says that Russia's use of cyber technology for information warfare is disruptive, not attractive.

Comments 6

信息战和软实力

May 9, 2017 Joseph S. Nye

坎布里奇——俄罗斯干预2016年美国总统大选，并被怀疑入侵法国总统伊曼纽尔·马克龙的竞选服务器不会令任何人感到吃惊，因为弗拉基米尔·普京总统理解（或者说误解）了软实力。在2012年再度当选之前，普京告诉莫斯科的一家报纸“软实力是通过信息和其他影响力手段不必借助武力也能实现外交政策目标的一系列复杂的方法和工具。”

在克里姆林宫看来，邻国的颜色革命和阿拉伯之春起义是美国将软实力应用于新型混合战争的实例。软实力的概念被纳入俄“2013年外交政策概念”，而在2016年3月，俄罗斯总参谋长瓦列里·格拉西莫夫指出用“常规部队来响应这样的外国威胁是不可能的；我们只能用同样的混合方法来进行抵御。”

软实力是什么？有人认为是军事力量以外的任何行动，但这种认识并不准确。软实力不是通过强制或收买，而是通过吸引和说服来达到既定目的的能力。

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 5 in all 5 Comments on this article

Thomas Lloyd Jun 13, 2017

This article is similar to President Donal T Rump's campaign of identifying the problems America workers faced and still face as he and his chaotic government, and I use the term loosely. is incapable of doing anything about. Russia is one country with pretentions of grandeur lacking the great empire it never had. Its economy is on par with Italy, the main difference is a gullible populace who can be led by the nose and nuclear weapons. They were not used in the last Cold War and will not be used now. If Putin wants to meddle in other states affairs more sanctions need to put against Russia. Europe needs to wean itself off Russian gas, and renew efforts for renewables and yes nuclear. Russia needs to be treated as it is, and the UN security council needs to be reformed with Russia out of the picture. Japan? I will leave that open.
j. von Hettlingen May 13, 2017

Joseph S. Nye is known for coining the phrase "soft power" in 1990, explaining the ability of a state to get others to do what it wants by the power of attraction, rather than by coercion or "hard power", which focuses on the use of military and economic strength. For decades America's pop culture, technology, foreign aid etc. have been harbingers of American soft power. Despite politics - the lunatic Trump presidency - and economy - sluggish growth and skyrocketing debt - its soft power still retains its influence.
Since Putin's return as a third-term president in 2012, he saw the "color revolutions" in Russia's backyard and the Arab Spring uprisings as "examples" of American soft power in "a new form of hybrid warfare." In response Russia has also developed its own "hybrid warfare" - the blend of unidentified troops, that were involved in the 2014 annexation of Crimea and backing the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine; propaganda and fake news "generated and promoted by paid trolls and mechanical bots." Russia has "perfected these techniques" - waging an information warfare by means of cyber technology. Propaganda and fake news are nothing new. In fact the Kremlin has taken a page from the Cold War playbook, using old tools to counter new threats.
Russia has its own interpretation of "soft power" which is very different from the one in the West. In 2013 Putin named the 21st century Orthodox power as a more sophisticated vision of Russia. In his speech, he claimed that Western leaders had been responsible for the loss of human dignity by promoting a secular worldview and rejecting Christianity. He highlighted Russia's "unique experience" of mutual enrichment of diverse cultures within its borders and urged its citizens to feel a common identity.
Putin was keen on restoring Russia's status and influence it enjoyed abroad during the Cold War. His "ideology of traditionalism, state sovereignty, and national exclusivity...resonated in countries like Hungary," which has become an "illiberal democracy" under Victor Orbán, and the "diaspora along Russia’s borders, in impoverished countries of Central Asia, and among right-wing populist movements in Western Europe."
Under the banner of "defending the values of European civilisation," Marine Le Pen called for "an advanced strategic alliance" with Moscow. Russia's rising soft power has attracted a number of Euroskeptic parties and countries across Europe. Rejecting Western institutions, like NATO and the EU, Putin created a number of eastward-pivoting economic and political alternatives - the Eurasian Economic Union, the economic and military overtures to China, robust support for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, etc. that aim to cement Russian influence in former Soviet Republics.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union placed much emphasis on showing the superiority of its culture and educational system. Vast sums of money were spent on human resources - dancers of the Kirov and Bolshoi ballet ensembles, and classical musicians enjoyed global fame. Russian teams won more gold than their American counterparts at the Olympics. Neverthess the Soviets had limits of expanding their soft power. It was only in 1989 when Mikhail Gorbachev brought the Cold War to an end with his Glasnost and Perestroika that the USSR won praise and acclaim in the West.
Although the conventional threats of the Cold War are gone and Donald Trump, who had during his campaign vowed to mend fences with Russia, Americans haven't been able to shrug off the misgivings about how the Kremlin had interfered in their last year presidential election. A whole series of recent events suggest that Russia, apart from using its military might, also resorts to "negative soft power" in its pursuit of national interests. The international community has to "inoculate /itself/ against the process."
Oleksandr Aleksandrovych May 12, 2017

In addition to the excellent presentation of the concept of "soft power" by its "father" Joseph Nye, let me just point out its understanding and instrumentalization by Soviet/Russsian KGB/FSB (according to Yuri Bezmenov), namely:
Soft power means promoting your own values,
while the so called "active measures" means always an aggressive destruction of another's values.
Russian ballet can be labeled as soft power, while Russian fake news are part of active measures".
Karl Barber May 10, 2017

According to Pew Research Center, people in Russia now have the least favorable opinion of the United States https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-development-patient-capital-by-justin-yifu-lin-and-yan-wang-2-2017-05 Does it mean that the U.S. information warfare failed in terms of generating soft power? :)

China's soft power is growing to respond to the U.S. information warfare and false analysis https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-development-patient-capital-by-justin-yifu-lin-and-yan-wang-2-2017-05
vivek iyer May 10, 2017

Nye says Soft power isn't about spending money. He then says the Marshall Plan, which was about spending very large amounts of money, was a Soft power instrument.
Nye invented the term 'soft power'. It appears it means anything he wants it to mean. The CIA was an instrument in the Cold War. It used disinformation as did various US subsidised Radio Stations and Magazines and intervened in Elections with cash and fake news. Nye isn't calling the CIA a soft power instrument today- at least in this article. Give him time.
Why mention the Voice of America? It was and is worthless. They've simply given up on Russian and Hindi and other significant languages. Why does Nye think that bureaucratic white elephant yielded America any Soft Power?

http://prosyn.org/EWg5Sto/zh;

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信息战和软实力

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