Joseph Nye

Nye was born in South Orange, New Jersey, the third of four children born to Joseph, a bond trader and equities firm lead; and Else Ashwell Nye.{{cite news| url= https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/12/metro/joseph-nye-harvard-kennedy-school-dean-passes-away/| title= Joseph S. Nye Jr., Kennedy School dean who coined 'soft power' concept, dies at 88| first= Bryan| last= Marquard | date= May 12, 2025| url-access= subscription| url-status= live| website= Boston Globe | archiveurl= https://archive.today/20250514071206/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/12/metro/joseph-nye-harvard-kennedy-school-dean-passes-away/| archivedate= May 14, 2025 | access-date= May 14, 2025}} Joseph Sr. did not graduate high school or college, but Else was a college graduate. Joseph Jr. had two older sisters and a younger sister. For most of his youth, the family resided on a {{cvt|100|acre|adj=on}} farm in New Vernon, New Jersey.{{cite news| url= https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/joseph-nye-obituary-political-scientist-who-conceived-soft-power-37rqt87wb| website= The Times; thetimes.com| title= Joseph Nye obituary: Political scientist who conceived 'soft power'| date= May 13, 2025| publisher= | access-date= May 14, 2025}}

He attended Morristown Prep (later the Morristown–Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey, graduating in 1954. He then attended Princeton University, also in New Jersey, where he was vice president of the Colonial Club, a columnist for The Daily Princetonian, and a member of the American Whig–Cliosophic Society's Debate Panel.{{cite web|last=Deford|first=Frank|date=January 7, 1958 |title= Holt, Nye Among 32 Selected For U.S. Rhodes Scholarships Harvard Winners Top Oxford List |url= http://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19580107-01.2.11&srpos=592&e=-------en-20--581-byDA-txt-IN-%22%22-ARTICLE|access-date=July 11, 2017| website= Daily Princetonian |via=theprince.princeton.edu|archive-date=December 6, 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131206100116/http://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19580107-01.2.11&srpos=592&e=-------en-20--581-byDA-txt-IN-%22%22-ARTICLE|url-status=live}} He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history in 1958. His senior thesis was Death of a Family Firm: An Entrepreneurial History of the American Preserve Company.{{Cite thesis|last=Nye |first= Joseph Samuel Jr.| publisher= Department of History, Princeton University |title=Death of a Family Firm: An Entrepreneurial History of the American Preserve Company| url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/dsp017d278v13v|language=en|access-date=May 28, 2020 |archive-date= March 8, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210308031228/https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/dsp017d278v13v|url-status=live}} Nye was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and won the Myron T. Herrick Thesis Prize.{{cn|date=May 2025}} He was among 32 students selected as a Rhodes Scholar and chose to attend Oxford University's Exeter College, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).

In 1964, he obtained his PhD in political science from Harvard University, studying under Henry Kissinger and J. K. Galbraith. Nye's doctoral dissertation was on regional integration in East Africa.

In 1964, the same year Nye received his doctorate, he joined the Harvard faculty. He was Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1985 to 1990 and was Associate Dean for International Affairs at Harvard from 1989 to 1992. Nye also was Director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard from 1989 to 1993 and Dean of John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2004. Nye was a University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus.{{cite web|title=Joseph Nye|url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joseph-nye |access-date= March 23, 2021|website= hks.harvard.edu| publisher= Harvard Kennedy School|archive-date=September 2, 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240902184500/https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joseph-nye|url-status=live}}

Nye and his colleague Keohane have been characterized as key figures in the development of a discipline of international political economy, largely as a result of their authorship of Power and Interdependence.{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Benjamin J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H79WVDwMzCEC|title=International Political Economy: An Intellectual History|date=2008|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-13569-4| pages= 16–17, 23–24|language=en|access-date=July 7, 2022|archive-date=September 2, 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240902184459/https://books.google.com/books?id=H79WVDwMzCEC|url-status=live}} Nye's influences include Karl Deutsch and Ernst Hass.{{Cite book|last=Cohen|first=Benjamin J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H79WVDwMzCEC|title=International Political Economy: An Intellectual History|date=2008|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-13569-4 |pages= 29|language=en|access-date=July 7, 2022|archive-date=September 2, 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240902184459/https://books.google.com/books?id=H79WVDwMzCEC|url-status=live}}

