Soft Power

Power in international relations is the ability to influence the behaviour of other actors. Soft power obtains preferred outcomes through attraction and persuasion, while hard power relies primarily on coercion or material inducements.

Core basis of distinction

The distinction concerns how influence is exercised rather than whether a state is powerful.

• Hard power uses coercion through threats or force and inducement through payments or material benefits.
• Soft power works through attraction and co-option, encouraging others to accept or support the preferences of the influencing state.
• Hard power seeks to change conduct directly; soft power shapes preferences, agendas and perceptions of legitimacy.

Resources and instruments

Resources produce power only when they successfully influence the intended audience; their effects therefore depend on context.

• Hard-power resources include military capabilities, economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure and financial incentives.
• Soft-power resources include an attractive culture, political values that are credibly practised, and foreign policies regarded as legitimate.
• Public diplomacy, educational exchanges, cultural relations and international institutions can communicate soft-power resources, but communication without credibility does not itself create attraction.

Relationship and limitations

Soft and hard power are not mutually exclusive; states commonly employ both according to their objectives and circumstances.

• Soft power may reduce resistance and build durable cooperation, but its effects are often indirect, gradual and difficult for governments to control.
• Hard power can produce more immediate compliance, but it may impose material costs and generate opposition.
• The context-sensitive combination of coercive, economic and attractive instruments is commonly described as smart power.

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