PROJECTING “SOFT POWER:” AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN POST-SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA
Abstract
The April 2010 coup in Kyrgyzstan and the ethnic clashes in the south in June attracted a lot of media and academic attention. Laymen and experts alike associated the events in Bishkek and Osh with the interests of external actors: extraterritorial criminal/terrorist structures, neighboring countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, and Afghanistan), and Russia and the United States in particular. The very fact that Washington and Moscow recognized the interim government of Roza Otunbaeva was interpreted as its legitimization, once more the U.S. and the Russian Federation (a global and regional power, respectively) showed their determination to remain key players in Central Asia.
China, another important regional power with vast economic interests in the Central Asian Soviet successor-states, was very much concerned with the flare-up on its northwestern borders: in 2009, the region was shaken by riots among the local Uighurs.
The European Union and the “medium sized powers” (Iran and Turkey) likewise have certain interests in Central Asia
Downloads
References
A.D. Bogaturov, A.S. Dundich, E.F. Troitsky, Tsentral’naia Azia: “otlozhenny neytralitet” i mezhduna-rodnye otnoshenia v 2000-kh godakh. Ocherki tekushchey politiki, Issue 4, NOFMO, Moscow, 2010, p. 7.
For the terminological problems created by using the term “soft” power” in discussions in Russian, see: I.A. Zeve-lev, M.A. Troitsky, Sila i vlianie v amerikano-rossiyskikh otnosheniakh: semiotichesky analiz. Ocherki tekushchey politiki, Issue 2, Nauchno-obrazovatelny forum po mezhd-unarodnym otnosheniam, Moscow, 2006, 72 pp.
M.V. Starchak, “Rossiyskoe obrazovanie na russkom iazyke kak factor vliania Rossii v Tsentral’noy Azii: chto proiskhodit i chto delat,” available at [http://www.russkiymir.ru/russkiymir/ru/analytics/article/news0003.html], 29 July,2010.
See: A.E. Kramer, “Before Kyrgyz Uprising, Dose of Russian Soft Power,” The New York Times, 18 April, 2010,available at [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/world/asia/19kyrgyz.html], 29 July, 2010.
See: R.W. Orttung, “Russia’s Use of PR as a Foreign Policy Tool,” Russian Analytical Digest. Russian Public Relations and Soft Power, No. 81, 16 June, 2010, p. 8, available at [http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?ots591=0c54e3b3-1e9c-be1e-2c24-a6a8c7060233&lng=en&id=117631], 30 July, 2010.
J. Lichtenstein, “Digital Diplomacy,” The New York Times Magazine, 12 July, 2010, available at [http://www.
ytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18web2-0-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2], 29 July, 2010.
E. Morozov, “The Digital Dictatorship,” The Wall Street Journal, 20 February, 2010, available at [http://online.
sj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983004575073911147404540.html], 29 July, 2010.
J. Bohnen, J.-F. Kallmorgen, “How Web 2.0 is Changing Politics,” Atlantis Che Initiative, available at [http://www.Atlantic community.org/app/Webroot/files/article pdf/Web_2.0_Change_Politics.PDF], 30 July 2010.
The Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, available at [http:/rs.gov.ru]; Russkiy Mir Fund, available at [http://www.russkiymir.ru].
See: “American Corners in the World,” available at [http://www.americancorner.hu/htmls/american_corners_ In_the_world.html], 29 July, 2010. The list is far from complete: information related to the Central Asian countries can be found on the websites of the respective U.S. embassies.
See, for example: E. Golinger, “Conspiracy and Propaganda Centers: Illegal US Consulates in Venezuela,” YVKE Radio Mundial. Axis of Logic, Saturday, 28 March, 2009, available at [http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_
shtml], 29 July, 2010.
See: “Dmitry Medvedev podpisal rasporiazhenie ‘O sozdanii Fonda podderzhki publichnoy diplomatii imeni A.M. Gorchakova,” Prezident Rossii, 3 February, 2010, available at [http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/6780], 29 July, 2010.
See: “Emomali Rakhmon: russkiy yazyk v Tadzhikistane ne ushchemliaetsia,” Vesti.ru, 22 October, 2009, avail-able at [http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=321960], 29 July, 2010.
