台灣在亞太地區之軟實力影響研究：印度、澳洲與菲律賓三國的個案分析

Unlike the concept of hard power emphasizing the use of military or economic coercions, soft power argues for the importance of changing other actors’ preferences through non-coercive attraction based on cultural, ideological, political, or other abstract forms of influences. Currently, the majority of soft power studies focus more on how soft power construction could help great powers further strengthen their international dominance. However, this research focus ignores an important fact that for those without substantial hard power, soft power construction might play a crucial role in their strategic consideration. Drawing upon this perspective, it is important to analyze whether the Tsai Ing-wen administration’s “new southbound policy" (NSP), which put an emphasis on enhancing interpersonal connections, could successfully strengthen Taiwan’s soft power influence in the Asia-Pacific. Accordingly, this project attempts to offer an answer to this question by analyzing changes in the NSP target countries's perception of Taiwan. This project contains three research goals. First, it tries to examine the differences in the the literatures of soft power studies between great powers and small powers. Second, it aims to examine whether the NSP enhances Taiwan’s soft power influence by conducting case studies. Lastly, it discusses how Taiwan's case could contribute to exiting literature of small powers' soft power.