The debate in international relations and defense strategy between soft power and hard power has almost never faded away from the center. Joseph Nye, the author of the term soft power in the late 20th century, defined soft power as the ability of a nation to influence the preferences of others by means of appeal and attraction rather than coercion or payment. Basically, hard power describes the ability of a nation to use military force and economic pressure to compel states to behave in certain ways. With the onset of the 21st century, the rise of globalization, technological revolutions, and new geopolitical alignments have worked to change the very nature of interaction between the two forms of power. The operative question, therefore, is: Just which kind of power reigns in diplomacy today?