Russia’s Soft Power

Russia has always been a country seeking the Great Power status. Even though it lost its importance after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the desire to return to the role of the creator of international order force it to introduce new strategy that will implement soft power resources. This represents a certain obstacle for Russia, which traditionally is accustomed to hard power resources like economic pressure or the use of armed forces. Culture is Russia’s soft power resource that is significant. Values can be more problematic for Russia, because in Moscow’s intentions they should be different from the Western values. Russia is trying to create an alternative soft power project, competitive to that of the West. Russia is trying to make good use of its diplomacy, including digital diplomacy, in order to show the use of its hard power to be seen as soft.

Denial and Rejection: International Law and Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda

Since Trump’s Administration took office, this elusory question has haunted most issues in the international law. So far, the Trump Administration has been in office for a little over forty-four months, a tumultuous period that has disrupted international law and international politics. Another looming question is whether the Trump Administration’s many initiatives will permanently change the nature of America’s foreign policy? In particular, this paper will discuss Trump’s foreign policy, since his emerging philosophy seems to be a general rejection of the Obama approach: not “engage-translate-leverage,” but rather, “disengage black hole-hard power.” Wherever possible, the Trump instinct seems to be to disengage-unilateralism or, as he calls it, “America First.” The United States of America and Trump are sturdy actors in the making and unmaking of international law. But the basic idea underlying international law is that international law is no longer just for nation-states or national governments. What Jeremy Bentham once called “inter-national law”, the law between and among sovereign nations, has evolved into a hybrid body of international and domestic law developed by a large number of public and private transnational actors.

The Dao in China's Growing Presence in the South Pacific

The rise of China as one of the great powers in the international politic has been the hottest topic in the 21st century. Following the economic reform led by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China re-emerges stronger than ever with its influences covering major parts of the world. One region particularly stands out since the prior dominance of United States therein, the South Pacific. The study of this research will be limited to 10 PICs recognising China, Vanuatu, Cook Island, FSM, Fiji, Niuee, PNG, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Kiribati. Under the Western International Relations Theory (IRT) however, the rise of China is always seen in a rather malign manner. This research, therefore, contends that in order to fully understand China’s behaviour in the international community, we need to know how China perceives itself. By applying one of the most famous Chinese traditional school of thought, Daoism, this research aims to examine the strategy used in the expansion of China’s influence in the South Pacific. Daoism is symbolised with yin and yang, where the two elements are contradictory, yet they complement each other. Under the Dao dialectics, this research argues that China has been utilising a combination of two contradictory elements of power—soft and hard power—in expanding its prominence in the South Pacific region.

Biało-ruskij mir. Reaktywacja reintegracyjna w relacjach rosyjsko-białoruskich White-Russian world.

The relations between the Russian Federation and Belarus in the 21st century are characterized by dynamics and volatility. The integration processes of both countries, initiated in the 1990s, are an element of the strategy of domination in the post-Soviet area, which is consistently implemented by Russia. The authors conclude that this strategy in the case of Belarus is a kind of mixture of soft power and hard power, and the choice of instruments depends on the stability of the authoritarian regime, which is embodied by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The rigged presidential elections triggered a wave of protests, leading to the gradual loss of social legitimacy by the Belarusian president. Russia has a dilemma: whether to continue to support Lukashenka, who is losing support, or to look for a “new personal alternative”, a politician that would guarantee the implementation of a “pro-Russian vector” in Belarus’s domestic and foreign policy. Regardless of how the situation develops, Russia’s strategic goal remains to keep Belarus in its sphere of influence using the already existing mechanisms of cooperation between the two countries.

National Developmental State: the beginnings of historical-social procedurality and pioneering essays

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to contribute to the advancement of studies on the National State and economic development. For that, I used an original and singular transdisciplinary approach based on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory and economic history. The methodological procedures were bibliographic research of historical and inductive analysis of the economy. The results obtained were that, for the construction of a National Developmental State, society, first, needs to establish meta-capital and meta-field immersed in the developmental precepts and concentrators of soft power and hard power to, subsequently, execute the project of expansion, integration and sophistication of the productive structure.

Pendekatan politik Sultan Abu Al-Mahasin dan Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II di Lampung pada abad XVII dan XIX M

Kajian ini secara khusus bertujuan mengkaji relasi kuasa Sultan Palembang (Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II) pada abad XIX dan Sultan Banten (Sultan Abu Al-Mahasin) pada abad XVII di wilayah Lampung berdasarkan piyagĕm Natayuda dan dalung Bojong. Kajian ini membahas tentang bentuk pesan-pesan politis Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II dan Sultan Abu Al-Mahasin dalam kaitannya dengan pendekatan yang dilakukan oleh kedua kesultanan tersebut kepada masyarakat Lampung. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data prasasti, dapat diketahui bahwa Kesultanan Palembang lebih berorientasi pada pendekatan yang bersifat hard power, sedangkan Kesultanan Banten berorientasi kepada perpaduan antara hard power dan soft power.

