Typology of the U.S. Soft Power with an Emphasis on “American Exceptionalism”

A historical survey of soft power application in U.S. diplomacy, as a drive force for its foreign policy, indicates that the United States uses a spectrum of diversified models for optimization of its foreign policy achievements. This paper intends to study “American exceptionalism” as the most important component shaping U.S. political identity as an introduction to analysis of soft power typology in this country. The principal question this study embarks on answering is this: What role do the proponents of American exceptionalism play in shaping soft power model in the U.S.? To answer this question, we have tried to use Walter Russell Mead’s analytical model in clarification of the U.S. political traditions, Joseph Nye’s theory of soft power as well as theoretical framework of constructivist theory, Alexander Wendt in particular, on identity. We have hypothesized that the proponents of American exceptionalism play a key role in shaping the mindset and political identity of the U.S. leaders. An isolationist approach to exceptionalism will normally end in the two so-called Jacksonian-Jeffersonian school of thought that result in paradigmatic model of soft power. On the contrary, internationalist approach to American exceptionalism will end in two Wilsonian and Hamiltonian schools of thought that pursue a sort of interventionist model of soft power.