The author examines key parameters and features of the UK soft power regarding it as a relatively independent and structured foreign policy area, with a distinct conceptual and institutional design. The work focuses on the reasons behind increasing attention to soft power in international relations theory and its growing role in the states’ foreign policy in the transforming world. The author determines characteristics of the soft power ratings and indexes and highlights the factors allowing the United Kingdom to maintain high positions in such ratings; identifies the specific features of the UK soft power politics and its place in the country’s foreign policy; describes its current state and principles of implementation, its major target audiences, factors of success and limitations; highlights key forms and mechanisms of soft power deployment in priority areas.