Soft Power

 Using a combination of both hard and soft power during the Cold War, America was able to effectively contain the spread of communism. Although America used much of its hard power in Korea, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, it would not have been able to take down the Soviet Union without the use of soft power. Toward the late 1980's, the Soviet Union's economy was falling apart, and people were beginning to see that communism doesn't really work. Gorbachev championed American values through "glasnost" and "perestroika", causing Russians to demand capitalism and democracy. In more recent years, however, I believe that America has overextended its use of soft power. The war in Iraq is a perfect example. The reason troops have not pulled out of Iraq is because America wants to establish a stable democracy in the heart of the Middle East in the hope that other middle eastern countries will want to copy Iraq and adopt American values. The longer the violence continues there, however, the less appealing American values will seem, and not just in Iraq.