Hard Power vs. Soft Power: Finding a Balance

                

Power is defined as the ability to control people or things. International power can be divided into two main categories: hard power and soft power.

These two types of power tend to contrast each other greatly. Whether one type of power is more influential than another type is a topic that has been debated for some time now. Although the ideas of soft power and hard power are fairly new, they show great similarities to the ideas discussed throughout Machiavelli’s, The Prince. In his works, Machiavelli discusses whether it is better to be feared or loved. Essentially, this is hard power versus soft power. Originally, The Prince was written as a guide for domestic relations; however, it shows a great similarity to the types of powers dealing in international relations as well. Historically speaking, it is best to have a balance between hard power and soft power, or in Machiavelli’s case, fear and love.

Hard power is achieved by through a means of force and coercion. Throughout history hard power has been displayed by military threats and evidenced by war as many conflicts were ended by coercion. It is also achieved economically through threats and sanctions.  An example is the current US sanctions on Russia pertaining to the Ukraine situation. This closely relates to the fear aspect in Machiavelli’s debate. Realists tend to think of hard power as the most effective way of persuasion. Hard power has been successful throughout history because of the fear it instills amongst surrounding nations. It is important because it gives a country the ability to back up its demands/requests and allows it to advance and succeed.

Soft power on the other hand is gained on a more social level; it focuses on reputation and intentions. It deals with a nation’s ability to not only persuade and influence, but with a nation’s ability to attract. This is brought about in Machiavelli’s argument in that if a state is able to be loved, then it will be able to maintain healthy relationships and succeed through these relationships. Soft power is of great importance because a country with a great deal of soft power will be able to utilize its relationships to gain support, allowing it to achieve more than it could on its own. An example would be a nation’s ability to influence the UN in humanitarian affairs.

Finding a balance between hard power and soft power will yield the most success. If a nation leans solely toward one type of power, it loses influence. A nation that leans towards having massive amounts of hard power and little amounts of soft power loses influence in that it will unlikely be able to gain support in any endeavors it may wish to pursue. An example would be North Korea. If North Korea wished to seek support for something, many countries would be unwilling to help based off of its lack of soft power. On the contrary, a nation who tends to have more soft power than hard power will be ineffective in any kind of military pursuits. Norway is a country that has a great deal of soft power but has a rather small amount of hard power making it difficult for Norway to control through force.

Just as Machiavelli concluded, it is important for a nation to find the balance between fear and love, or soft power and hard power. The United States is the best example of this balance. They have the world’s most powerful military making it very easy to influence through hard power and at the same time they have a great reputation for wanting to help struggling countries giving them massive amounts of soft power as well.  Currently the US is using both soft and hard power against ISIS as it built a coalition to engage in airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.