"The strong will do what they will do, and the weak will suffer the pain they must."

In "The History of the Peloponnese War", Ms. Mothering still exists.

But in today's world, power does not always appear in the form of an army or an aircraft carrier. The means shown by power supply are expanded, the growth is more subtle, layered, and often more dangerous.

As a result, it is not enough to talk about power in a purely military or economic manner. Instead, we need to distinguish between three overlapping but different forms of power: hard, soft, and sharp.

These three concepts of power are not just academic abstractions. They are realistic tools that can coerce, attract and manipulate people and governments in other countries respectively. Governments use them to shape other people’s choices. Sometimes they will perform concerts; however, they often collide.

Ask or persuasion?

Powerful power is probably the most familiar of the three powers and most of the history that the country relies on. It refers to the ability to coerce through force or economic pressure. This is something that tanks, sanctions, warships and threatens. It was a tough move when the Russian bombs hit Kiev, when the United States sent aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait, or when China used trade restrictions to punish foreign governments.

No need to ask for hard power. it takes.

However, coercion alone rarely has lasting effects. This is where soft power comes from. The concept popularized by American political scientist Joseph Nye refers to the ability to attract rather than coerce. It's about credibility, legitimacy and cultural appeal. Think about the global reputation of American universities, the lasting influence of the English media or the ideal attraction of Western laws and political norms, and Western culture.

Soft power is convinced by providing models that others want to emulate.

False war

However, in today's climate, soft power is losing ground. It depends on moral authority, and it is increasingly suspicious of the authorities around the world that have previously tended to be soft.

The United States remains a culturally-managing officer, exporting polarization and political turmoil along with prestige television and technological innovation. China's efforts to cultivate soft power through Confucius' institutions and diplomatic charm offensives have been damaging by its autocratic reflections.

Now, whatever values ​​once considered attractive are seen as hypocrisy or hollow.

This opens up the gap for the third concept: the power of sharpness. Sharp power runs as a dark mirror with soft power. Created in 2017 by the National Democratic Donation, it describes how dictatorships can especially, but not temptingly, use democracies to manipulate their openness from within.

The sharp force will not force it will not attract...it will deceive it.

It relies on disinformation, secret influence, cyberattacks and strategic corruption. And it doesn't want your admiration - it wants your confusion, your division and your doubts.

This is the area of ​​Russian election intervention, where China's control over social media algorithms and secretly influence U.S. actions against China.

The sharp force is the narrative that shapes foreign society without firing a gun or ending a trade deal. Unlike hard power, it is usually not ignored - until damage is done.

How to respond?

What makes today's diplomatic landscape so difficult is that these forms of power are not cleanly separated. They bleed each other. China’s Belt and Road Initiative combines hard power leverage with soft power brands and quietly supports it with a keen momentum of pressure critics and silent disagreement. Russia lacks the economic focus or cultural attraction of the United States or China and has mastered the necessary keen powers, using it to undermine stability, distraction and division.

For liberal democracies, this creates far-reaching strategic dilemma. They still enjoy the strong advantage and residual soft power appeal. But they are susceptible to keen forces and increasingly want to use it on their own. The risk is that they hollow out their institutions and values ​​when trying to fight manipulation.

This article is part of a series of commonly used but rarely explained foreign policy terms.