See: M. Zygar, “Tadzhikistan reformiruiut do posledney bukvy,” Kommersant, No. 50 (3626), 28 March, 2007,available at [http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?fromsearch=73d0cd46-4a50-47e8-b734-07b4c06eb219&docsid=753739],29 July, 2010.
See: “Nazarbaev zakhotel uvidet Borata i priglasil britantsev v Kazakhstan,” News.ru, 22 November, 2006, available at [http://www.newsru.org/world/22nov2006/borrat.html], 29 July, 2010.
“Minkult Kazakhstana: positivny “Borat” vyzval takuiu zhe reaktsiu, kak kogda-to ‘Revizor’ Gogolia,” News.ru,21 November, 2006, available at [http://www.newsru.org/cinema/21nov2006/borat_and_kazaxi.html], 29 July, 2010.
E. Abdullaev, “‘Obraz Rossii’ v sovremennom Uzbekistane: pamiat, vytesnenie, transformatsia,” in: Rossia i ES v Tsentral’noy Azii. Doklady Instituta Evropy RAN, No. 222, ed. by M. Nosov, IE RAS, Moscow, 2008, pp. 66-90.
E. Abdullaev, op. cit.
See: M.V. Starchak, op. cit.
A.V. Dolinskiy, “Prakticheskie voprosy optimizatsii rossiiskoy publichnoy diplomatii,” Vserossiyskiy konkurs in-tellectualnykh proektov ‘Derzhava.’ Nominatsia ‘Russkiy mir’, available at [www.fondedin.ru/dok/dolinskiy.pdf], 29 July,2010, p. 12.
See: E. Abdullaev, op. cit., p. 66.
S.V. Bespalov, A.V. Vlasov, P.V. Golubtsov, A.A. Kazantsev, A.V. Karavaev, V.N. Merkushev, “Pozitivnye ster-eotipy obraza Rossii v postsovetskoy Evrazii,” Informatzionno-analiticheskiy Tsentr izuchenia obshchestvenno-po-liticheskikh protsessov na postsovetskom prostranstve, 11 January, 2008, available at [http://www.ia-centr.ru/expert/206/],29 July, 2010.
D. Trenin, “Vneshniaia politika Rossii: samoutverzhdenie ili mobilizatsionny resurs?” Polit.ru, 13 May, 2008,available at [http://www.polit.ru/institutes/2008/05/13/vneshpol.html], 29 July, 2010.
This is amply confirmed by the republic’s branding “Astana—the Hearth of Eurasia” at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai (see: “EXPO 2010 Shanghai China,” available at [http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_gj_tpl_82.htm], 29 July, 2010).
See: E. Abdullaev, op. cit., p. 67.
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov was absent from the Victory Parade in Moscow on 9 May, 2010; a very
significant fact.
See: “National Security Education Program,” available at [http://www.nsep.gov].
See: Shah Mahmud, “Potentsial ‘narodnoy diplomatii’ i znachenie ee primenenia v Afganistane,” Afghanistan.Ru,3 May, 2009, available at [http://www.afghanistan.ru/doc/14632.html], 29 July, 2010.
A. Volos, “Dushanbintsy vsekh stran, ob’ediniaytes!,” available at [http://dushanbe1.narod.ru/_chronicle/
olos.html], 29 July, 2010.
See: V Tadzhikistane zapretili prodazhu filma Nasha Russia: Yaytsa sudby,” Ferghana.Ru, 6 April, 2010, availa-ble at [http://www.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=14361&mode=snews], 29 July, 2010.
“Rossia: Dvizhenie ‘Tadzhikskie trudovye migranty’ potrebovalo zapretit film Yaytsa sudby i komediynoe show ‘Nasha Russia’,” Ferghana.Ru, 22 March, 2010, available at [http://www.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=14275&mode=snews],29 July, 2010.
“Prosveshchennaia elita: interview E.M. Primakova,” Rossiiskaia gazeta (Nedelia), No. 5129, 1 March, 2010, available at [http://www.rg.ru/2010/03/11/primakov.html], 29 July 2010.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 AUTHOR
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.