In Memoriam: Joseph S. Nye (1937–2025)

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, passed away on May 6, 2025, at age eighty-eight. Nye, a political scientist and influential figure in contemporary international relations theory, served as director of the Weatherhead Center, then named the Center for International Affairs, from 1989–1993.

Nye first joined the Harvard faculty in 1964, after receiving his PhD from the Department of Government. For the next six decades, he spent his career in both academia and the White House, where he held national security positions in both the Carter and Clinton administrations.

“Nye was best known for developing the theory of neoliberalism alongside Princeton professor Robert Keohane,” writes Elise Spenner at the Harvard Crimson. Together they developed the concept of complex interdependence in the 1970s to describe the emerging nature of the global political economy.

In his work in the 1980s, Nye coined the term “soft power”—perhaps his most enduring intellectual contribution—to describe a country’s ability to influence others without resorting to coercive pressure. “If his earlier work had attempted to explain the growing importance of interdependence,” writes James Smith at the Harvard Kennedy School, “soft power analyzed the nature of global power itself.”

Over the course of his long and illustrious career, Nye published fourteen books and more than 200 journal articles. He published essays in various newspapers and magazines. He lived and did research in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Central America, Britain, France, Canada, and traveled to more than 100 countries.

For more on the landmark contributions of Joseph Nye, read our 2017 Epicenter interview with him, “Hard Times for Soft Power.” Learn about Nye’s influence as a scholar and mentor in “Remembering Joe Nye,” a message from Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein. We share our condolences with all who knew Nye, and mourn the loss of a brilliant scholar and cherished man.