Soft Power and Chinese Foreign Policy
Uploaded by zuojj on Apr 20, 2005
Power, as one of the most regular and widely used words in today's society, has raised various debates and controversy in its application on international affairs. A decade or so earlier, Joseph S. Nye coined the term soft power¡± (Nye 1990) which was developed as international power compared to military and economic power by him during the flowing years. From Nye's point of view, soft power is the ability to get desired outcomes because others want what you want. It is the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than coercion (Nye 2004). In this essay, I would use this soft power perspective to explain the Chinese foreign policy. However, because Nye is not using this idea consistently¡± (Brown 1995, p.10), it is necessary to clarify some essential elements of soft power at the first place.
First of all, with regard to the definition of soft power, I believe that soft power is an indirect but viable alternative to the hard power which can be used to compete with other political actors on the international scale. The public and international organizations can be seen as two channels for the use of soft power. The effectiveness of soft power depends on the quality of interaction between public and decision maker in other countries and the shaping of international institutions and norms.
Secondly, as to the source of soft power, I should say foreign policy is the main source of soft power. Firstly, it contributes to the building of a country's image. By comparing what it did with what it said, not only decision makers but also the public can judge if it is worth trusting a country in international affairs. Secondly, the foreign policy reflects what kind of attitude a country will take in the participation in the international affairs. Finally, foreign policy contributes to the building of international institution and norms. The political value is another important source of soft power. In a general sense, an attractive political value should give the public more visible benefits, like the money and high living standard, which could make a country more attractive and its behavior or decision might be seen as a better one than those of a country which is under poor economic status and has a lower living standard. From my view, the influence of culture in political world is very limited. Although it might help in the...