Soft power

Studiu de caz: China și Rusia

Abstract

This research seeks to analyse the growing importance of the concept of soft power in international relations through
the policies of two authoritarian states, China and Russia, to illustrate how they have approached this issue. In order
to make a clearer analysis, we examined the concept introduced by the political scientist Joseph Nye three decades
ago and the implications it had for the states of the world. We conducted two case studies to highlight the impact of
this concept on states that are representative of hard power. We followed the evolution of soft power and the way it
was perceived, approached and transposed in the policies carried out by the Russian and Chinese states, externally,
but also internally. We will try to emphasize the main soft resources that these states have and we will analyse
their discourse to identify the main elements of the soft power owned by the two states. Also, the foreign policy
undertaken by these states is another important element so as to see how the two state actors have moved away from
the definition offered by the American political scientist Nye to adapt this concept to their needs. We will evaluate
the major obstacles that hinder the assertion of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China as soft
powers in the world. At the end of the paper, we will present the fundamental ideas regarding the influence that the
concept has had on international relations, and the limitations of the study.