【明報專訊】According to Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a US scholar, a nation's comprehensive national power can be divided into hard power and soft power. Hard power includes military, economic and technological strength, while soft power includes the appeal of a country's political system, values, culture, international reputation and the positive image of its people.

France tops the list

The 2019 Soft Power 30 report jointly published by the Centre on Public Diplomacy of the University of Southern California and Portland Communications, a British company, scores countries around the world based on data concerning the government, digitalization, culture, corporations, international participation and education, with the views of 12,500 respondents in 25 countries also taken into consideration. The respondents were ask to score these countries according to food, technological products, friendliness, culture, foreign policies and livability.

At the top of the list is France. The UK slips to second place in the 2019 rankings. As for the 2018 report, it put the UK at the top, arguing that though the UK was in the midst of Brexit negotiations, but that did not prevent the development of its soft power. The UK's music, arts, films and sports were world market leaders.

Sharp power?

The US National Endowment For Democracy published a report in December 2017 titled Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence. The report listed China and Russia as the world's main authoritarian governments, detailing how they made use of their “soft power” to infiltrate some liberal but poorer countries in Latin America. According to the report, the two countries used economic incentives, cultural exchanges, and political sponsorship to exert influence on other countries' media, academic research, cultural activities, think tanks and political circles. Though such sharp power was not the same as hard power, its ability threaten and manipulate exceeded soft power , which relied on cultural admiration and institutional advantages. China responded by saying that ''sharp power'' was just a term to smear China.

Translated by Terence Yip

[通通識 第614期]