His senior thesis was titled "Death of a Family Firm: An Entrepreneurial History of the American Preserve Company.

"[9] During his time at Princeton, Nye was vice president of the Colonial Club, a columnist for The Daily Princetonian, and a member of the American Whig–Cliosophic Society's Debate Panel.

Nye also served as Director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1989 to 1993 and Dean of John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1995 to 2004.

[12] Nye and his colleague Keohane have been characterized as key figures in the development of a discipline of international political economy, largely as a result of their authorship of Power and Interdependence.

In the Clinton Administration from 1994 to 1995, Nye served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and was awarded the Department's Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Nye was considered by many to be the preferred choice for National Security Advisor in the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry.

The group meets periodically to discuss strategic questions and to provide the Secretary and other senior Department officials with independent informed perspectives and ideas.

[3] In November 2014, Nye was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in recognition of his "contribution to the development of studies on Japan-U.S. security and to the promotion of the mutual understanding between Japan and the United States.

He currently serves on the global Advisory Council for CFK Africa, a leading NGO working in Kenyan informal settlements.

[19] Nye coined the term soft power in the late 1980s, and it first came into widespread usage following a piece he wrote in Foreign Policy in 1990.

[23] Matters of collective economic security include common goods, the presence or absence of trade restrictions, and distribution of profits between countries.