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Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age
by Matthew A. BaumThe American public has consistently declared itself less concerned with foreign affairs in the post-Cold War era, even after 9/11, than at any time since World War II. How can it be, then, that public attentiveness to U.S. foreign policy crises has increased? This book represents the first systematic attempt to explain this apparent paradox. Matthew Baum argues that the answer lies in changes to television's presentation of political information. In so doing he develops a compelling "byproduct" theory of information consumption. The information revolution has fundamentally changed the way the mass media, especially television, covers foreign policy. Traditional news has been repackaged into numerous entertainment-oriented news programs and talk shows. By transforming political issues involving scandal or violence (especially attacks against America) into entertainment, the "soft news" media have actually captured more viewers who will now follow news about foreign crises, due to its entertainment value, even if they remain uninterested in foreign policy. Baum rigorously tests his theory through content analyses of traditional and soft news media coverage of various post-WWII U.S. foreign crises and statistical analyses of public opinion surveys. The results hold key implications for the future of American politics and foreign policy. For instance, watching soft news reinforces isolationism among many inattentive Americans. Scholars, political analysts, and even politicians have tended to ignore the soft news media and politically disengaged citizens. But, as this well-written book cogently demonstrates, soft news viewers represent a largely untapped reservoir of unusually persuadable voters.
Soft Power Made in China: Transnational Audiences And The Dilemmas Of Online And Offline Media
by Claire Seungeun LeeThis book analyzes the ways in which China’s soft power growth faces dilemmas in East Asia through both online and offline platforms. One dilemma for China’s transnational soft power-field expansion lies in the intersection of its source and receiving countries. The author discusses how transnational audiences’ consumption and reception of Chinese television series are shaped by domestic factors, with interpretations of and desires for different forms of capital, further inhibiting the foreign export of these series. Another dilemma is the “outsourced soft power.” While Hong Kong and Taiwan play significant roles as outsourced soft power mediators, their under-established emerging digital media platforms have yet to meet the expectations of transnational audiences in a virtual transnational soft power field. Grounded in the author’s multi-site field research focused on television spheres, Soft Power Made in China argues that China’s soft power paradox in South Korea and Japan—two quasi-Sinophone countries—is not due to a lack of state-level strategy, but linked to soft power pathways that rely on production in one source country, and both distribution and reception in a receiving country.
Soft Power Superpowers: Cultural And National Assets Of Japan And The United States
by Yasushi Watanabe David L McConnellThe term "soft power" describes a country's ability to get what it wants by attracting rather than coercing others - by engaging hearts and minds through cultural and political values and foreign policies that other countries see as legitimate and conducive to their own interests.This book analyzes the soft power assets of the United States and Japan, and how they contributed to one of the most successful, if unlikely, bilateral relationships of the twentieth century. Sponsored by the U.S. Social Science Research Council and the Japan Foundation's Center for Global Partnership, the book brings together anthropologists, political scientists, historians, economists, diplomats, and others to explore the multiple axes of soft power that operate in the U.S.-Japanese relationship, and between the United States and Japan and other regions of the world.The contributors move beyond an "either-or" concept of hard versus soft power to a more dynamic interpretation, and demonstrate the important role of non-state actors in wielding soft power. They show how public diplomacy on both sides of the Pacific - bolstered by less formal influences such as popular cultural icons, product brands, martial arts, baseball, and educational exchanges - has led to a vibrant U.S.-Japanese relationship since World War II despite formidable challenges. Emphasizing the essentially interactive nature of persuasion, the book highlights an approach to soft power that has many implications for the world today.
Soft Power With Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds
by Stanley Rosen Ying Zhu Kingsley EdneyThis book examines the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to improve China’s image around the world, thereby increasing its "soft power." This soft, attractive form of power is crucial if China is to avoid provoking an international backlash against its growing military and economic might. The volume focuses on the period since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, and is global in scope, examining the impact of Chinese policies from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Africa and South America. The book explains debates over soft power within China and delves into case studies of important policy areas for China’s global image campaign, such as film, news media and the Confucius Institutes. The most comprehensive work of its kind, the volume presents a picture of a Chinese leadership that has access to vast material resources and growing global influence but often struggles to convert these resources into genuine international affection. Soft Power With Chinese Characteristics will be invaluable to students and scholars of Chinese politics and Chinese media, as well as international relations and world politics more generally.
