Should a leader strive to be loved or feared？ This question, famously posed by Machiavelli

, lies at the heart of Joseph Nye's new book. Mr. Nye, a former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, is best known for promoting the idea of "soft power", based on persuasion and influences, as a counterpoint to "hard power", based on coercion (强迫) and force.

Mr. Nye has now turned his attention to the relationship between power and leadership, in both the political and business spheres. Machiavelli, he notes, concluded that "one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved." In short, hard power is preferable to soft power. But modern leadership theories have come to the opposite conclusion.

The context of leadership is changing, they observe, and the historical emphasis on hard power is becoming outdated. In modern companies and democracies, power is increasingly diffused and traditional hierarchies (等级制) are being undermined, making soft power ever more important. But that does not mean coercion should now take a back seat to persuasion, Mr. Nye argues. Instead, he advocates a synthesis of these two views. The conclusion of The Powers to Lead, his survey of the theory of leadership, is that a combination of hard and soft power, which he calls "smart power", is the best approach.

The domination theoretical model of leadership at the moment is, apparently, the "transformational leadership pattern". Mr. Nye has performed a valuable service in rounding up and summarizing the various academic studies and theories of leadership into a single, slim volume. He examines different approaches to leadership, the morality of leadership and how the wider context can determine the effectiveness of a particular leader. There are plenty of anecdotes and examples, both historical and contemporary, political and corporate.

Leadership is a slippery(狡猾的) subject, and as he depicts(描述) various theories, even Mr. Nye never quite nails the jerry to the wall. He is at his most interesting when discussing the moral aspects of leadership—in particular, the question of whether it is sometimes necessary for good leaders to lie—and he provides a helpful 12-point summary of his conclusions. A recurring theme is that as circumstances change, different sorts of leaders are required, a leader who thrives in one environment may struggle in another, and vice versa. Ultimately that is just a fancy way of saying that leadership offers no easy answers.

According to the passage, the reason why Mr. Nye is so popular is that ______.

A．he advocates that leaders should be feared

B．he advocates the importance of persuasion and influence

C．he was once the leader of Harvard

D．he thinks that coercion should give way to persuasion