软硬兼施：美国巧实力 Carrot-and-Stick: The U.S.’ Smart Power

曾经是‘硬实力’和‘软实力’ ，现在是‘巧实力’。

总统奥巴马带着‘我们相信变革’的口号进入白宫，无可避免地美国外交政策的‘伟大改造戏剧’的帷幕必须拉起。这个戏剧的导演就落在国务卿希拉里的肩膀上。

新的剧目叫什么呢？就叫‘巧实力’吧。据说这个设计是冲着前布什总统的盛气凌人的单边主义而来的。这个单边主义一味强调‘硬实力’。‘巧实力’就是要结合硬与软实力。软实力是以吸引力而不是强迫来得到你所要的东西的能力。

引用希拉里的话：‘我们因该运用我所谓的巧实力，运用在外交、经济、军事、法律与文化各方面所拥有的各种工具，并选择其中最适合各别情况的工具或结合工具’来恢复美国在环球的领导地位。

可是，公开来谈‘巧实力’是否是明智之举呢？

很明显的，‘巧实力’与实力无关。它是一种策略。中国人有一句话形容它，那就是‘软硬兼施’。所以，现在的问题就是：公开来谈‘巧策略’是否是明智之举呢？

同样相当明显的是，不是每一个人都喜欢和灵巧的东西联系在一起。在西方，‘巧’可能传达正面的意思，可是华人可能不这样认为。华文比较倾向于把这个字同投机取巧或操纵技巧相联在一起。有一件事是肯定的，在两千五百年前，孔子曾说：‘巧言令色，鲜矣仁。’

现在，中国人已经对‘巧实力’起了疑心。他们已经问：美国对中国的政策如何地涵盖在‘巧实力’里？美国的新班子的行政策略和前布什政府有何不同？

看来，美国的决策者可以从耐克的广告套语中学到一两样东西：只管干吧。

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There was strong power, and the soft power. Now, it is ‘smart power’.

President Barack Obama entered the White House with the slogan ‘change we can believe in’ and it is inevitable that the curtain of the "great reform drama" in U.S. foreign policy has to be raised. The role of directing the drama falls on the shoulders of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state.

And, what is the name of the new drama? Call it Smart Power. It is said to have been designed to direct at the foreign policies of former President George W. Bush's aggressive unilateral strategy, which one-sidedly stresses the "hard power". Smart power is the combination of hard and soft power. Soft power is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion.

Hillary was quoted as saying that "we must use what has been called smart power, the full range of tools at our disposal – diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural – picking the right tool or combination of tools for each situation", so as to resume the U.S.' global leading position.

However, is it a smart move to talk about ‘smart power’ openly?

It is obvious that ‘smart power’ is not about ‘power’. It is about strategy. There is a Chinese saying to describe such strategy, i.e. the carrot-and-stick strategy. Therefore, the question now is, is it a smart move to talk about ‘smart strategy’ openly?

It is also quite obvious that not everybody likes to be associated with things smart. In the west, the word ‘smart’ may have conveyed something positive – but this may not be the case for the Chinese. In Chinese, the word seems to associate more with ‘speculative’ and ‘manipulative’ rather than ‘clever’. One thing for sure, two thousand five hundred years ago, Confucius had said, ‘Smart (fine) words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with virtue.’

And the Chinese are already sceptical about smart power. They have already asked openly: What kind of the U.S.' China policy is contained in the "smart power"? Or how the new administration's policy towards China would differ from the preceding Bush government?

Probably the U.S. policy makers could learn one or two things from Nike’s tagline: Just do it.