Soft Power and Freedom under the Coalition: State-Corporate Power and the Threat to Democracy
by Emma BellThis study of five key policy areas, from welfare reform to foreign policy, demonstrates that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition failed to fulfil its promise to reverse the rising power of the State. It exercised more subtle forms of 'soft power', often in partnership with the private sector, and to the detriment of ordinary citizens.
Soft Power and Great-Power Competition: Shifting Sands in the Balance of Power Between the United States and China (China and Globalization)
by Joseph S. NyeThis open access book consists of essays selected from Joseph S. Nye, Jr.’s last three decades of writing and illustrate a variety of perspectives on the nature of power, the role of the United States in the world and US-China relations. Through this collection, it is hoped that readers will gain a better understanding of today’s global environment and find that while great power competition may be inevitable in a world as centers of power shift, cooperating to address transnational challenges can be a positive sum game.The contents of this book are divided into four main parts. Part One discusses the origins and political progress of the concept of “Soft Power”. Part Two explores soft power in the American experience, its sources and interaction with US foreign policy, as well as its ebb and flow in the age of Obama, Trump and Biden. Part Three examines the rise of and the opportunities and difficulties for Chinese soft power, focusing on China’s investment in soft power and how this demonstrates its commitment to a peaceful rise. However, it also addresses the question of how can China get “smart” on how it uses soft power. Part Four provides a bird’s-eye view of power shifts in the 21st century and the interactions between the US as an established power and China as a rising power, while also reassuring readers that Thucydidean fears are unnecessary and a Cold War is avoidable. Both countries have to realize that some forms of power must be exercised with others, not over others, the development of soft power need not be a zero-sum game. Ultimately, the US-China relationship is a “cooperative rivalry” where a successful strategy of “smart competition” is necessary and cooperation on transnational challenges like climate change, pandemics, cyberterrorism and nuclear proliferation, will serve to benefit not only China and the US, but the world as a whole.
Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy)
by Inderjeet ParmarThe rise of widespread negative attitudes towards US foreign policy, especially due to the war of aggression against Iraq and the subsequent military occupation of the country – has brought new attention to the meaning and instruments of soft power. In this edited collection, an outstanding line up of contributors provides the most extensive discussion of soft power to date. Soft power is the use of attraction and persuasion rather than the use of coercion or force in foreign policy. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals and policies, whereas hard power develops out of a country's military or economic might. Soft Power has become part of popular political discourse since it was coined by Harvard’s Joseph Nye, and this volume features a brand new chapter by Nye outlining his views on soft, hard and smart power and offers a critique of the Bush administration’s inadequacies. He then goes on to examine the challenges for the incoming US president. The other contributions to the volume respond to Nye's views from a range of theoretical, historical and policy perspectives giving new insights in to both soft power and the concept of power itself. This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of this key concept in foreign affairs and is essential reading for scholars of US foreign policy, public diplomacy, international relations and foreign policy analysis.
Soft Power in China
by Jian WangThis book is about how China strives to rebuild its soft power through communication. It recounts China's efforts by examining a set of public diplomacy tactics and programs in its pursuit of a 'new' and 'improved' global image. These case studies invites the reader to a more expansive discussion on the instruments of soft power.
Soft Power in Japan-China Relations: State, sub-state and non-state relations (Routledge Contemporary Asia Series)
by Utpal VyasSoft power has tended to be overlooked in the field of international relations, often dismissed as lacking relevance or robustness as a theoretical concept. This book seeks to expand upon the idea of ‘soft power’ in international relations and to investigate how it actually functions by looking at three case studies in Japan-China relations during the post-war period. These cases involve the action of Japan’s soft power in China due to the activities of agents at three levels in society: the state level (an agency of the central government), the sub-state level (a local government), and at the non-state level (a non-governmental organisation). In addition, a major theme of the book is to examine the role of important international actors whose roles are not covered sufficiently in international relations discourse. Utpal Vyas demonstrates ways in which soft power is a useful analytical tool to understand relations between China and Japan in the early 2000s. The case studies help to reveal the complexities of interaction between China and Japan beyond the usual state-level analyses and offer a valuable resource for the study of Sino-Japanese relations and IR in general. This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in Japanese studies, Chinese studies and International Relations.
