public diplomacy and soft power

Joseph Nye Jr. defines power as the ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes you want.  This power can be divided into three major categories: threats of coercion, inducements and payments, and attractions that make other states want what you want.   The article focuses on the influence soft power has on politics.  Soft power is the ability to get others to want the outcomes you want using the attraction of prosperity, openness, and ideas, rather than using military or economic force/coercion.  Countries use the attraction of their culture, political values and institutions, and policies that have authority to entice others to do what they want.  Public diplomacy uses soft power not only to influence the governments of other nations, but the general populace of the respective nations.   A French foreign minister mentioned in the article stated that "Americans are powerful because they can inspire the dreams and desires of others, thanks to the mastery of global images through film and television."  The soft power of the United States, and any other nation for that matter, lies on three main resources: "its culture (in places where it is attractive), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority)."  America's soft power is even greater than its economic and military forces because it has the ability to entice individuals around the world with the promise of a better life by achieving the "American Dream" .  The culture portrayed in Hollywood movies, TV shows and even music has the ability to attract others to the American culture, but it also has the ability to repel others.  In many Muslim nations, the culture that is portrayed in movies (excessive nudity, substance abuse, and overall moral degradation) turns many off from the American culture.  This disgust coupled with a steady stream of government fed, anti-Western propaganda leads to a significant distrust and dislike of the United States.