The use of “soft” power by Great Powers: mechanisms of influence to the national states

In the 21st century, the channels for states to influence international processes and other countries have expanded. An analysis of the realities of the current era shows that more powerful influencing factors than military power and possession of nuclear weapons are economic success, ideological credibility, and cultural attractiveness of the country. It is interesting that until recently, the leading instrument of foreign policy was considered to be hard power, or as it is expressed in English, “hard power”. Hard power primarily means a policy of coercion, which means threatening another country with military force or directly imposing a political line based on the use of military force. In the recent past, we can cite the military intervention of the USSR in Afghanistan and the United States in Vietnam as examples of this type of hard power use. However, as the conditions and requirements of the era change, hard power is losing its former attractiveness due to the introduction of newer technologies. In a globalized world, where there are extensive interconnections and interdependencies, the use of old political instruments, including nuclear weapons, becomes ineffective and can lead to the destruction of the economy of the state using these weapons. The use or threat of use of hard force (for example, warships sailing in coastal areas, as well as military aircraft appearing in the sky of the state) also no longer have the same effective mechanisms as before, since they can lead to negative external effects rather than the dubious success of the aggressor. We can cite as an example the external interventions in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, since such cases did not bring any positive results for the intervening party. In any case, such interventions seriously damage the reputation of the aggressor state, and in addition, they continue to have negative effects on that state from an economic point of view.