Soft power has become an important concept – both in politics and in political science. It is discussed highly controversial. In political practice, the concept is exploited to give foreign policy action a more positive connotation as opposed to military and economic pressure. It is unclear how soft power can be used in military contexts, which are dominated by hard power. At the moment, however, when soft power and hard power of the military meet in military operations, the question arises to what extent the soft power-concept works in a military context. How this ratio appears, is investigated in this paper on the example of the Afghanistan mission of the Bundeswehr. In addition, the author develops his own comprehensive definition of soft power.