In November 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev arrived at his first summit with Ronald Reagan looking and sounding nothing at all like any previous Soviet leader. This was no dour apparatchik in an oversized coat, dispensing dull Marxist monologues. Gorbachev wore sharp suits, smiled for cameras and spoke in snappy soundbites. The makeover worked: A global audience was wowed by the Russian, arguably even more than his American counterpart. It was the start of a phenomenon that would come to be termed “Gorbymania.”

The irony was rich. Here was the general secretary of the Communist Party—supposedly representing workers of the world—challenging, even exceeding, the charisma of a former Hollywood actor. It was an early warning that the rules of international politics were changing in ways the cold warriors didn’t fully understand. The medium was becoming the message, and the messenger was becoming the medium.

In November 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev arrived at his first summit with Ronald Reagan looking and sounding nothing at all like any previous Soviet leader. This was no dour apparatchik in an oversized coat, dispensing dull Marxist monologues. Gorbachev wore sharp suits, smiled for cameras and spoke in snappy soundbites. The makeover worked: A global audience was wowed by the Russian, arguably even more than his American counterpart. It was the start of a phenomenon that would come to be termed “Gorbymania.”

The irony was rich. Here was the general secretary of the Communist Party—supposedly representing workers of the world—challenging, even exceeding, the charisma of a former Hollywood actor. It was an early warning that the rules of international politics were changing in ways the cold warriors didn’t fully understand. The medium was becoming the message, and the messenger was becoming the medium.

Hendrik W. Ohnesorge’s magisterial new book, Soft Power and Charismatic Leadership in German-American Relations, arrives at precisely the right moment to explain what’s happened since. In roughly 850 densely researched pages, the University of Bonn political scientist does something remarkable: He takes Joseph Nye’s celebrated concept of “soft power”—the ability to attract rather than coerce—and demonstrates that in the 21st century, the personality of leaders has become the single most important variable in how that power operates.

Soft........

© Foreign Policy