From 1977 to 1979, Nye was Deputy to the Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology and chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award in 1979. In 1993 and 1994, he was Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates intelligence estimates for the President, and was awarded the Intelligence Community's Distinguished Service Medal. In the Clinton Administration from 1994 to 1995, Nye served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and was awarded the Department's Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster.{{Cn|date=May 2025}} In 1999, during a visit to Singapore, Nye suggested to Lee Kuan Yew that Singapore should set up a version of London's Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park to allow public speaking, which Singapore then created its own Speaker's Corner at Hong Lim Park in 2000.{{Cite news |date=2025-05-08 |title=Joseph Nye's influence on Singapore includes Speaker's Corner and LKY school |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/world/speakers-corner-lky-school-and-soft-power-thank-you-joseph-nye |work=The Straits Times |language=en |issn=0585-3923}} Nye was considered by many to be the preferred choice for National Security Advisor in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

File:Professor Joseph Nye and Dr Robin Niblett - Chatham House 2013 (cropped).jpg

He was the chairman of the North American branch of the Trilateral Commission{{cite web|title=North American Region| url= http://www.trilateral.org/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=12|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121021204534/http://www.trilateral.org/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=12|archive-date=October 21, 2012|access-date=January 28, 2012| website= The Trilateral Commission}} and the co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group. He was also a member of the Atlantic Council's Board of Directors.{{Cite web|title=Board of Directors|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/board-of-directors/|access-date=February 12, 2020 |website= atlanticcouncil.org | publisher= Atlantic Council|language=en-US|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308225111/https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/board-of-directors/|url-status=live}} Nye also served as a trustee of Radcliffe College and Wells College. He was on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform, the Advisory Board of Carolina for Kibera, and the Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize by Princeton University and the Charles E. Merriman Prize by the American Political Science Association. In 2005, he was awarded the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin and was awarded honorary degrees by ten colleges and universities. In 2010, Nye won the Foreign Policy Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Studies Association. In 2009, he was made a Theodore Roosevelt Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.{{Cite web|date=August 9, 2016 |title= Joseph S. Nye Jr.|url=https://www.aapss.org/fellow/joseph-s-nye-jr/|access-date=March 23, 2021|website=AAPSS|archive-date=April 11, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210411122203/https://www.aapss.org/fellow/joseph-s-nye-jr/|url-status=live}}

In October 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry appointed Nye to the Foreign Affairs Policy Board, a group that meets periodically to discuss strategic questions and to provide the Secretary and other senior Department officials with independent informed perspectives and ideas. In November 2014, Nye was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in recognition of his "contribution to the development of studies on Japan-U.S. security and to the promotion of the mutual understanding between Japan and the United States."{{Cite web|last1=Lynch|first1=Susan M. |last2= Wilke| first2= Sharon| date= November 5, 2014|title=Harvard's Joseph Nye Receives Honor in Japan| url= https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/harvards-joseph-nye-receives-honor-japan| access-date=March 23, 2021|website= belfercenter.org| publisher= Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs |archive-date=March 29, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210329050742/https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/harvards-joseph-nye-receives-honor-japan|url-status=live}}

Nye served as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance,{{cite web|title= Global Commission on Internet Governance Commissioners |url=https://www.ourinternet.org/#commission |website=OurInternet.org| archive-date=November 29, 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020015/https://www.ourinternet.org/#commission| url-status= dead |access-date= May 14, 2025}} and served on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace from 2017 until its conclusion in 2019. He served on the global Advisory Council for CFK Africa, a leading NGO working in Kenyan informal settlements.{{Cite web |title=Meet Our Team {{!}} Staff, Board, and Advisory Council |url= https://cfkafrica.org/our-team/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website= cfkafrica.org| publisher= CFK Africa |language=en-US |archive-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240902184616/https://cfkafrica.org/our-team/ |url-status=live}}

Nye coined the term soft power in the late 1980s, and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in Foreign Policy in 1990.{{Cite web |last=Nye |first=Joseph S. Jr. |date=1990-09-01 |title=Soft Power |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/1990/09/01/soft-power-foreign-policy-magazine-joseph-nye/ |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}} Nye consistently wrote for Project Syndicate since 2002.{{cite web |title= Joseph S. Nye |url=http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributor/joseph-s--nye|access-date=July 11, 2017|website=Project Syndicate|archive-date= November 2, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102113456/http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributor/joseph-s--nye|url-status=live}}

Nye was a neo-liberal.{{Cite book |last=Korolev |first=Alexander S. |url= |title=China and Eurasian Powers in a Multipolar World Order 2.0: Security, Diplomacy, Economy and Cyberspace |date=2023 |publisher=Routledge |others=Mher Sahakyan |isbn= 978-1-003-35258-7 |edition= |location=New York |pages=11 |chapter=Political and Economic Security in Eurasia: English School Perspective |oclc= 1353290533}}

In Nye's view, analysis of collective security systems requires consideration of economic matters. Matters of collective economic security include common goods, the presence or absence of trade restrictions, and distribution of profits between countries.

