柔性權力與馬基維利

Soft Power and Machiavelli

哈佛大學奈伊教授提出柔性權力概念，主張擁有柔性權力的國家，有助於其 國家利益。筆者從馬基維利的觀點，指出柔性權力固有其重要性，人民的意向影 響力確實甚大，但是人性並非善於感恩，尤其是國家與國家之間的人民。此外， 在表象政治之中，事實的真相與外界所能知道的訊息，仍然有很大的差距。最後 在道德層次上，馬基維利有其自認最高的道德價值：秩序，除此之外，其它德行 則僅僅是為了迎合人民，隨時可以改變。因此，透過馬基維利的洞見，指出柔性 權力的侷限性，並且指出從表象政治的觀點，政治人物宣稱的道德觀往往只是為 了迎合民眾之用，並非這些政治人物現真正確實遵守的規範。總結來說，柔性權 力的概念迷人，也確實可以在當前國際環境中，看到其吸引力。但是，實際政治 運作中，也要小心柔性權力的弊端，倘若一味堅持柔性權力，無疑只是一廂情願， 將心中所想，投射到真實生活中，那恐怕會造成自我傷害。

Professor J. Nye from Harvard University coined the term “soft power，” which has become a popular concept in international relations and communications because we are entering the global information age today. Soft power refers to the power that attracts and makes people do what you want. According to Machiavelli， however， soft power has three defects. First， human nature， especially people from different courtiers， are not grateful and are not always thankful for foreign help. They might change on their own necessity. Second， media politics or the politics of appearance still dominate the public life. Few people can know the truth， but many are influenced by what they have gained through information， which might be distorted by a few people on purpose. Finally， about moral issues in realism， this paper indicates two levels of moral thinking. On the one hand， the decision-maker should pay more attention to ethical issues because people favor legitimate policies. On the other hand， the prince or politicians should be aware that all moral actions might lead to worse results， which are the insights offered by Machiavelli. After all， this paper wants to emphasize that in modern “global information age”， information transmitted by traditional media and the Internet has more impacts on international relations， which should be studied in advance.