On The Military Soft Power Analysis

Joseph S. Nye's soft power theory has experienced three stages including referrals, application and expansion in China. Various extending concepts such as system soft power and culture soft power were created in succession, which help develop the soft power theory a lot in China. In 2004, Huang Jianguo published the essay The Theory of Military Soft Power, stating clearly the concept of military soft power for the first time. And this marks the beginning of systematic research on military soft power in China.At present, the research on military soft power mainly focuses on fields such as ideational differentiation, theoretical introduction and application. Series of research findings were achieved. However, the lacking of basic theoretical basis has resulted in the disagreement on basic problems such as the definition, criterion, scope and even the status of military soft power. And this leads to the weak situation of our research which is developing fast with limited influence and many doubts. By analyzing the soft power theory by Nye, the author regards the cause of this phenomenon is the two defects of the classic soft power theory which leads to the loss of the military soft power theory foundation.Based on that, the author proceeds with the remediation for the defects of classic soft power theory and bring the concepts of Intangible Power Resources and Tangible Power Resources. And try to change the traditional two-dimensional structure into three-dimensional structure. By borrowing the equation created by the researcher Hu Jian about the constitution and measurement of soft power, the author tries to make the preliminary remediation to the classic soft power theory. On that basis, the author restores the deduction process of classic soft power theory to military soft power theory systematically and attempts to conclude the concept and criterion of military soft power. The author holds that military soft power is the ability of one national military power to make use of the military soft power sources which are generated by military power itself and military practices, to mould and influence the targets and urge the target to hold a positive response thus helping achieve the national military strategy. And the criterions of it include: firstly, military soft power origins from the potential military soft power sources; secondly, the application of military soft power on military sources is optional and non-deceptive; thirdly, the military soft power should be feasible and the targets should react to the actors in a positive way.As a concept with various connotations, the scope of military soft power is diverse. To better grasp the meaning and demonstrate the theoretic derivation, definition and the standards, the author sets out from the points of intangible military power and tangible military power and lists many examples such as the relation between factors including military strategy, military system, military diplomacy, military culture, military operations as well as military technology and the military soft power. The author makes effort to outline the specific range of the military soft power in the real international relation and corroborate the discussion on military soft power.Having made relative issues concerning the theoretical basis of military soft power clearly, the author listed several suggestions according to the display of military soft power in reality. The term military soft power is an interdisciplinary concept emerged after International Relations and Military Science. It is developed and created by the Chinese scholar based on the Joseph S. Nye, Jr.'s traditional soft power theory. On the basis of Nye's soft power theory and rearranged in combination of the special situation in international politics and military sector, the essence of military soft power is a recreation of Nye's soft power theory. Considering the situation of China at home and abroad, the author suggests that in the construction of national military soft power, media and broadcasting power should be made full use of. Therefore more international say could be won and the goal to strengthen our own soft power and even the entire national soft power would be achieved thereafter.