THE SOFT POWER OF RUSSIA

Abstract

The original concept of "soft power", as thought by Joseph Nye, is organized around the principle of attraction. Accumulating and projecting one's "power gentle", it is above all to try to make it attractive to people and targeted governments abroad, primarily mobilizing resources from civil society. This approach prevails in most liberal democracies and generally applies to their instruments of “public diplomacy”: cultural institutes, international media, NGOs, creative industries or design agencies public relations. However, adopting the concept and practices of soft power by illiberal, semi-authoritarian or authoritarian states, invites us to question interpreting Nye's concept and redefining its priorities outside the framework democratic-liberal.