Soft Power of the European Union: Mastering the Language of Power Politics (Contributions to International Relations)
by Žygimantas JuškaThis book sheds light on the complexities of the European Union's (EU) influence in a world dominated by global power politics. Written by an EU diplomat, it explores the dynamic landscape of soft power, with a focus on key regions such as the Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership, Southern Neighborhood, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Presenting the economic, diplomatic, and cultural dimensions, the book critically evaluates the EU's effectiveness in shaping behavior amid intensifying global power competition. With a unique perspective gained from on-the-ground experience in Kosovo, Ukraine, and Rwanda, the author navigates the EU's responses to challenges, including Russia's hard power approach. A must-read for policymakers and diplomats, this book blends academic analysis with practical insights, offering valuable lessons and recommendations for mastering the language of power in today's global politics. Ideal for students and professionals, it provides a comprehensive explorationof EU foreign policy dynamics.
Soft Power: The Forces of Attraction in International Relations (Global Power Shift)
by Hendrik W. OhnesorgeThis book explores the phenomenon of soft power in international relations. In the context of current discourses on power and global power shift s, it puts forward a comprehensive taxonomy of soft power and outlines a methodological roadmap for its empirical study. To that end, the book classifies soft power into distinct components - resources, instruments, reception, and outcomes - and identifies relevant indicators for each of these categories.Moreover, the book integrates previously neglected aspects into the concept of soft power, including the significance of (political) personalities. A broad range of historical examples is drawn upon to illustrate the effects of soft power in international relations in an innovative and analytically differentiated way. A central methodological contribution of this book consists in highlighting the value of comparative-historical analysis (CHA) as a promising approach for empirical analyses of the soft power of different actors on the international stage.By introducing a comprehensive taxonomy of soft power, the book offers an innovative and substantiated perspective on a pivotal phenomenon in today’s international relations. As the forces of attraction in world politics continue to gain in importance, it provides a valuable asset for a broad readership.“In this important and thoughtful book, Hendrik Ohnesorge explains and advances our knowledge of the ways that soft power, public diplomacy, and charismatic personal diplomacy are shaping the international relations of our global information age.” Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University and author of The Future of Power
Soft Power: The Means To Success In World Politics
by Joseph S Nye JrFrom the pre-eminent scholar of foreign policy, a guide to soft power: the ability of governments to attract and persuade, rather than coerce by force Joseph S. Nye, Jr. coined the term &“soft power&” to describe a nation&’s ability to attract and persuade. Whereas hard power—the ability to coerce— grows out of a country&’s military or economic might, soft power arises from the attractiveness of its culture, political ideals, and policies. Hard power remains crucial in a world of states trying to guard their independence. But Nye argues that soft power – diplomacy, economic assistance, trustworthy information -- is essential as well in securing America&’s national interests. One of the most influential books on foreign policy every written, Soft Power offers vital guidance in an age of geopolitical turmoil.
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics
by Joseph S. NyeHow to make friends, even after conquests.
Soft Power: The New Great Game
by Robert WinderIn recent years the modern world has developed a brave new concept: 'soft power'. It is the power of friendly persuasion rather than command, and it invites nations to compete (as they did in the nineteenth century) to expand their 'sphere of influence' as brands in a global marketplace. In Bloody Foreigners and The Last Wolf, Robert Winder explored the way Britain was shaped first by migration, and then by hidden geographical factors. Now, in Soft Power he reveals the ways in which modern states are asserting themselves not through traditional realpolitik but through alternative means: business, language, culture, ideas, sport, education, music, even food - the texture and values of history and daily life. Moving from West to East, the book tells the story of soft power by exploring the varied ways in which it operates - from an American sheriff in Poland to an English garden in Ravello, a French vineyard in Australia, an Asian restaurant in Spain, a Chinese Friendship Hall in Sudan; the fact that fifty-eight modern heads of state were educated in Britain; the student exchange that took a teenage Deng Xiaoping to a small town on the Loire; the way that Japan could seduce the world with chic food and smart computer games. Now there may be a new twist in this Great game. With soft power's quiet ingredients - education, science, trade, cultural values - and a new emphasis on shared mutual interest, it may be the only force supple enough to tackle the challenges the future looks likely to pose - not least the slam-the-door reflexes pulling in the other direction.
