Soft power’s dark side

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article conceptualizes malign soft power, intentionally harming through attraction. The analysis differentiates benign from malign soft power; explains how flows of information, characterized by their content, velocity, and access, serve as attractors by forcefully engaging emotions; and presents a taxonomy of modes of malign soft power (seduction, amusement, and trickery). To illustrate how malign soft power works, the article examines conspiracy theory as a type of trickery and presents the exemplars of the ‘blood libel,’ which since the 12th Century has accused Jews of ritual murder, and Pizzagate, which since 2016 has accused prominent Democrats of lurid child abuse.