It was on this very page more than 30 years ago that the so-called soft dimension to public policies and world affairs first began to be discussed, in an article with the headline "Softnomics: Wise lessons from Japan," in June 1987.
The earlier development in Japanese university circles of the concept of "softnomics" was aired, being the new lens through which the behavior and evolution of the digitalized and increasingly knowledge-based global economy could be viewed, measured and understood, and policies accordingly modified.
A few years later, in a brilliant insight, the great Harvard thinker Joe Nye expanded the concept to apply to international affairs through the notion of soft power, the conduct of international relations and the exertion of influence, with persuasion and cultural cooperation replacing coercive power in world affairs. The concept spread like wildfire as old military notions of "might is right" seemed to meet with growing frustration and failure in a knowledge-laden and increasingly connected world. Old-fashioned hard power, in other words plain force, seemed to crumble in its instigator's hands.
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