The Key Versus The Sledgehammer

Don’t use a sledgehammer to break the door. Use the key. When a nation acquires economic and military power, its political elites become addicted to the sledgehammer (brute force) for opening every door in domestic politics and international geopolitics. They keep deploying the sledgehammer even though the sledgehammer-strategy worsens the old problems, and gives rise to new problems. If they deployed the key (the subtle methods of political persuasion and propaganda), they might have achieved better outcomes. It is hard for the elites in powerful nations to understand that the key is mightier than the sledgehammer.