Abstract

In the late time of 1980s，Professor Joseph S.Nye，Jr.from Harvard University proposed the theory of soft power.The theory，which published continually since 1990，holds the view that the US has power resources not only in its economic and military fields，but also in its culture，institutions and policies.Relying on these advantages of its culture，institutions and policies，the US can also achieve its desired objectives by attracting others.The theory caused lots of promised papers.However，some debates still exist.

Although the function of popular culture，regarded as the crucial resource of soft power by Professor Joseph S.Nye，attracts so many fans，none of them could provide sufficient evidences to prove its ability to alter one state's policies as the US expects.According to the traditional power theory，power resources are largely determined by the background of power relationship，and soft power is no exception.As a result，the soft power resources turn out not to be definitely culture，institutions and policies for all the time.

Lack of an empirical research in Professor Nye's articles and books，nevertheless there are still significant facts existing in world politics to prove the theory of soft power.The enlargement of the EU showed its soft power resources had played a role in attracting applicant countries to join voluntarily in.Some researchers in this field pointed out that motives and objectives of every applicant country，who applying for the EU membership，are not the same for each of them has different histories and realities.This means that soft power resources must be detected in the specific processes of the EU's enlargement which abstract the different applicant countries.Therefore，after the behavior of the EU's soft power has been finished，the main task of this paper is to reveal the momentum of the EU's expansion by analyzing the soft power resources of the EU during the different periods of its enlargement.

On the base of others' study of soft power，this paper established a framework of the EU's enlargement to analyze its' soft power resources.After examining the EU's enlargement history，this paper found that the EU has not only the intangible power resources but also the tangible ones.Chinese scholars used to interpret them as non-material and material power resources.The non-material and material resources play the different roles during the different events of the EU's enlargement.Sometimes，both of them are equally important.On the basis of my empirical study，this paper improved the explanation on the EU's soft power resources given by Joseph S.Nye.From a perspective of behavioral outcomes，the EU's soft power for enlargement is co-optive.From a perspective of the nature of behavior，the EU's soft power，which enables European countries to share resources in a wider range，is cooperative through attraction of others as its external driving force to expand.

Keywords：Soft Power；the EU；Enlargement of the EU