The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2011 - 147 pages.What is smart power? What kind of power is it? Is it really a new form of power? How many forms, features, and shapes does it take? How can we recognize and manage it? How do scholars describe it? This MPhil thesis aims to answer these and other questions regarding the dimension of power with a specific focus on smart power. This is a first attempt to study smart power in the broader context of power analysis and therefore I will follow two approaches. First of all, I will contextualize smart power, touching on the debate of power as an academic and political concept. Secondly, the idea is to investigate how power manifests itself in the realms of international and social relations. To this end, I will address three “ideal” forms of power, notably hard, soft and – finally - smart power.
We already know that hard power is commonly associated in IR with realism: it is about power politics, force, and violence. Hard power is, to a certain extent, the oldest form of power; it is connected to the idea of an anarchic, untamed international system, where countries do not recognize any superior authority. Order is the result of competition for power and wars. The possession and acquisition of resources is the key to success. Soft power is something completely different. In order to understand soft power a methodological change is required. A state, an organization or a single person can exercise power with means other than violence and force. Persuasion, example, seduction, and myth: these are the resources of soft power. It is being able to convince or persuade others to follow your example, to want what you want, rather than coercing them. Soft power is about a world in which international institutions matter, in which war is not the only way to settle conflicts and in which the ones to succeed are the most powerful, in terms of natural, economic and financial resources and are not necessarily the best equipped. And finally, what is smart power? Where does it come from? We know that smart power is a new and to a certain extent popular concept, which was coined by Joseph Nye in the USA and is used to describe a new way of dealing with and managing power. Nye conceptualizes smart power as something lying somewhere between hard and soft power, a sort of “third way” in the complex jungle of power relations. But Nye also stresses that smart power is something “beyond” hard and soft, a sort of new approach that fits particularly well into the realm of international relations and foreign politics. This is why we will analyse Nye’s approach in depth, as well as the US debate about smart power and the concrete use of this concept by the US administration. Finally, we will investigate why smart power is becoming popular in the EU as well. Here again, policy-makers seem confident about using this new concept as a political programme that involves institutions and policy reforms.

To sum up, my argument is that smart power is definitely a new form of power and this MPhil dissertation aims at introducing it into the academic debate, studying it from a theoretical, scientific point of view, investigating its origins, and the historical and political context in which it gained popularity and – finally – testing its possible declination in real scenarios of international politics.

伦敦政治经济学院，2011年--147页。什么是智能权力？它是一种什么样的权力？它真的是一种新的权力形式吗？它有多少种形式、特点和形状？我们如何认识和管理它？学者们是如何描述它的？这篇硕士论文旨在回答这些问题和其他有关权力维度的问题，特别关注智能权力。这是在更广泛的权力分析背景下研究智能权力的首次尝试，因此我将遵循两种方法。首先，我将对智能权力进行背景分析，触及权力作为一个学术和政治概念的辩论。其次，我的想法是研究权力如何在国际和社会关系领域表现出来。为此，我将讨论权力的三种 "理想 "形式，特别是硬权力、软权力和--最后是智能权力。

我们已经知道，硬实力在国际关系中通常与现实主义有关：它是关于权力政治、武力和暴力。硬实力在某种程度上是最古老的权力形式；它与无政府的、桀骜不驯的国际体系的理念有关，在这个体系中，各国不承认任何高级权威。秩序是权力竞争和战争的结果。对资源的占有和获取是成功的关键。软实力是完全不同的东西。为了理解软实力，需要改变方法论。一个国家、一个组织或一个人可以用暴力和武力以外的手段行使权力。劝说、榜样、诱惑和神话：这些都是软实力的资源。它是能够说服或劝说他人以你为榜样，想要你想要的东西，而不是胁迫他们。软实力是指在一个国际机构很重要的世界里，战争不是解决冲突的唯一途径，在自然、经济和金融资源方面，成功者是最强大的，而且不一定是装备最好的。最后，什么是聪明的力量？它从何而来？我们知道，智能电力是一个新的、在一定程度上流行的概念，它是由美国的约瑟夫-奈提出的，用来描述处理和管理电力的新方式。奈将智能权力概念化为介于硬权力和软权力之间的东西，是权力关系复杂丛林中的一种 "第三条道路"。但奈也强调，智能权力是 "超越 "硬实力和软实力的东西，是一种特别适合国际关系和外交政治领域的新方法。这就是为什么我们将深入分析奈的方法，以及美国关于智能权力的辩论和美国政府对这个概念的具体使用。最后，我们将调查为什么智能电力在欧盟也开始流行。在这里，政策制定者似乎对使用这个新概念作为一个涉及机构和政策改革的政治方案充满信心。

总而言之，我的论点是，智能权力绝对是一种新的权力形式，本硕士论文旨在将其引入学术辩论，从理论和科学的角度研究它，调查它的起源，以及它获得普及的历史和政治背景，最后--测试它在国际政治的真实场景中可能的衰落。