Hard Versus Soft Power
Some political scientists distinguish between two types of power: Hard and Soft. The former is coercive while the latter is attractive.
Hard power refers to coercive tactics: the threat or use of armed forces, economic pressure or sanctions, assassination and subterfuge, or other forms of intimidation. Hard power is generally associated to the stronger of nations, as the ability to change the domestic affairs of other nations through military threats. Realists and neorealists, such as John Mearsheimer, are advocates of the use of such power for the balancing of the international system.
Joseph Nye is the leading proponent and theorist of soft power. Instruments of soft power include debates on cultural values, dialogues on ideology, the attempt to influence through good example, and the appeal to commonly accepted human values. Means of exercising soft power include diplomacy, dissemination of information, analysis, propaganda, and cultural programming to achieve political ends.
Read more about this topic: Power (international Relations)
Famous quotes containing the words hard, soft and/or power:
“Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 15:1.
“...men give us most rarely that which we really want, not favor, but—Justice. Nothing is easier than to coax them to pet us like children, nothing more difficult than to persuade them to treat us like responsible human beings.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)