Abstract
This essay engages with the relevance of soft power in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The analysis suggests that we might be witnessing two distinct but interconnected developments when it comes to soft power: (a) the waning appeal of Western values, especially during major military conflicts that involve the West; and (b) the increasing prominence of anti-Western narratives as a branding or a soft power strategy by major non-Western powers like China and Russia. This essay calls for further de-Westernization of the study of soft power through a deeper engagement with conflicted perceptions of the appeal of Western values in the Global South, and with the opportunistic deployment of anti-Western rhetoric as a persuasion strategy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
2022, May 4. Brazil’s Ex-President Lula Claims Zelenskiy Equally to Blame for War. Reuters. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/04/brazil-lula-zelenskiy-blame-war.
Baykurt, B., and V. de Grazia, eds. 2021. Soft-Power Internationalism: Competing for Cultural Influence in the 21st-Century Global Order. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bouchet, N. 2022, May 9. How the War Could Reinforce Transatlantic Partnership. The Italian Institute for International Political Studies. https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/how-war-could-reinforce-transatlantic-relationship-34855.
Callahan, W.A. 2015. Identity and Security in China: The Negative Soft Power of the China Dream. Politics 35 (3–4): 216–229.
Cocks, T. 2022, March 18. South Africa’s Ramaphosa blames NATO for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safricas-ramaphosa-blames-nato-russias-war-ukraine-2022-03-17/.
Cole, B. 2022. May 26. Russia Squandered Decades Worth of Soft Power Gains Over Ukraine War. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-soft-power-shroeder-germany-1710312.
Huang, Z.A. 2022. ’Wolf Warrior’ and China’s Digital Public Diplomacy During the Covid-19 Crisis. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 18: 37–40.
Krastev, I., and M. Leonard. 2021. Culture. The Power Atlas. https://ecfr.eu/special/power-atlas/culture/.
Kuo, K. 2022, May 5. What Do Chinese People Think About the War in Ukraine? SupChina. https://supchina.com/2022/05/05/what-do-chinese-people-think-about-the-war-in-ukraine/.
Lock, E. 2010. Soft Power and Strategy: Developing a ‘Strategic’ Concept of Power. In Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. I. Parmar and C. Michael, 32–51. Abingdon: Routledge Press.
Martin, P. 2021. China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mattern, J.B. 2005. Why ‘Soft power’ Isn’t So Soft: Representational Force and the Sociolinguistic Construction of Attraction in World Politics. Millenium—Journal of International Studies 33 (3): 583–612.
Nye, J. 1990. Soft Power. Foreign Policy 80: 153–171.
Nye, J. 2009. Get Smart: Combining Hard and Soft Power. Foreign Affairs 88 (4): 160–163.
Nye, J. 2004. Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: PublicAffairs Press.
Nye, J. 2022. May 3. Soft Power After Ukraine. Project Syndicate. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/soft-power-after-russia-war-in-ukraine-by-joseph-s-nye-2022-05?barrier=accesspaylog.
Price, N. 2022, March 5. U.S. Multilateral Leadership on the Crisis in Ukraine. The U.S. Department of State Press Statement. https://www.state.gov/u-s-multilateral-leadership-on-the-crisis-in-ukraine/.
Repnikova, M. 2022a, June 1st. China’s Propaganda on the War in Ukraine. China Leadership Monitor 22 (72).
Repnikova, M. 2022b. Chinese Soft Power. Global China Element Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Repnikova, M., and Wendy Zhou. 2022, March 11. What China’s Social Media Is Saying About Ukraine. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/china-xi-ukraine-war-america/627028/.
Sanny, J. A.-N., and S. Edem. 2021, November 15. Africans welcome China’s influence but maintain democratic aspirations. Afrobarometer 489; https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/migrated/files/publications/Dispatches/ad489-pap3-africans_welcome_chinas_influence_maintain_democratic_aspirations-afrobarometer_dispatch-15nov21.pdf.
Yablokov, I. 2015. Conspiracy Theories as a Russian Public Diplomacy Tool: The Case of Russia Today (RT). Politics 35 (3–4): 301–315.
Wunderlich, U. 2022, April 5. Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: A Turning Point for European Integration? The London School of Economics and Political Science Blog; https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/04/05/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-a-turning-point-for-european-integration/.
Zahran, G., and L. Ramos. 2010. From Hegemony to Soft Power: Implications of a Conceptual Change. In Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. I. Parmar and C. Michael, 12–32. Abingdon: Routledge Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Submission for Special Ukraine Forum.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Repnikova, M. Russia’s war in Ukraine and the fractures in Western soft power. Place Brand Public Dipl 19, 190–194 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-022-00282-2
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-022-00282-2