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http://interaffairs.ru
Author : A. Ganoshchenko
Chief expert, Analytics and Monitoring Section, Department for Strategic Planning and Personnel De-
velopment, RF Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad,
and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo)
SOFT POWER has been a familiar phrase in Russian political
science discourse for more than ten years. In this period, the
soft power notion has become one of the most popular themes
in Russian political science, firmly established itself in Russian
scholarly literature, and has been recorded in two versions of
the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation and in
other fundamental statements on Russian foreign policy.
The practical application of soft power has been growing in scale at a pace much faster than progress
in theoretical studies of the concept.
We believe that communicative approach represents a superficial, generalizing, descriptive point of
view rather than an attempt to systematize the soft power concept and explain cause and effect re-
lationships that it implies. Information and communication is a complex sphere that encompasses
diverse types of activities, including analysis, criticism, and systematic counteraction of some kinds
of information.16 This undoubtedly means that information and communication is one of the
spheres of application of soft power, but it hardly explains its essence.
It was economic soft power that enabled the US to win its strategic nuclear confrontation with the
former Soviet Union, something that can be described, without exaggeration, as the main global
political accomplishment of the 20th century.
We don't believe we can find a good answer without examining the record of Germany, a country
that has been making extensive use of soft power in its foreign policy.
From our point of view, soft power is typically used by a country in relations with a country that is
behind it in terms of economic and political development. The basis of soft power evolves in the
course of a nation's history and, in this sense, does represent its cultural heritage. However, soft
power cannot be exercised without the deliberate and systematic organization of access to such
heritage for foreign entities and individuals. This access should meet the foreign policy objectives
of the country exercising soft power. Hence it is the main principle of soft power that the advanced
political or economic experience of a country is borrowed by other countries or by some entities
or individuals in such countries (provided soft power lays the basis for close cooperation between
these two countries). The lower development level of a target country and consequent shortages
of resources or experience in it make it potentially beneficial and sometimes unavoidable, and there-
fore politically useful, for this country to cooperate with the country that seeks to exert soft-power
influence on it.
In our view, soft power can become a key instrument of Russian foreign policy, especially in dealing
with strategic security problems, and Moscow should put serious effort into developing a soft power
strategy.
Soft Power: Voluntary Cooperation and Access to Resources