“Soft” Power of China: Efficiency and Response to the Current Challenges

The features of the “soft” power of the PRC, which are significantly based on its indicators of "hard" power – economic and military power, – have been studied. It is noted that there is a difference in the assessment of the state of “soft” power of China by Western countries and, accordingly, by China itself. Emphasis was placed on the prospects for the embodiment of China’s cultural “soft” power and its obstacles. Vulnerabilities in China’s “soft” power have been explored, including the political system and civil society. The importance of the tools of "mask" and "vaccine" diplomacy in the arsenal of "soft" power of China used to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic on China’s image and elevate its status as a leader in global health, have been analyzed. The effectiveness of the Chinese “soft” power has been analyzed through the studies conducted by the “Pew Research Centre” and “Portland Communication” agency. The importance of economic “soft” power in China’s conquest of new allies, including Asia and Africa, has been noted. It is emphasized that the most successful “soft” power is among countries where China is not burdened with accusations of human rights violations. It is noted that one of the main problems in China’s implementation of “soft” power policy is the dissonance between the image that China seeks to project and the country’s actions.

Between Political and Economic Imperialism: Russia’s Shifting Global Strategy

Russia experienced both economic and geopolitical expansion in the 2000s. During this time, the Kremlin and big business worked in tandem to assert Russian influence in post-Soviet space. However, the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s involvement in the war in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 marked a new period that severed the state’s geopolitical strategy and the interests of big capital. While the state continues to engage in open and covert military action, the activity of Russian business abroad has sharply diminished. Relying on David Harvey’s concepts of territorial and capitalist logics of power, the article explores the interplay between political and economic imperialism during Putin’s 20 years in power and situates Russia within today’s global imperialist landscape. I find that the Kremlin’s geopolitical and geoeconomic shift in 2014 can ultimately be explained by the strategic orientation of the country’s leadership, in particular, the deeply ingrained emphasis on security and ‘hard power’. However, the turn away from economic imperialism was also structurally determined by the exhaustion of the country’s economic engine that no longer generates surplus capital in need of a ‘spatial fix’.

The European Union in Search of a New Global Strategy: Critical Analytics

With the use of the analytical works of the prominent Belgian researcher Sven Biscop, the article examines the main topics of discussion regarding changes in the global strategy of the European Union. EU foreign policy has been associated with the concept of “normative power”, which is seen as a kind of European “soft power”. Due to the influence of the global governance crisis, the COVID pandemic, the shift of USA geopolitical interests from Europe to Asia, China's great-power policy, Russia's geopolitical ambitions and other challenges, EU researchers and politicians are raising questions aimed at changing the strategic culture in order to ensure the primacy of EU vital interests. S. Biscop believes that while developing a new global strategy, it is necessary to turn to the traditions of geopolitics to be ready to protect interests and democratic values with the use of “hard power” both internally and externally. Strategic autonomy is a promising task for the further building of the EU. Under the instruction of the European Commission, the work has begun on the creation of a new political and strategic document “Strategic Compass”, its goals include defining the EU targets in the field of security, defense, and identification of threats. The discussion of a new global strategy outlines a trajectory for the transformation of the European Union into a global “Third Pole”. Sven Biscop's recommendations show that shaping a new global strategy will require a revision of the concept of "normative power" and turning closer to geopolitical realism.

THE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF EUROPE'S SECURITY AND DEFENCE CHALLENGES

Povzetek Evropski posthladnovojni red je temeljil na panevropskem konsenzu, da je demokracija edini vir legitimnosti, dokler se niso udejanjanju vizije celovite in svobodne Evrope, ki je v miru sama s seboj, uprle kremeljske oblasti. Prišlo je do spremembe paradigme – sistemsko tekmovanje namesto sodelovanja. Ruski revizionizem pomeni največjo varnostno grožnjo za Evropo. Narava grožnje ni bila pravočasno zaznana. Pri napadu na posthladnovojni red ni šlo le za klasično vojno, ki temelji na trdi moči, saj vojna poteka tudi v kognitivni sferi, kar za odprte, demokratične družbe pomeni poseben izziv. To je bil tudi normativni napad. Za učinkovit odgovor sta nujna mentalni premik in krepitev kognitivne odpornosti ter tudi solidarnosti kot ena najpomembnejših temeljev varnosti. Ključne besede Kognitivna odpornost, Evropska unija, informacijska vojna, normativni konflikt, revizionistična sila. Abstract The European post-Cold War order was based on a pan-European consensus that democracy was the only source of legitimacy – until the Kremlin opposed the realization of a Europe whole, free and at peace with itself. There has been a paradigm change from cooperation to systemic competition. Russian revisionism poses the greatest security threat to Europe. The nature of the threat was realized rather late. The assault on the post-Cold War order was not just a classic war, which relies on hard power; instead, the war also took place in the cognitive sphere, which represents a particular challenge for open, democratic societies. Furthermore, it was also a normative assault. An effective response requires a mental shift and the strengthening of cognitive resilience as well as solidarity as the key foundations of security. Key words cognitive resilience, European Union, information warfare, normative conflict, revisionist power.