File:Professor Joseph S Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard Kennedy School of Government (18549929998).jpg

Nye married Molly (Mary) Harding in 1961. They had three sons: John, Benjamin and Daniel.{{cite web |title= Joseph Nye Full Biography| url= http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/jnye/fullbio.html |url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170328054338/https://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/jnye/fullbio.html|archive-date=March 28, 2017 |access-date= July 11, 2017| website= hks.harvard.edu| publisher= Harvard Kennedy School of Government}} Nye was a member of a Unitarian Universalist Association church.{{cite web |url= https://www.uuworld.org/articles/joseph-nye-soft-power-theorist |title= Joseph Nye, soft-power theorist: Small acts of engagement| first= Michelle| last= Bates Deakin | date= January 1, 2005 |magazine=UU World Magazine |accessdate= May 14, 2025}} Molly was a ceramics artist, art gallery leader and art consultant. She died about five months before her husband.

Nye resided in Lexington, Massachusetts, as well as in Europe, East Africa, and Central America, and he traveled to over 90 countries. His hobbies commonly involved the outdoors; he enjoyed camping, fly fishing, hiking, gardening (including horticultural activities at his {{cvt|900|acre|adj=on}} New Hampshire tree farm). His played squash and was an avid skier.

Nye's last residence was at Brookhaven, a retirement community in Lexington.{{cite web| url= https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/fitch-downgrades-brookhaven-at-lexington-ma-to-a-on-criteria-change-19-12-2024| title= Fitch Downgrades Brookhaven at Lexington (MA) to 'A+' on Criteria Change| date= December 19, 2024| place= New York| website= Fitch Ratings| publisher= | access-date= May 14, 2025}} He died on May 6, 2025 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 88.{{cite web| url= https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/5/8/joseph-nye-dies/|title=Former HKS Dean, Leading International Relations Scholar Joseph Nye Dead at 88| publisher= | work= The Harvard Crimson | accessdate=May 7, 2025|date=May 7, 2025}}{{cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/joseph-nye-dead.html |title=Joseph Nye, Political Scientist Who Extolled 'Soft Power,' Dies at 88|date=May 8, 2025|accessdate=May 8, 2025|newspaper=The New York Times}}

• {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WYf0AEACAAJ |title=Pan-Africanism and East African Integration |date=1965 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-42138-7 |page=}}
• {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yo-PAAAAMAAJ&q=Peace+in+Parts:+Integration+and+Conflict+in+Regional+Organization |title=Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization |date=1971 |publisher=Little, Brown |page=}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Keohane |first1=Robert O. |author-link1=Robert Keohane |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QZqrzQEACAAJ |title=Transnational Relations and World Politics |last2= Nye |first2=Joseph S. |date=1972 |publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-59315-2 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Keohane |first1=Robert O. |author-link1=Robert Keohane |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp9tPvjaUlkC |title=Power and Interdependence. World Politics in Transition |last2= Nye |first2=Joseph S. |date=1977 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-48936-2 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last=Carnesale |first=Albert |url=https://archive.org/details/livingwithnuclea00fera |title=Living with nuclear weapons |date=1983 |place= Cambridge, Massachusetts| publisher= Harvard Nuclear Study Group, Harvard University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-53665-4}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Allison |first1=Graham T. |last2=Carnesale |first2=Albert |last3=Nye |first3=Joseph |date=1985-10-01 |title=Hawks, doves and owls: a new perspective on avoiding nuclear war |url=https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-abstract/61/4/581/2583168?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=International Affairs |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=581–589 |doi=10.2307/2617704 |jstor=2617704 |issn=0020-5850}}
• {{Cite book |title=Nuclear ethics |date=1988 |publisher=Free Pr |isbn=978-0-02-923091-6 |location=New York}}
• {{Cite book |title=Bound to lead: the changing nature of American power |date=1992 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00744-8 |edition=5. [pr.] |location=New York}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hnb5vHdBvMMC |title=Understanding International Conflicts, 6/E |date=September 2007 |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=978-81-317-1632-8 |language=en}}
• {{cite book | title=The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2002| isbn=978-0-19-983963-6 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=Soft Power: The Means To Success In World Politics| publisher= Public Affairs| date=2004| page=}}
• {{cite book | title=Power in the Global Information Age | publisher=Routledge | date=2004-04-28 | isbn=978-1-135-99653-6 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=The Power Game | publisher=PublicAffairs | date=2004-11-09 | isbn=978-1-58648-226-8 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=The Powers to Lead | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2008-03-03 | isbn=978-0-19-975853-1 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=The Future of Power | publisher=PublicAffairs | publication-place=New York | date=2011-02-01 | isbn=978-1-58648-892-5 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era | publisher=Princeton University Press | publication-place=Princeton (N.J.) | date=2013 | isbn=978-0-691-15836-5 | page=}}
• {{cite book |title=Is the American Century Over? |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2015-03-05 |isbn=978-0-7456-9651-5 |page=}}
• {{cite book | title=Do Morals Matter? | publisher=Oxford University Press | publication-place=New York, NY | date=2020 | isbn=978-0-19-093596-2 | page=}}
• {{cite book | title=Soft Power and Great-Power Competition: Shifting Sands in the Balance of Power Between the United States and China | series= China and Globalization | publisher= Springer Nature Singapore | publication-place=Singapore | date=2023 | isbn=978-981-99-0713-7 | doi=10.1007/978-981-99-0714-4 | doi-access=free | page=}}
• {{cite book |title=A Life in the American Century |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2023-12-19 |isbn=978-1-5095-6069-1 |page=}}

