Soft power in world politics: the typology of approaches to measurement and evaluation

Proposed by Joseph Nye, the concept of soft power as the ability of states (and other actors) to achieve their goals without resorting to threats, bribery or violence becomes an important component of international relations theory. However, even after more than two decades, the meaning and content of this concept are still not entirely unclear. It significantly complicates the task of soft power opera-tionalization and its measuring, without which it is difficult to talk about turning this concept into a real instrument of international policy. The result of numerous discussions on this issue allows talking at least about two quite important criteria to typologize a possible ways of measuring the soft power. According to authors opinions, these ways of measuring can be: (a) an interpretation (specific content) of the measured phenomenon and (b) a type that is using to measure the initial data. Because the evaluation of soft power, as well as strength at all, may be related to various aspects of this concept, as such: firstly - the sources or resources - all that theoretically is capable of producing (to cause) the "soft power"; secondly - the tools and / or actions - is whereby an opportunities and resource potential is converted to the desired result; thirdly, the result - the effects that presumably caused by the available resources and taken actions. Differences in the purposes, extent of coverage, periods of time, methods of operationalization and measurement techniques are significantly restricts the ability of a systematic effectiveness comparison of these approaches to the measurement of soft power, according to the achieved results. The specific nature of soft power suggests that the best way to measure it is an international public opinion surveys. Thus, if the soft power is the ability to achieve the desired outcome by attracting and co-optation, it should be admitted that it is not at the disposal of the person who possesses it, but that person who is the objective of soft power's influence. Accordingly to the above, the value and effectiveness of soft power will be determined with the perceptions of the recipient countries audiences, which are finally decide what is attractive to them. This article discusses the currently existing basic approaches to the soft power's measurement. It suggests a possible way to differentiate these approaches with the general analysis of capabilities, strengths and limitations.

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