Effectiveness Of Soft Power Of A Country example essay topic

Power, as one of the most regular and widely used words in today's society, has raised various debates and controversy in its application on international affairs. A decade or so earlier, Joseph S. Nye coined the term soft power! +/- (Nye 1990) which was developed as international power compared to military and economic power by him during the flowing years. From Nye's point of view, soft power is the ability to get desired outcomes because others want what you want. It is the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than coercion (Nye 2004). In this essay, I would use this soft power perspective to explain the Chinese foreign policy.

However, because Nye is not using this idea consistently! +/- (Brown 1995, p. 10), it is necessary to clarify some essential elements of soft power at the first place. First of all, with regard to the definition of soft power, I believe that soft power is an indirect but viable alternative to the hard power which can be used to compete with other political actors on the international scale. The public and international organizations can be seen as two channels for the use of soft power. The effectiveness of soft power depends on the quality of interaction between public and decision maker in other countries and the shaping of international institutions and norms. Secondly, as to the source of soft power, I should say foreign policy is the main source of soft power.

Firstly, it contributes to the building of a country's image. By comparing what it did with what it said, not only decision makers but also the public can judge if it is worth trusting a country in international affairs. Secondly, the foreign policy reflects what kind of attitude a country will take in the participation in the international affairs. Finally, foreign policy contributes to the building of international institution and norms.

The political value is another important source of soft power. In a general sense, an attractive political value should give the public more visible benefits, like the money and high living standard, which could make a country more attractive and its behavior or decision might be seen as a better one than those of a country which is under poor economic status and has a lower living standard. From my view, the influence of culture in political world is very limited. Although it might help in the building of international norms, the diversity and decentralization determine that it can be perfect dessert but they will never be a main course. Thirdly, the key actor in international affairs is the people who have the final say about the country's attitude towards certain issue.

However, soft power can hardly affect their behavior directly. To achieve the expected result, soft power need to rest on certain channel which can transmit the influence to the decision makers. The public and the international organization can be two channels of soft power. On the one side, being the representatives of certain party, only when they get the right to operate a state machine, politicians can construct the country according to their own political values and make the decision for the country.

Achievement of this precondition depends on the support of the public. The link between a legal recognition of politicians as decision makers and the support from public contribute to the transmission of influence from soft power. On the other side, in the international relations, those decision makers are expected to represent the national interests. In fact, representing the national interests can be seen the most convincing reason for making any political decision. However, the content of national interests is ambiguous. It might vary with different context and need to be constructed and specified.

The history, the position in current situation and social norms can be seen as factors in the construction and specification of national interests. From this angle, soft power can contribute to this process through building certain social norms and defining the international situation, which might socialize other countries' behavior. After clarifying definition, sources and channels of soft power, I will use this perspective to analyze Chinese foreign policy and how they exercise the soft power by implementing their foreign policy in the following content. Case study: China, as world's fourth largest (after Russia, Canada, and US) country, has been seen as a more and more significant role in international affairs, after its Third Session of Eleventh C CPC defined a new situation on both domestic side and international side. Its foreign policy making was also adapted to be more open and moderate in the late 1970's, like keeping distance both to Russia and the United States, a kind of pro-independence and non-allied attitude!

+/- (Wang 2000, p. 4) and the famous judgment that peace and development are two top issues for the people all over the world. According to the latest expression of Chinese foreign policy cited from the official website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the People's Republic of China, based on the preservation of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the main content of this policy include: 1. China has all along adhered to the principle of independence. 2. China opposes hegemonism and preserves world peace. 3.

China actively facilitates the establishment of a new international political and economic order that is fair and rational. 4. China is ready to establish and develop friendly relations of cooperation with all the countries on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. 5. China pursues a policy of all-dimensional opening up to the outside.

6. China takes an active part in multilateral diplomatic activities and is a staunch force in preserving world peace and facilitating common development! +/- (MFA, 18 August 2003). In fact, time proved that China made a right choice.

The 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea' has eased tensions to some extent! +/-; China and Kazakhstan have resolved their border dispute and are working to demarcate their large open borders to control population migration, illegal activities, and trade! +/- (CIA 2004); In 2003 China together with Taiwan asserted their claims to the Diaoyu Islands, while Japanese government affirmed their basic position of neither participating nor supporting for the activities of the right wings! +/- (MFA, 8 May 2002).

