Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential primary candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has proposed using “smart power” combined with “pragmatic diplomacy” as the way to handle Taiwan’s diplomatic plight.
According to Su’s office spokesperson Lee Hou-ching (李厚慶), Su felt that for the nation’s diplomacy to change for the better, there must be three strategies — smart power that surpasses hard power, a soft power pragmatic management approach and clear-cut diplomatic strategic guiding principles.
Smart power is a concept introduced by Harvard University international relations professor Joseph Nye as the ability to combine hard and soft power into a winning strategy.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also used the term during her US Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 13, 2009.
“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. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy,” she said.
According to Su, Taiwan’s diplomacy should be practical and establish “grassroots-like” diplomacy that applies resources to work relating to public diplomacy and international non-governmental organizations. These approaches allow pragmatic progress without being seen as ramming and maintain the nation’s interests without provoking others, Su said.
Sources wishing to remain anonymous said that Su had met with former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kwan Yew (李光耀) twice during the latter’s low-key visit to Taiwan this last week.
The source said Su and his wife, Chan Hsiu-ling (詹秀齡), had lunch with Lee and his family on Tuesday, then Su met with Lee alone the following day.
According to sources, Lee expressed approval of Su’s concept of pragmatic diplomacy and thought that Su’s proposal of “smart power” was a brilliantly elucidated point of view.
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