His [Osama bin Laden]excessive use of terror, including numerous attacks that indiscriminately killed many women and children, and of course many Muslims, has hurt the attractiveness of his message.

Democracy is the best school to learn soft power.

American power in the world relies on these ideals of openness and critical debate.

America rests on shared values rather than shared ethnicity.

Every politician just has to remember how he got his position in the first place. A young candidate running for Congress or any outsider interested in public office could only achieve his goals by relying on soft power. They could not force anyone to vote for them. They needed to convince their potential voters, they needed to do fundraising, they needed to be attractive candidates.

Leadership experts and the public alike extol the virtues of transformational leaders - those who set out bold objectives and take risks to change the world. We tend to downplay 'transactional' leaders, whose goals are more modest, as mere managers.

Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes you want, and that can be done by coercion, payment or attraction.