Soft power, explains Nye, rests in the ability to shape the preferences of others (5). The strong leader does not coerce, but rather leads by example and support. One person can make another do something by threatening, punishing and restricting and setting unattainable goals. However, a person can instead "appeal to my sense of attraction, love, or duty in our relationship and appeal to our shared values about the justness of contributing to those shared values and purposes," (7) explains Nye.

             Nye believes that much of what is occurring in international politics today, where it is continually questioned "whose story wins?" depends on credibility. In a world where everyone is inundated with information, what really matters is not information but attention, and the attention goes to those who are recognized as more credible. This makes the politics of credibility more essential than ever before in global history. .

             The soft power of a country depends on its culture-the places where it is attractive to others; its political values-how it lives up to them at home and abroad; and its foreign policies-when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority (11).

             The German editor Josef Joffe once attested in 2001 that America"s soft power is even larger than its economic and military assets. "U.S. culture, low-brow or high, radiates outward with an intensity last seen in the days of the Roman Empire-but with a novel twist. Rome"s and Soviet Russia"s cultural sway stopped exactly at their military borders. America"s soft power, though, rules over an empire on which the sun never sets" (11).

             Although using force may sometimes be the answer, Nye does not believe that it is the correct way of proceeding in today"s world of with high technology as well as with a terrorist ideology that has "well-defined political objectives, which were often ill-served by mass destruction" (22).