Soft Power: The New Great Game
by Robert WinderIn recent years the modern world has developed a brave new concept: 'soft power'. It is the power of friendly persuasion rather than command, and it invites nations to compete (as they did in the nineteenth century) to expand their 'sphere of influence' as brands in a global marketplace. In Bloody Foreigners and The Last Wolf, Robert Winder explored the way Britain was shaped first by migration, and then by hidden geographical factors. Now, in Soft Power he reveals the ways in which modern states are asserting themselves not through traditional realpolitik but through alternative means: business, language, culture, ideas, sport, education, music, even food - the texture and values of history and daily life. Moving from West to East, the book tells the story of soft power by exploring the varied ways in which it operates - from an American sheriff in Poland to an English garden in Ravello, a French vineyard in Australia, an Asian restaurant in Spain, a Chinese Friendship Hall in Sudan; the fact that fifty-eight modern heads of state were educated in Britain; the student exchange that took a teenage Deng Xiaoping to a small town on the Loire; the way that Japan could seduce the world with chic food and smart computer games. Now there may be a new twist in this Great game. With soft power's quiet ingredients - education, science, trade, cultural values - and a new emphasis on shared mutual interest, it may be the only force supple enough to tackle the challenges the future looks likely to pose - not least the slam-the-door reflexes pulling in the other direction.
Soft Power: The New Great Game
by Robert WinderIn recent years the modern world has developed a brave new concept: 'soft power'. It is the power of friendly persuasion rather than command, and it invites nations to compete (as they did in the nineteenth century) to expand their 'sphere of influence' as brands in a global marketplace. In Bloody Foreigners and The Last Wolf, Robert Winder explored the way Britain was shaped first by migration, and then by hidden geographical factors. Now, in Soft Power he reveals the ways in which modern states are asserting themselves not through traditional realpolitik but through alternative means: business, language, culture, ideas, sport, education, music, even food - the texture and values of history and daily life. Moving from West to East, the book tells the story of soft power by exploring the varied ways in which it operates - from an American sheriff in Poland to an English garden in Ravello, a French vineyard in Australia, an Asian restaurant in Spain, a Chinese Friendship Hall in Sudan; the fact that fifty-eight modern heads of state were educated in Britain; the student exchange that took a teenage Deng Xiaoping to a small town on the Loire; the way that Japan could seduce the world with chic food and smart computer games. Now there may be a new twist in this Great game. With soft power's quiet ingredients - education, science, trade, cultural values - and a new emphasis on shared mutual interest, it may be the only force supple enough to tackle the challenges the future looks likely to pose - not least the slam-the-door reflexes pulling in the other direction.
Soft Skills in Education: Putting the evidence in perspective
by Jaap Scheerens Greetje van der Werf Hester de BoerThis book examines the global movement of putting more emphasis on students’ social and emotional development in education. It provides some order in the unstructured multitude of desirable socio-emotional educational objectives and ambitions that have resulted from this movement and builds on a careful conceptual analysis. It starts out by examining the roots of the movement and discusses different emphases. Next it makes use of instructional and psychological constructs and theories to arrive at meaningful categorizations of major domains and types of social-emotional “skills”. One of the key assumptions is that social and emotional attributes are malleable by means of educational interventions. The book reviews available research evidence for this assumption, taking into account psychological studies and meta-analyses. It then creates new evidence based on a new meta-analysis, which concentrated on the effects of educational interventions on skills associated with the conscientiousness factor of the Big5 taxonomy. In the final chapter, the book discusses the implications for educational policy and practice; a discussion in which attention is given to political and ethical questions about the desirability of treating social and emotional attributes as educational goals.
Soft Targets (A Jonathan Grave Thriller)
by John GilstrapFour children's lives hang in the balance. A vicious criminal is on the loose. With law enforcement at a dead end, there's only one man who can recover the hostages--Jonathan Grave. FBI Special Agent Irene Rivers is horrified to learn that because of mistakes made by agents under her command, a murderer and child molester will walk free. When Irene's own daughters become the monster's next targets, she reaches out in desperation to an elite Special Forces operator. His name is Jonathan Grave. For Grave, results matter more than procedures. Together, they discover a new kind of justice--and a new breed of evil. . .
