Disentangling Smart Power: Interest, Tools and Strategies

Over the last decade, expensive and unpopular wars, recession, ballooning debt, and the rise of China and other regional powers have brought the limits of traditional power into focus. So far, Smart Power has been seen as the idea that an effective foreign policy must place principal reliance on a tailored synthesis of both hard and soft power and the precise mix depends on the circumstances.

This timely volume underscores why “smart power” is still a clue for policymakers seeking to combine different tools within a coherent strategy. It also questions the practical and institutional challenges stand in the way of a true smart power approach. It underscores the need for the United States and Europe to pull all the levers of power and influence, including military, diplomatic, legal, cultural, energetic and technological. The authors introduce new approaches including the concept of spectral power, super-seeding the dichotomy of hard and soft power and urging the rethinking of the concept of smart power. The authors have held senior executive positions in the U.S. administration and governments in Europe.