As a young and incurably naïve idealist, determined to ‘change the world for good’, I would write to eminence grises of the world. (Interestingly and invariably, I would only write to academic scholars of great repute. Amateur psychoanalysis may suggest that this could be a case of both projection and displacement).
Among the professors of great repute, it was professor Joseph Nye Jr. , of Harvard University who engaged with me intensely and vigorously. I knew Professor Nye as a correspondent. When our correspondence grew more intense and sustained, the man I came to know was not just a former US government official and a path breaking scholar but a person of great sense and sensibility.
Professor Nye had the sensitivity and sensibility of a poet or the sensitive characters of western classics and Dostoyevsky’s oeuvres. At the same time, being a scholar of political science and international relations, he was grounded enough to be a ‘realist’ (not in the sense of International relation’s classical realism).
Being a ‘realist’, did not deter Professor Nye from being a paradigm displacer in the Kuhnian sense. During the heyday of the Cold War, when nuclear brinkmanship was almost at its heyday, Professor Nye along with his colleague wrote about and coined the phrase ‘complex interdependence’.
Given the mood in America at that time and broadly America-Soviet relations, this was a bold assertion, phrase and coinage to make. In the not-too-distant past, Professor Nye crafted and coined a phrase/term, ‘soft power’ - a term that became a buzzword in international relations, and applied across disciplines and domains. These were some of the outstanding achievements and stand out features of the able professor’s distinguished academic journey and career.
As a political being, Professor Nye was an American patriot, (with a liberal cast) who cared deeply about his country and its people. But at the same time, the good professor was cosmopolitan in outlook and perspective.
Paradoxically when our engagement deepened, my internship in America turned sour, and I was victim of ‘progressive angst against academic elitism’, I declined Professor Nye’s invite to meet him. But such was the sensitivity of the great scholar, that he sent me one of his books with a personalized note as a gift to me. Professor Nye was a believer in good relations between the Muslim world and America.
He could peer into the future and see how important it was for the human condition and the world at large. In terms of classroom engagement, I was told that he would never take criticism by students personally; but he would carefully and with great empathy disabuse a given student of his or her fallacious notions and thinking.
I am also told his teaching ‘Method’ was the Socratic one. In this sense I deprived myself of a great teacher. The teacher had, to speak proverbially revealed himself to the seeker but the pupil refused to see’.
Professor Nye in his public engagements - say in the media, was calm, composed and distinguished. At one point in time, my engagement with the late professor became quasi-scurrilous, but being the sensible man with a refined sensibility he was, it was me who ended up being embarrassed (not because Professor Nye was rude or scurrilous as well, but because of his ‘decent proposals’ and responses.’
In the latter half of the first decade of the 21st century, our contact and engagement broke (sadly). But despite this, I say this with great pride as well as humility, that by both omissions and commissions, Professor Joseph Nye is among the few people who have shaped my world view (notwithstanding sharp disagreements with this eminence grise).
On the 6Th of May 2025, Professor Nye passed away. His life was defined by a spirit of public service, astute, paradigm displacing, and sharp scholarship that had an indelible impact on the human condition. But, to repeat, above all, Professor Nye was a great and a wonderful human being.
I write this obituary with tears welling in my eyes as I recall his parting assessment of and advice to me, ’Dear Wajahat. You are talented. Use it well.’ If internalizing advice by a teacher and doing something about it is the best gift a pupil can give his teacher, I would like to think I have been and am abiding by my teacher in absentia’s golden advice. I close this obituary with a word of gratitude and a solemn parting word:
Thank You, Professor Nye. Rest in Peace!
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