Foreign Affairs: How Sharp Power Threatens Soft Power

Authoritarian regimes strive to interfere with democratic governments via social media and other information warfare. Such interference can be regarded as “sharp power” as opposed to “soft power,” or government’s reliance on culture and values to enhance strength. “Over the past decade, Beijing and Moscow have spent tens of billions of dollars to shape public perceptions and behavior around the world – using tools new and old that exploit the asymmetry of openness between their own restrictive systems and democratic societies,” writes Joseph S. Nye Jr. of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who originally developed the term of soft power. “The effects are global, but in the United States, concern has focused on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and on Chinese efforts to control discussion of sensitive topics in American publications, movies, and classrooms.” Nye urges democracies to avoid squandering a key advantage by resorting to aggressive sharp power tactics or over-reacting. Nye supports openness and exposure of subterfuge, and he remains confident that inspiring strong values attract more long-term voluntary persuasion than coercion. – YaleGlobal