Soft Targets and Crisis Management: What Emergency Planners and Security Professionals Need to Know
by Jennifer Hesterman Michael J. FagelUniting the best of Michael Fagel and Jennifer Hesterman's books in the fields of homeland security and emergency management, the editors of this volume present the prevailing issues affecting the homeland security community today. Many natural and man-made threats can impact our communities—but these well-known and highly respected authors create order from fear, guiding the reader through risk assessment, mitigation strategies, community EOC planning, and hardening measures based upon real-life examples, case studies, and current research in the practice. As terrorist attacks and natural disasters continue to rock the world, Soft Targets and Crisis Management emphasizes the vulnerability of soft targets like schools, churches, and hospitals, and presents the methodology necessary to respond and recover in the event of a crisis in those arenas. Features: Based on ASIS award-winning texts Provides a multi-faceted look at crisis management principles Offers community-specific examples for diverse locales and threat centers Includes up-to-date case studies on soft target attacks from around the world A must-read for security, emergency management, and criminal justice professionals, Soft Targets and Crisis Management: What Emergency Planners and Security Professionals Need to Know is a crucial text for practitioners seeking to make the world a safer place for others.
Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict
by Michael Walzer Michael Gross Tamar MeiselsJust war theory focuses primarily on bodily harm, such as killing, maiming, and torture, while other harms are often largely overlooked. At the same time, contemporary international conflicts increasingly involve the use of unarmed tactics, employing 'softer' alternatives or supplements to kinetic power that have not been sufficiently addressed by the ethics of war or international law. Soft war tactics include cyber-warfare and economic sanctions, media warfare, and propaganda, as well as non-violent resistance as it plays out in civil disobedience, boycotts, and 'lawfare.' While the just war tradition has much to say about 'hard' war - bullets, bombs, and bayonets - it is virtually silent on the subject of 'soft' war. Soft War: The Ethics of Unarmed Conflict illuminates this neglected aspect of international conflict.
Soft or Hard Borders?: Managing the Divide in an Enlarged Europe
by Joan DebardelebenBringing together leading European and North American experts, this timely volume answers questions about the implications and management of the new external borders of the European Union following another phase of enlargement. Implications of the EU's new external border, especially its eastern border with Russia and Ukraine, will be a key issue for the new member countries, for the EU, and for the new neighbouring regions. The contributors address this emerging question from two perspectives. They examine whether an expanded Europe will create a new dividing line in Europe between 'insiders' and 'outsiders', and also consider the concrete problems of border management and how the issues will be handled. The book will be of particular value to those concerned with European politics and the expansion of Europe, and to those with an interest in political sociology.
Soft-Power Internationalism: Competing for Cultural Influence in the 21st-Century Global Order
by Edited by Burcu Baykurt and Victoria de GraziaThe term “soft power” was coined in 1990 to foreground a capacity in statecraft analogous to military might and economic coercion: getting others to want what you want. Emphasizing the magnetism of values, culture, and communication, this concept promised a future in which cultural institutes, development aid, public diplomacy, and trade policies replaced nuclear standoffs. From its origins in an attempt to envision a United States–led liberal international order for a post–Cold War world, it soon made its way to the foreign policy toolkits of emerging powers looking to project their own influence.This book is a global comparative history of how soft power came to define the interregnum between the celebration of global capitalism in the 1990s and the recent resurgence of nationalism and authoritarianism. It brings together case studies from the European Union, China, Brazil, Turkey, and the United States, examining the genealogy of soft power in the Euro-Atlantic and its evolution in the hands of other states seeking to counter U.S. hegemony by nonmilitaristic means. Contributors detail how global and regional powers created a variety of new ways of conducting foreign policy, sometimes to build new solidarities outside Western colonial legacies and sometimes with more self-interested purposes. Offering a critical history of soft power as an intellectual project as well as a diplomatic practice, Soft-Power Internationalism provides new perspectives on the potential and limits of a multilateral liberal global order.
Software, Infrastructure, Labor: A Media Theory of Logistical Nightmares
by Ned RossiterInfrastructure makes worlds. Software coordinates labor. Logistics governs movement. These pillars of contemporary capitalism correspond with the materiality of digital communication systems on a planetary scale. Ned Rossiter theorizes the force of logistical media to discern how subjectivity and labor, economy and society are tied to the logistical imaginary of seamless interoperability. Contingency haunts logistical power. Technologies of capture are prone to infrastructural breakdown, sabotage, and failure. Strategies of evasion, anonymity, and disruption unsettle regimes of calculation and containment. We live in a computational age where media, again, disappear into the background as infrastructure. Software, Infrastructure, Labor intercuts transdisciplinary theoretical reflection with empirical encounters ranging from the Cold War legacy of cybernetics, shipping ports in China and Greece, the territoriality of data centers, video game design, and scrap metal economies in the e-waste industry. Rossiter argues that infrastructural ruins serve as resources for the collective design of blueprints and prototypes demanded of radical politics today.