I would like to say these achievements are produced by soft power. Since the positive attitude of China on international arm control gradually builds a image that China is a responsible major power! +/- in public's eyes, people incline to prepare to be persuaded in the negotiation process, which means it is likely to achieve a acceptable agreement on those sensitive issue. The pursuit of soft power which I analyzed here was achieved by China through sacrificing some interests to maintain the credibility and keep consistent in international affairs. In the Asian financial crisis of 1997, China's foreign exchange policy can be seen as another sacrifice in order to maintain the credibility in pursuit of soft power. Foreign policy can also increase a country's soft power by participating the founding of international norms and institutions. ASEAN (Association of South East Asian), as a growing regional organization has strong influence on the relationship among Asian countries.

The Leadership Meeting between ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea (10+3) can be dated back to 1990 when Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad raised the concept of East Asian Economic Grouping (E AEG) (later renamed as East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC)! +/- (MFA, 11/24/2004). In the process of building regional and international institutions and norms, ASEAN also plays a very important role. As a member of Asia, it is inevitable each Asian country will be socialized in these norms and institutions. Therefore, in order to ensure that these countries in ASEAN will share certain common interests and opinion with China, China need to participate the building of institutions in this organization. This is why China adopts an active foreign policy to develop a close relationship with ASEAN.

In 1996 China became the full dialogue partner of ASEAN and in 1997 both sides declared the establishment of the good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust. The first Unofficial Leadership Meeting between ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea (10+3) held in December 1997 marked the launch of the 10+3 cooperation process. In 2002, the two sides decided to build the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area within 10 years and in 2003 established the strategic partnership. Up to now, both sides have established 6 ministerial cooperation mechanisms covering various dimensions of regional affairs. Under the 10+3 framework there are 91 cooperation projects of which 40 have basically completed.

The Chinese leaders have attended all the sessions of the 10+3 Leadership Meeting! +/- (MFA, 24 November 2004). On the 8th Leadership Meeting ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea, Premier Wen of China raised the basic principle of equality, mutual trust and win-win cooperation' to guide the long-term development of bilateral ties! +/- and put forward 10 initiatives on bilateral cooperation in the political, economic and trade, security, cultural and other fields.! +/- (MFC 12/01/2004) Many leaders indicated that the suggestions are practical and workable and they will work with China to implement the suggestions.! +/- (MFA, 1 December 2004) China, as a responsible country and reliable partner, has contributed to the building of multiple institutions and norms in Asia. In this process, China can both make more and more Asian countries share common interests and find more support from these country in international negotiations, which help to strengthen the influence of China within the whole world as a community.

It is clearly that through these efforts Chinese foreign policy is going to make the Chinese opinion become more legally based, fair, just and democratic. At the same time, with emphasis on cooperation between different countries and provoking mutual respect between countries with different political system, culture and economic status, Chinese foreign policy is trying its best to persuade the public and the decision makers in other countries that all the disputes can be solved in a peaceful way no matter how serious it was. For example, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula has led to the tension and suspicious in East Asia since 2003. Fortunately, after rounds of Six-Party Talks and two working group meetings, all parties concerned have expressed their support for the Six-Party Talks!

+/- (LIU, 31 December 2004), that means, all of them agree that the Six-Party Talks, as an application of soft power, is a better solution to achieve the goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula than resorting to military action, the hard power. During this process, China made a great effort to drive all parties to carry out second and the third around Talk in Beijing, which led to the more support for resolving the issue by adopting a peaceful method. That is to say, China is going to build an institution for all the countries concerned in this issue and practice its soft power by adjust the existing perception about what is the best way to deal with an international dispute under current situation. Conclusion: Since the technical development of weapon in many countries might lead to destructive consequence to the whole world in case a large- scale war occurred and the economic carrot! +/- are costly, hard power is expensive to use and might not achieve expected results under current international circumstance. In this case, the developing of soft power tends to be more and more important in current international relations.

As a viable alternative, soft power can help you to persuade other countries to support your decision and make your interest become common interests in the community. The effectiveness of soft power of a country depends on different degree of interaction with other countries. However, I would like to say it is unwise and too romantic to say that the hard power can be replaced by soft power. The existing hard power might make the decision makers a possibility to ignore public opinion and international norms in the long time it will take to build public's perception and construct international norms. Furthermore, some political structures and communication systems can block these two channels, which might weaken the effectiveness of soft power. Actually, in current international society, soft power can be still taken place by hard power, for example, the US's military action towards Iraq in 2003.

As to a country, the application of soft power has to be related to given situation and its existing hard power. The more limitation of the use of hard power and the less effectiveness its hard power has, the more an actor favors soft power.

Bibliography

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