CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Collins, Cheryl |
|---|---|
| Title | Russian Soft Power: Criminal Networks as a Force of Attraction |
| Summary | Since Joseph Nye first discussed and popularized the concept in 1990, “soft power” has been associated with influence through the “attraction” of Western values. With the end of the Soviet Union, Nye’s notion of soft power immediately gained traction as a policy concept, as Western politicians and administrators looked to project their influence in the new states. Western nations and institutions sought to instrumentalize soft power by directly and indirectly supporting nonstate actors such as civil society groups and “democracy promotion” programs that advocated social and economic liberalization in the nations “in transition.” For these reasons, scholars have consistently connected soft power to Western liberal values and the expansion of liberal ideals, culture, and norms. However, as Keating and Kaczmarska have recently argued, soft power via attraction is also used by illiberal states such as Russia to promote culturally conservative values. I propose the further expansion of the concept of illiberal soft power to include the influence exerted by Russian state–linked criminal networks and their value set, which are reflective of and intertwined with Russia’s political and economic system. I examine how criminal organizations aligned to the Russian state function in ways comparable to the private actors used by Western institutions and governments to align individuals and states with their norms and values. I follow with a case study examining the Russian state’s use of a criminal organization in a foreign policy matter of high importance: dominance of Ukraine via the energy sector via an intermediary company called RosUkrEnergo. |
| Supervisor | Reshetnikov, Anatoly |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/collins_cheryl.pdf |
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