Sharp Power

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

appropriate under what circumstances: one needs the ability to identify when to use one kind of power rather than another on the context. Ernest (2008, p.116) argues that knowing the strengths and weakness of each instrument is important because this is related to the competent “to combine the elements of coercive power with the power to persuade and to inspire emulation (to combine soft and hard power)”. As Ernest (2008, p.115) depicts in the work that:

A genuinely sophisticated smart power approach comes with the awareness that hard and soft power constitute not simply neutral

“instruments” to be wielded neutrally by an enlightened, all-knowing, and independent philosopher king: they themselves constitute separate and distinct institutions and institutional cultures that exert their own normative influence over their members, each with its own attitudes, incentives, and anticipated career paths.

To conclude, as Nye (2009) suggests, in order to become a smart power, investing in global public goods is critical, which is to “providing things that people and governments in all quarters of the world want but cannot attain on their own”. Proponents of soft power need to be more convincing to convey that they have the ability to advance the welfare of the country and to executive without hesitation (Machiavellian); while the advocates of hard power need to acknowledge the conversation in and outside the meeting publicly:

good diplomacy can prevent serious military conflicts (Ernest, 2008). By complementing its military and economic might with greater investments in its soft power, that would be truly smart power.

2.4 Sharp Power

Different from the military and economic coercion as a weapon—the hard one, nor the soft one—uses cultural advantages, democratic values, and civil society to promote its national image positively. Walker and Ludwig (2017, p.13) defined sharp power is a

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

political operation from an authoritarian regime to a targeted country through penetrating, subversion, stealth, and traverse its political and information environment. Compare with the so-called “Charm Offensive”—a calculated campaign to use one’s charm to gain favor or support, sharp power is a more straightforward, perforates, and robust assailing manipulation.

November 16, 2017, Foreign Affairs Magazine published an article The Meaning of Sharp Power by Walker and Ludwig. On the December 5, 2017, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a Washington-based think-tank also published a report named Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence. This report detailed the current situation of China’s manipulation of sharp power. The conclusion called for Western countries to counter these attempts with their precious assets and values, such as counter-intelligence, law, and independent media. These two documents are invariably challenging the “soft power” and

“hard power” propositions in national diplomacy. Both are direct analyzing of the strategies of China and Russia to export its political influence to democratic countries, including Latin America (Peru, Argentina) and East Europe (Poland, Slovakia). These two countries are the authoritarian regime in nature, which adopting high pressured top-down governance internally as they fight against dissidents, control Freedom of the Press, monopolize information flow; externally, they actively control through media, culture, think tanks, academic channels, incorporating with economic or diplomatic incentives and intimidation to export its ideology so to achieve a specific political economy goal.

According to the Economist (2017b, p.18), it also explained the concept of sharp power—

“It works by manipulation and pressure, seeks to penetrate and subvert politics, media, and academia, surreptitiously promoting a positive image of the country, and misrepresenting

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

and distorting information to suppress dissent and debate”. These components have a series of an interlocking phenomenon: by combining subversion, bullying, and pressure to promote self-censorship. “These regimes are not necessarily seeking to ‘win hearts and minds’, the common frame of reference for “soft power” efforts, but they are surely seeking to manage their target audiences by manipulating or poisoning the information that reaches them (Walker & Ludwig, 2017, p.13)”.

Australia was the first country response and criticize China’s sharp power tactics, as it accusing China of interfering in Australian politics, universities and publishing faces.

“Like many counties, China has long tried to use visas grants, investments and culture to pursue its interests. However, its actions have recently grown more intimidating and encompassing (Economist, 2017a, p.8)”. By referring to the report Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence (2017, p.6), “Critical to the headway made by authoritarian regimes has been their exploitation of a glaring asymmetry: In an era of hyper-globalization, Russia and China have raised barriers to external political and cultural influence at home while simultaneously taking advantage of the openness of democratic systems abroad”.

Because the democratic state is an open society, coupled with the current high-speed globalization, the dissemination of information and the movement of characters are quite convenient. The democratic countries have thus opened their doors, and the authoritarian countries have been able to reach out easily. In contrast to authoritarian states, it is possible to erect high walls in the country to prevent the influence of democratic countries on their politics and culture. Such “asymmetry” has caused democratic countries to be attacked by authoritarian states, and the authoritarianism of China and Russia has infiltrated, affecting not only democratic countries but the whole world.

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

China has drawn up members of the public sector/ civil society groups of other countries through various economic incentives, exchange visits or forum platforms. The purpose is to achieve the political agenda that China has actively set, which is quite consistent with the position of the party and the state, and obviously to weaken the voice of overseas criticism of China. In other words, the ultimate goal is to achieve a forcibly public opinion manipulation by using the economic incentives of sharp power, suppressing criticism of the CCP’s remarks, and maintaining its political influence and economic interests.

‧

Table 3 Four Types of Power

Behaviors Resources

Hard Power Command (Nye, 2004) Coercion (Nye, 2004)

Force/ War (Nye, 2004) Sanctions (Nye, 2004) Payments (Nye, 2004) Bribery (Nye, 2004)

Coercive foreign policy (Nye, 2004)

Soft Power Agenda setting (Nye, 2004) Culture / Ideology / Moral Appeal (Rothman, 2011) Policies (Nye, 2004)

Languages (Hashimoto, 2018) Political values (Wang & Lu, 2008)

Military / Economic Power (Nossel, 2004)

Foreign Policy (Doug 2008) Cultural Norms (Raimzhanova,

Human Rights (Nossel, 2004)

Sharp Power Penetration, Infiltration, Manipulation,

Control media, political elites, social elites, think tank, Infrastructure program,

Confucius Institute, to mislead the public opinion and deliver false information for shaping positive state image (Walker, Kalathil, & Ludwig, 2018) Source: organized by the author.

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

The purpose of Table 3 is to provide the reader with a clearer comparison of the difference between the four powers regarding its behavior and resources (approach), with this table, the reader can explicitly identify the elements of these four powers when exercising.

Hard power is the act of coercion, deterrence, and enforcement to force another country to yield through threats, military power, rewards, or bribery approach; Soft power is the act of attraction, agenda setting, through values, culture, policies, and customs to fascinate other countries to cooperate voluntarily to achieve their respective goals in a peaceful manner; Smart power is the act of diplomacy, lobbying, good offices, and military demonstrations, combining the attractiveness foreign policy and cultural values, through both hard and soft approaches to cooperate or settle disputes; Sharp power is the behavior of totalitarian states through manipulation, temptation, persecution, bribery, infiltration and self-censorship, by controlling the news media, social elites, and political elites of other countries to disunite or mislead the public opinions of the target country, or cover up and divert the public’s attention from the negative information of the country, in order to shape its positive state image.