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American Government / Unit 10   Gov 464 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Hard and Soft Power

Captions available

The idea

Soft power works through diplomacy and attraction; hard power works through military force and its threat.

In practice

The course of relations with China ran from distance to diplomacy to hard-eyed reassessment.

Where people slip

The anchor pairs soft power with idealism and hard power with realism — labels, not verdicts.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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