Sofía Valdéz y el voto perdido
by Andrea BeatyRosa Pionera, Ada Magnífica, Pedro Perfecto y Sofía Valdez son... ¡los Preguntones! Sofía Valdez siempre quiere mejorar las cosas en su comunidad, ya sea haciendo campaña para construir un nuevo parque o enseñando a sus compañeros de clase sobre cómo funciona el gobierno. ¡Y a la señorita Eva Delgado le vendrá muy bien la ayuda de Sofía, porque es momento de que el segundo grado elija una mascota para la clase! El grupo reduce la elección a dos candidatos, el pájaro y la tortuga, y organiza una campaña. Por fin se celebran las elecciones. Sin embargo, cuando se cuentan los votos, hay un empate# ¡Falta un voto! ¿Qué pasó con el voto perdido? ¿Y qué hará el grupo para deshacer el empate? ¡Depende de Sofía y los Preguntones restaurar la democracia y salvar las elecciones!
Sofía. Nuestra reina
by Carmen EnríquezSofía, nuestra reina más querida, cumple ochenta años en un momento crucial para la monarquía española. Con este motivo repasamos su vida, haciendo especial hincapié en los acontecimientos que en los últimos años han puesto a prueba la solidez de la institución monárquica. La reina Sofía, una de las mujeres más importantes de la historia reciente de España, ha afrontado en la última década situaciones muy difíciles, desde los problemas de salud y la posterior abdicación del rey Juan Carlos y el divorcio de la infanta Elena hasta su relación con la reina Letizia, el caso Nóos o las declaraciones de Corinna Larsen. Enormemente querida, respetada y admirada, este libro viaja en retrospectiva a los orígenes de este personaje tan emblemático y nos acerca a su presente y a su forma de afrontar el futuro. En el desempeño de su labor como corresponsal ante la Casa Real, Carmen Enríquez ha acompañado a la reina Sofía durante muchos años y ha llegado a conocerla en profundidad. Para completar este elaborado perfil biográfico ha contado, además, con el testimonio de una veintena de personas directamente relacionadas con la Reina. ----- «La reina Sofía cumple ochenta años, una edad más que respetable en la vida de una persona, y lo hace llena de energía, con una salud envidiable, según cuenta el equipo médico que se encarga de velar por su bienestar, con decenas de planes solidarios que pretende llevar a cabo en el futuro dentro de su objetivo vital de ser útil a los demás, y con el ánimo de disfrutar y estar muy cerca de su familia, especialmente de los ocho nietos que tiene de sus tres hijos. »Afronta esta nueva etapa de su existencia con la misma ilusión de siempre de mantenerse activa, de seguir adelante con la Fundación Reina Sofía, que le permite hacer realidad su voluntad de ayudar a quienes más lo necesitan, de continuar con la protección de los animales, el respeto del medio ambiente, el apoyo a la investigación del mal de Alzheimer y tantos otros proyectos que tiene entre manos siempre porque cree que esos son sus deberes como reina. »Doña Sofía ha sido, es y será siempre una persona cuya prioridad es, en primer lugar, la de servir a los españoles a través de la institución de la monarquía y en segundo lugar estar a disposición de su familia, especialmente en momentos tan difíciles como los que se han vivido en los últimos tiempos en el seno de la familia real. »A pesar de todas las dificultades, que se irán desgranando a lo largo de las páginas de este libro, la reina Sofía afronta el cambio de década de los setenta a los ochenta con grandes dosis de esperanza, entereza y también ilusión, esta última debida sobre todo a una circunstancia que le hace especialmente feliz: la mejoría sustancial de su relación con el rey Juan Carlos, su marido. Él está desde hace un par de años por la labor de recomponer la relación personal con la reina Sofía; los hemos visto juntos en los últimos meses en actividades oficiales que desempeñan en pareja, con gestos cordiales y amistosos evidentes entre ellos, incluso intercambiando frases que han provocado de nuevo la sonrisa e incluso la risa franca y sonora de ella».Carmen Enríquez