Kuasa lunak

Kuasa lunak atau kuasa lembut (soft power) difahamkan sebagai keupayaan mempengaruhi serta membentuk tanggapan ramai terhadap sesebuah entiti negara tanpa paksaan menggunakan nilai tertentu seperti budaya, fahaman politik dan dasar luar negara. Konsep ini mula diungkapkan pada lewat dekad 1980-an oleh Joseph Nye, seorang saintis politik Universiti Harvard lagi-lagi dalam buku dikarangnya bertajuk Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (1990) yang menjelaskan ia sebagai kuasa dimiliki sesebuah negara untuk "mendorong  negara-negara lain sekeinginan dengannya" jika dibandingkan dengan kuasa keras yang mendorong pengarahan atau penyuruhan negara-negara ini melakukan sebarang apa yang dimahukan negara tersebut".

Setakat mana berjayanya pelaksanaan kuasa jenis ini bergantung kuat kepada reputasi negara pelaksana dalam dalam medan antarabangsa serta aliran maklumat antara kedua-dua pihak yang memberi dan menerima dalam penjalinan ini. Budaya popular dan media massa sering dikenalpasti sebagai sumber kuasa lembut melalui penyebaran unsur-unsur budaya (misalnya bahasa kebangsaan atau norma masyarakat) yang lazim wujud di negara penyasar; sebuah negara yang mempunyai kuasa lembut besar dengan kebaikan yang menjadikan ia boleh memberi inspirasi kepada orang lain untuk membudayakan, tanpa perlunya membelanjakan mahal terhadap kuasa keras. Berita antarabangsa khususnya didapati berperanan penting dalam membentuk imej dan reputasi negara asing; liputan berita positif dikaitkan dengan pandangan antarabangsa yang positif, begitu juga kesan yang sebaliknya dengan adanya liputan berita negatif.

Penilaian kuasa lunak

Banyak kelompok menilai sebilangan negara tertentu yang dikaji kemampuan menjana kuasa ini serta memangkat berdasarkan tahap dan kesan yang diberikan:

Peringkat dunia

Peringkat Asia

Rujukan

Bacaan lanjut
 Giulio Gallarotti, Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations: A Synthesis of Realism, Neoliberalism, and Constructivism, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2010, how hard and soft power can be combined to optimize national power
 Giulio Gallarotti, The Power Curse: Influence and Illusion in World Politics, Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner Press, 2010, an analysis of how the over reliance on hard power can diminish the influence of nations.
 Giulio Gallarotti. "Soft Power: What it is, Why It's Important, and the Conditions Under Which it Can Be Effectively Used" Journal of Political Power (2011), works.bepress.com.
 Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Inderjeet Parmar and Michael Cox, Routledge, 2010.
 Steven Lukes, "Power and the battle for hearts and minds: on the bluntness of soft power," in Felix Berenskoetter and M.J. Williams, eds. Power in World Politics, Routledge, 2007.
 Janice Bially Mattern, "Why Soft Power Isn't So Soft," in Berenskoetter and Williams.
 J.S. Nye, "Notes for a soft power research agenda," in Berenskoetter and Williams.
 Young Nam Cho and Jong Ho Jeong, "China's Soft Power," Asia Survey 48, 3, pp. 453–72.
 Yashushi Watanabe and David McConnell, eds, Soft Power Superpowers: Cultural and National Assets of Japan and the United States, London, M E Sharpe, 2008.
 Ingrid d'Hooghe, "Into High Gear: China's Public Diplomacy", The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, No. 3 (2008), pp. 37–61.
 Ingrid d'Hooghe, "The Rise of China's Public Diplomacy", Clingendael Diplomacy Paper No. 12, The Hague, Clingendael Institute, July 2007, , 36 pp.
 "Playing soft or hard cop," The Economist, January 19, 2006.
 Y. Fan, (2008) "Soft power: the power of attraction or confusion", Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 4:2, available at bura.brunel.ac.uk.
 Bruce Jentleson, "Principles: The Coming of a Democratic Century?" from American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century.
 Jan Melissen, "Wielding Soft Power," Clingendael Diplomacy Papers, No 2, Clingendael, Netherlands, 2005.
 Chicago Council on Global Affairs, "Soft Power in East Asia" June 2008.
 Joseph Nye, The Powers to Lead, NY Oxford University Press, 2008.
 Nye, Joseph, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.
 Joshua Kurlantzick, Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World (Yale University Press, 2007). Analysis of China's use of soft power to gain influence in the world's political arena.
 John McCormick The European Superpower (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Argues that the European Union has used soft power effectively to emerge as an alternative and as a competitor to the heavy reliance of the US on hard power.
 Ian Manners, Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?, princeton.edu
 Matthew Fraser, Weapons of Mass Distraction: Soft Power and American Empire (St. Martin's Press, 2005). Analysis is focused on the pop culture aspect of soft power, such as movies, television, pop music, Disneyland, and American fast-food brands including Coca-Cola and McDonald's.
 Middle East Policy Journal: Talking With a Region, mepc.org
 Salvador Santino Regilme, The Chimera of Europe's Normative Power in East Asia: A Constructivist Analysis 
 Paul Michael Brannagan and Richard Giulianotti (2018), The Soft Power-Soft Disempowerment Nexus: the case of Qatar, International Affairs, 94(5), pp. 1139-1157, for an analysis on the ways through which states' attempts at soft power can backfire, leading to instances of 'soft disempowerment'.
Pengglobalan
Hubungan antarabangsa
Diplomasi