... its global role in general. Many soft-power programmes that have worked for decades are now being phased out. Traditional US soft power instruments are being “weaponised.” American authorities increasingly do not bother to camouflage certain initiatives ... ... Higher Education in Syria and Lebanon
The erosion of the regional elites’ confidence in the Obama administration and in the USA’s ability to protect them has caused many governments in the region to change their perception of America as omnipotent,...
... becoming the symbol of animosity between the two countries.
Twenty years later, geopolitical tensions remain, as underlined by American support for the protests for greater autonomy in Hong Kong (2019), and Washington’s pressure on Beijing with the accusation of the military origins of Covid-19 (2020).
In 2020, all US attempts to implement Western Soft Power in China — with the exception of Hong Kong and Macao — have had mixed success. Washington's struggle to establish mutual trust with Beijing is similar to that of Western European countries, and the tormented past and Chinese colonisation ...
The way great powers’ strategies influence the choice of a development path in oppressed societies
The classical soft power concept is not entirely sufficient to explain the phenomena of influence on transitional societies since traditional soft power tools virtually do not work there. We can see the full picture if we analyze the rivalry between the soft powers ...
... compounds in New York and Maryland states. Russian diplomats
were forced to move from
their American summer residences, because they
were suspected
to have used the compounds in electronic intelligence and espionage. Moscow, in its turn, denied such accusations and responded with the reciprocate measures.
2. U.S.–Russia political differences
Andrey Kortunov:
A Letter to John: Where Are U.S.–Russia Relations Headed?
Mutual suspicion between Russia and the West has been increasing since 2012, resulting ...
... provisions as well. The United States assumed the role of the unipolar power in the international arena after the end of the Cold War. The system predicated on mutual cooperation, legal practice, and the promotion of diplomacy and other channels of soft power extension that resulted after the end of the Second World War were no longer necessary. The United States no longer needed to, and, evidently, still does not need to, implement policy that is always concurrent with international law. So long ...
... exerting uncontested power at the expense of depriving the rest of the world of its voice in international politics. This strategy, though effective in the short-term in the securing of power and influence, ultimately cannot be sustained simply because all soft power capabilities are lost. The loss of legitimacy and credibility in diplomacy will not allow the powerful state to project its power in the long-term. Lastly, the leading state may choose to invest time and resources into generating a post-war,...
... to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the need to put an end to isolation, which is allegedly good for Russia, and so on. The United States in the most active of the external players in Armenia. Thus, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the key vehicle of American “soft power” in the world, had an official budget of $23 million in 2014. In 2015, it was increased to $27 million
[26]
.
REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili
Alexander Skakov:
Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: March Madness
However, we cannot rule out politicization ...
... of the Third World caused a reconsideration of foreign policy instruments as well, from the less-justified methods of direct force to mediated influence through setting an example and using persuasion.
Fifteen years later this would be called "soft power," but at the time, it was packed into a third, humanitarian "basket" of the Helsinki process.
The main deal involved exactly that — the Soviet Union agreed to the "third basket" and formal adherence to human rights ...