Much thanks to MountainRunner for the post using an audio equalizer as a way to think about the smart power. It seems an important aspect of calibrating smart power via such a method is understanding how each lever works in relation to time. For example, a series of bombing runs by planes can be executed within a couple of hours of their order, perhaps sooner depending on the targets. An all out invasion of another nation appears to take several months to prepare. Negotiating a treaty can take just as long if not longer. Building a cultural affinity between two nations is likely to take a generation.
This fact -- that different levers of power are effective at different rates or paces -- seems to me to suggest three more considerations for the implementing the audio equalizer model:
1. An assessment of how close we are, in terms of both time and energy, to having the power to achieve that objective.
2. An assessment of the time pressure of the objective: how quickly do we need results?
3. An assessment of what is likely to happen in the "interim" time between our initiation of action and the completion of our goal. Time is, after all, the most unstoppable force known to man. It always moves in the same direction and no one can stop it.
Sticking within the metaphor of listening to music, we might think of it this way...
First, some mismatches are worse than others. Listening to rock on the "pop" setting won't be as bad as listening to classical on the rock setting. There may be cases where we are close enough to just go with what we have, or they may be cases where we need to turrn the volume down while we get set up. Second, in the world of hard and soft power, some of the levers are sticky and hard to push. If it takes 20 minutes to move the treble lever from low to high, we must ask, how long is the song? If the song is only 3 minutes, then treble adjustment, even if the most appropriate tactic for that type of music, is not necessarily the best tactic for this particular situation. Finally, we have to ask ourselves what happens in the "interim." Specifically, does our interference in the situation, or lack of intereference, potentially lead to a change? Will the song end if we let it go? Will our diddling with the equalizer trip the tuning button and change the station?
