Sharp Power

Sharp power is a recent and still young concept within IR that was coined by Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig in a 2017 report for the National Endowment for Democracy. Sharp power encapsulates a form of influence exerted by states that falls between traditional hard power (military force) and soft power (Walker et al., 2017). Walker argues that “it is an approach to international affairs that typically involves efforts at censorship, or the use of manipulation to sap the integrity of independent institutions. Sharp power has the effect of limiting free expression and distorting the political environment. […] it is called ‘sharp’ because it seeks to ‘pierce, penetrate, or perforate’ the political and information environments of targeted countries” (Walker 2018). Messa highlights the institutions used to target countries: institutions designed to channel public opinion, politics, economics, and cyber. For him academia, the media, publishing houses and culture all are channels of influencing public opinion (Messa 2019).

“Sharp power has three tenets: the corrosion of the legitimacy of institutions, the manipulation of public opinion to strengthen the image of the host state, and the pressuring of political and economic actors in a state. Sharp power tools can fall into any of all of these categories, and any foreign policy tools that achieve these ends covertly should be considered sharp power. Similar to soft power, sharp power entails a degree of subtlety. However, unlike soft power, states use sharp power to achieve their ends through manipulation and distraction rather than attraction” (Walker et al., 2017).

Cole exemplifies this in relation to China’s sharp power as a “multifaceted campaign […] orchestrated using guidelines provided by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) and [involving] various actors inside and outside China. These include, but are not limited to: Chinese intelligence services, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), businesses, chambers of commerce, United Front Work (UFW) units, cultural enterprises, the media, Chinese students, academics, Netizens, organized crime, and Chinese diplomatic missions abroad” (Cole 2018).

“Sharp power may also employ the nefarious arts of distraction. Russia has used such methods to exploit the open electoral and media sectors in a growing number of countries, including the United States. By manipulating the public conversation, it seeks to sharpen tensions within and between democracies. Finally, sharp power can also work via modern forms of censorship, by inducing media to engage in self-censorship or by employing digital tools such as ‘bots’, automated accounts that spread false and divisive discourse online” (Walker 2018).

Yet, the term sharp power is disputed by scholars such as a Joseph Nye, who coined the term soft power, arguing that sharp power is merely another form of hard power. For Nye, “the deceptive use of information for hostile purposes” is a form of hard power (Nye 2018). Nye goes on to argue: “If we use the term sharp power as shorthand for information warfare, the contrast with soft power becomes plain. Sharp power is a type of hard power. It manipulates information, which is intangible, but intangibility is not the distinguishing characteristic of soft power. Verbal threats, for example, are both intangible and coercive” (Nye 2018). Walker argues that “[s]harp power takes advantage of the asymmetry between free and unfree systems. Open, democratic systems are rich targets for authoritarian regimes whose commercial activities and political initiatives are regular features of life in democracies. It is within this context that sharp power, neither really soft nor hard, is able to flourish” (Walker 2018). Liu disagrees with both Walker and Nye, and states that sharp power “is the product of an unskilled mixing of the two, or put simply, ‘unsmart power.’ This is not to coin a new term, but rather to make the point that no new term is needed” (Liu 2018).

As Walker points out, “[o]ne well-known recent example of sharp power is Russia’s blatant interference in foreign elections, with the goal of weakening the health and credibility of democratic regimes. The United States and European democracies alike have been subjected to increasingly sophisticated Russian interference over the last decade. Moscow exploits existing conflicts within these societies to increase polarization and break down democratic comity and consensus. By focusing on elections, the Kremlin aims to undermine basic democratic norms” (Walker 2018).