-American defeatist rhetoric?

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, was Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government from December 1995 through June, 2004. Nye has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1964, during which time he also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. His most recent publications are Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004), and an anthology, Power in the Global Information Age (2004). Nye received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard.