Abstract

Joseph Nye is considered one of the leading thinkers and founders of neoliberalism in international relations. His works and Writings on the nature of power, the position of U.S in the global power hierarchy and the future of power in information age led to his being considered as a theorist of the concept of power. This important fact was particularly substantiated by his proposing the idea of “soft power” in the 1990s. In this article, Nye’s perspective on power, seizure, and expansion of such a concept and philosophical, theoretical and practical deficiency of his views in relation to his beliefs on theoretical debates of power in international relations will be examined. The claim of this research is that Nye's attempts in the ambit of power do not provide new possibilities to understand power, beyond what had previously been provided by classic theorists of such concept. But, his mental effort is limited to the redefinition and elaboration of voluntary systems for exercising power.