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Method
Joseph Nye
Nye supplies the grammar of Smart Power: coercion, attraction, legitimacy, money, persuasion, alliances and institutions.
Founded 2024 · London
Smart Power in an age of civilisational competition.
The Smart Power Institute examines how states deploy military, economic, technological, diplomatic, cultural, social, energy and institutional power in a changing world order. It treats Smart Power not as a slogan, but as a framework for understanding strategy, state form and civilisational identity.
Founded: 2024
1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE
Founder & Director: Peter Wilding
Smart Power combines the method of intelligent power use, the historical form of the state, and the civilisational identities through which political orders now compete.
An institute built around one idea
Smart Power is the disciplined use of national capabilities across the full spectrum of power. The Institute’s contribution is to connect that method to the changing form of the state and the civilisational worlds within which states seek legitimacy and leadership.
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State form
Philip Bobbitt
Bobbitt explains how legitimacy, war, law and strategy evolve as states move through changing historical forms.
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Civilisational identity
Samuel Huntington
Huntington clarifies the identity layer of power: the cultural, historical and civilisational stories states claim to speak for.
Why this matters
From theory to campaigns
The Institute turns Smart Power into applied analysis: case studies, dashboards, strategic scorecards and campaign research. It offers a sober public-facing frame through which the broader League of Nations ecosystem can be understood.
8Power domains
3Foundational thinkers
2024Founded in London
1Flagship case study
Associated platform
League of Nations
The League of Nations tracks national performance across economy, military, state, people, energy, culture and diplomacy using a live Smart Power index.
Founder & Director
Peter Wilding
Founder and director of the Smart Power Institute.
Institutional leadership
A founder’s framework, built for public argument
Peter Wilding’s public work presents Smart Power as a way of understanding global change through strategy, data, history and cycles. It draws on the work of Joseph Nye, Philip Bobbitt and Samuel Huntington, and connects that synthesis to the League of Nations platform.
The Institute gives that framework a more formal home: a place for doctrine, case studies and strategic interpretation aimed at policymakers, journalists, campaigners and institutional audiences.
Featured work
The Institute launches with one flagship case study and two linked analytical resources, giving the site more substance than a manifesto alone.
Case study
Brexit at 10
A ten-year audit of Britain’s economic flexibility, strategy, institutional resilience, leadership and trade position.
Methodology
What is Smart Power?
An explanation of the Institute’s interpretation of Smart Power through method, state form and civilisational identity.
Data platform
2025 Smart Power Index
A live dashboard showing how national power is distributed across economy, military, diplomacy, culture, people, state and energy.