Joseph S. Nye Jr., a world leader in rethinking international power, developer of the “soft power” theory, and long-time Lexington resident, died on Tuesday in Cambridge. He was 88.
He died in a hospital, his son, Daniel, confirmed with the New York Times.
Mr. Nye is remembered as an unfailingly kind, soft-spoken, fatherly figure, and a mentor for politicians across the world. He coined the term “soft power” in the 1980s, which explains that America’s ability to influence other nations rests on more than the power of its military or economy. It also derives from values such as diplomacy, economic assistance, and trustworthy information. He outlined the concept in his 2004 book, “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.”
The theory was popular among political leaders across ideological and national borders. Conservative Republican Newt Gingrich and the president of China cited it positively in 2007. Mr. Nye was invited to dinner in Beijing, where the foreign minister asked him how China could increase its soft power. Australia revised its diplomacy to incorporate soft power.
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Mr. Nye served in the Carter and Clinton administrations and held several roles at Harvard University after earning his doctoral degree there.
He worked under President Carter’s secretary of state as a deputy from 1977 to 1979. Just over a decade later, he returned to Washington to chair the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates intelligence estimates for the president, under Clinton’s administration. In 1994, he was appointed assistant secretary for international security affairs at the Pentagon. What became known as the “Nye initiative” affirmed America’s military commitment to Asia and the US-Japan alliance as a bulwark against China and North Korea.
Before making waves in Washington, Mr. Nye joined Harvard’s faculty in 1964. He was the director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (then named the Center for Science and International Affairs) from 1985 to 1990. He served as dean of the Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2004, where he pushed for more female and Republican voices in the school’s ranks. Mr. Nye was a charter member of America’s foreign policy establishment and a leader of international nongovernmental organizations such as the Trilateral Commission, the Aspen Strategy Group and the Atlantic Council.
Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein commemorated Nye in an email to the school’s community, saying, “Joe was a singular scholar, a visionary dean, and a committed mentor. Even in a place as steeped in history as HKS, Joe stands out as a transformational figure. He helped build this institution into what it is today, while transforming the field of international relations. All who have had the privilege of working and learning here are beneficiaries of his visionary leadership.”
This year, Mr. Nye watched in dismay as President Trump gutted basic instruments of US soft power, including food and medical aid to foreign countries.
“I’m afraid President Trump doesn’t understand soft power,” Mr. Nye told CNN in an interview days before his death. “Think back on the Cold War — American nuclear deterrence and American troops in Europe were crucial. But when the Berlin Wall went down, it didn’t go down under a barrage of artillery. It went down under hammers and bulldozers wielded by people whose minds had been changed by the Voice of America and the BBC.”
Many international leaders shared their love and respect for Mr. Nye on social media after he died. Antony Blinken, secretary of state in the Biden administration, described him as “a friend and mentor to so many including me.” Admiral James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, said, “Joe Nye was incredibly kind to me throughout my life.”
Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. was born on Jan. 19, 1937, in South Orange, NJ. His father was a bond trader on Wall Street, and his mother, Else (Ashwell) Nye, was a secretary when she met her future husband. A Puritan ancestor, Benjamin Nye, arrived in Massachusetts in 1639.
In 1961, Mr. Nye married Mary Harding, known as Molly. They met when they were teenagers. She served as the president of the Lexington Arts and Crafts society, or LexArt. For Molly’s 80th birthday in 2019, Mr. Nye donated $250,000 to LexArt to renovate its space. LexArt’s gallery has since been renamed the “Molly Harding Nye Gallery.”
Mr. Nye and Molly’s main residence overlooked Lexington’s Battle Green. They also owned a farm in North Sandwich, NH, where Mr. Nye did much of his writing, grew vegetables, hunted deer, and made maple syrup.
Ms. Nye died in December 2024. Survivors of Mr. Nye include their three sons, John, Benjamin and Daniel Nye; and nine grandchildren.
Joe, as Mr. Nye was called, graduated from Morristown Prep (now the Morristown Beard School) in Morristown, NJ, and from Princeton University, where he earned a B.A. in 1958. He attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, where he did graduate work. He earned his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard with a dissertation about East Africa emerging from colonialism.
Material from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Harvard Kennedy School was included in this report.