• {{cite journal |last1= Nye|first1= Joseph S.|date= 1967|title= Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit Analysis |url= https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/corruption-and-political-development-a-costbenefit-analysis/D5E8F481DE22E6F77FCCB924D502BB9F?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark|journal= American Political Science Review| volume= 61|issue= 2|publisher= Cambridge University Press|pages= 417–427|doi= 10.2307/1953254|jstor= 1953254|access-date=8 May 2025}}
• {{cite journal |last1= Nye|first1= Joseph S.|last2= Keohane|first2=Robert O.|date= 1973|title= Power and interdependence| url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00396337308441409|journal= Survival. Global Politics and Strategy.|volume= 15|issue= 4|publisher= International Institute for Strategic Studies|pages= 158–165|doi= 10.1080/00396337308441409|access-date=8 May 2025}}
• {{cite journal |last1= Nye|first1= Joseph S.|date= 1990|title= Soft power: The means to success in world politics |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148580|journal= Foreign Policy|volume= |issue= 80|pages= 153–171|doi= 10.2307/1148580|jstor= 1148580|access-date=8 May 2025}}
• {{cite journal |last1= Nye|first1= Joseph S.|last2= Keohane|first2=Robert O.|date= 1998|title= Power and interdependence in the information age|url= https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/fora77&div=92&id=&page=|journal= Foreign Affairs|volume= 77|issue= |pages= 81–94| doi= 10.2307/20049052|jstor= 20049052|access-date=8 May 2025}}
• {{cite journal |date= 2008|title= Public diplomacy and soft power|url= https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716207311699|journal= The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume= 616|issue= 1|publisher= American Academy of Political and Social Science|pages= 94–109| doi= 10.1177/0002716207311699|access-date=8 May 2025|last1= Nye|first1= Joseph S.}}

• Globalism
• Kindleberger Trap

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{C-SPAN|563}}
• {{IMDb name| 2830873}}
• [https://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist/joseph-s-nye Nye articles] at Project Syndicate
• [http://apps.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/cv/JosephNye.pdf?_gl=1*11iwcpg*_gcl_au*NDA5MjA1ODUzLjE3NDY3Mjc3ODM.*_ga*Mjc4OTAwODY5LjE3MzYwMDkwNjM.*_ga_72NC9RC7VN*czE3NDY3Mjc3ODMkbzEkZzEkdDE3NDY3Mjc5MDQkajYwJGwwJGgxNjEwNzQ1NDg5 Nye's Curriculum Vitae] at Harvard Kennedy School; includes extensive bibliography

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{{Commons category|Joseph Nye}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs|years=1994–1995}}

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{{International relations theory}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nye, Joseph}}

Category:1937 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford

Category:American political scientists

Category:American Rhodes Scholars

Category:Atlantic Council

Category:Center for a New American Security

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Category:Commissioners of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:American international relations scholars

Category:Harvard Kennedy School deans

Category:Harvard Kennedy School faculty

Category:Morristown-Beard School alumni

Category:National Bureau of Asian Research

Category:Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques

Category:People from Morristown, New Jersey

Category:Political liberals (international relations)

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class

Category:United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense

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Category:American Unitarian Universalists