Report: U.S. Should Balance Its Hard Power

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. has waged its war on terror for six consecutive years. But what the U.S. has gained is not honor, but rather a severely tainted image. Due to the Iraq war and unilateral foreign policies, its reputation, standing, and influence are at an all-time low.

The Commission on Smart Power, comprising twenty leading experts in America, recently released its final report which is the culmination of over a year of research and consultation. In drawing up the report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an American think tank, took the lead.

The basic gist of the report is how to recover America’s tainted reputation, weakened international status, and loss of influence. As a solution, it recommends that it should shift its strategy from “hard power,” based on military and economic might, to “soft power,” focusing on the power of culture, values, and policies.

Why is Smart Power important? -

Since the U.S. started its war against terrorism, it has consistently emphasized the “alliance of will.” It has forced its individual allied countries to choose to join the war rather than win support from existing international organizations and alliance systems.

However, the international atmosphere has changed so rapidly that this approach no longer makes sense. As people around the world are informed of situations in other countries in real time, due to the development of communications technology such as the Internet, people have become less fearful about the possibility of war.

In addition, the meaning of winning the war has also changed. In traditional conflict, once enemies were vanquished militarily, wars were ended. Now, as shown in Iraq, military capability itself cannot solve problems. Organizations and groups that transcend national borders are involved in the war in Iraq and continuously hinder the war’s timely ending.

Against this backdrop, the report suggests that U.S. leaders should be fully aware of this changed strategic environment and strengthen alliances and diplomacy rather than exert military might through the current administration’s “war on terror” obsession.

Transnational “faceless threats” are also complicated issues for the U.S. to handle with its hard power. They include energy security, unstable global finance, climate change, and epidemics. But it has turned a blind eye to issues upon which the international community agreed, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

How to implement soft power?-

The report recommends that the U.S. focus on five critical areas: reinvigorating alliances and partnerships; elevating efforts to aid developing nations; improving access to international knowledge and learning; and addressing climate change and energy insecurity.

It also asks the U.S. leaders to take note of the fact that Asia is emerging as the new political and economic center of international society. The report says that by providing “public goods” that are conducive to Asia’s development, the U.S. should elicit cooperation from the international community in various fields; not only in the war on terrorism.

The first task in gaining soft power is recovering trust in the U.S. administration, according to the report. To do so, it presented concrete measures to implement soft power and to harmonize hard power with soft power – creating a deputy who doubles as national security adviser and director of the Office of Management and Budget; giving the executive secretariat greater coordination capacity; creating a cabinet-level voice for global development; establishing a quadrennial smart power review; and strengthening civilian agencies.

spear@donga.com