Unlocking the whole of soft power: a quantum international relations analysis

Abstract

Soft power is one of most applied, yet nebulous, concepts in social science. In this paper, we show that it is not soft power per se that is of issue here, but rather the Newtonian parameters through which the concept has been described. In making an original and significant contribution, we introduce a radical break from conventional attempts to explain soft power by drawing on quantum international relations. Through this, we show that Newtonian-based analyses fail to unlock soft power's full complexity. We close by identifying how quantum soft power advances research and practice.