A Healthy Argument for Smart Power
A Healthy Argument for Smart Power
By Nancy Lindborg and William C. Lane
Huffington Post; October 15, 2009
As hyper-partisanship continues to dominate the health care debate in the nation’s capital, it might be easy to overlook that a bipartisan consensus has quietly but unmistakably emerged for a smart power approach to foreign policy.
Lawmakers and foreign policy and national security experts across the political spectrum have come to agree that America needs to reinvigorate our civilian diplomatic and foreign assistance efforts. These important tools have been understaffed and underfunded for many years and must be used strategically to get better results and make us safer.
This is what’s called ‘smart power,’ a phrase that has recently joined the national lexicon because of its timeliness and policy relevance. Smart power is based on the view that in this increasingly interconnected world, America’s fortunes are inextricably linked to those of other nations and their peoples, and that our military cannot be expected or relied upon to resolve larger issues that are fueled by grinding poverty, poor health and lack of economic opportunity.
