A country's soft power, according to Nye, rests on three resources: "its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign policies (when others see them as legitimate and having moral authority)."
Soft power theory was developed by Joseph Nye, a prominent scholar and former US official, who argued that in the post-Cold War era, the sources and outcomes of power were changing.
He defined soft power as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments".
Hard power encompasses a wide range of coercive policies, such as coercive diplomacy, economic sanctions, military action, and the forming of military alliances for deterrence and mutual defense.