Concepts as Discursive Constructs in International Studies: The Case of Sharp Power

Concepts in international studies are subject to constant reformulations, reinterpretations, and re-articulations. Being a central concept in the discipline, analytical inquiries about power have produced a multiplicity of conceptual innovations. The latest conceptual addition to the power literature is ‘sharp power’. Sharp power was first introduced in 2017 by a report of an American institute. It has been embraced and employed quite extensively since then. This paper contends that the sharp power concept is a discursive construct devised and propounded for certain practical/strategic objectives. First, state and non-state actors in the West, specifically the US, that perceive a resurgent Russia and an emergent China as threats to the interests of the West/the US are prone to reconceive and recast influence attempts of these states in certain terms. Second, Western/the US states and societies have been subject to influence attempts by adversarial actors in degree, scope, frequency, and efficacy arguably not seen before. Accordingly, this unprecedented situation has called for novel definitions to make sense of it. Third, by the sharp power concept, public diplomacy practices of adversarial political actors, mainly Russia and China, are represented in a negative fashion, and distinguished from and contrasted with the ‘soft’ public diplomacy practices of the West/the US.