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On the Instrumentality of Soft Power; or Putin Against Democracy Promotion

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Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2017

Part of the book series: NL ARMS ((NLARMS))

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Abstract

This chapter links democracy promotion to soft power in order to highlight how the spread of democracy has changed the balance of power between the West and Russia. It considers Putin’s speech to the 2015 United Nations General Assembly as his intellectual response to democracy promotion and democratization. In the last four decades, democratization added significantly to the number of states on friendly terms with the West, in particular extending its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. In response Putin invokes realism as a denial of the agency of pro-democracy protesters. Contrary to both Putin and soft power theory, this chapter argues that the agents of change are individuals and non-governmental organizations who operate largely independent of state power. While they produce outcomes conducive to Western interests, Western states cannot control their activities without irreparable damage to their own societies’ core values.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Putin 2015. All quotes are from the version published by the ‘Office of the President of Russia’.

  2. 2.

    Nye 1990, p. 166.

  3. 3.

    Doorenspleet 2005. See also Huntington 1991.

  4. 4.

    Hale 2013.

  5. 5.

    Karatnycky 2005.

  6. 6.

    Kinsman 2011.

  7. 7.

    Cited in Roser 2016.

  8. 8.

    Baudet 2008. As Traub 2017 points out, US democracy promotion dates back to Woodrow Wilson but the US nevertheless supported dictators throughout the Cold War; the present author follows Baudet’s argument that the change in policy ties into the Helsinki process. See Chap. 4 by Baudet in this Volume.

  9. 9.

    For a recent summary of the debates surrounding democratic peace theory, see Hayes 2011. For an overview of the empirical record, see Dafoe 2011.

  10. 10.

    Zakaria 1997, 2003.

  11. 11.

    E.g. Diamond 2016; Polyakova et al. 2016; Munich Security Report 2017.

  12. 12.

    Zakaria 1997, p. 42.

  13. 13.

    Wilhelmsen 2006.

  14. 14.

    E.g. Huntington 1991; Way 2011.

  15. 15.

    Rothman 2011a.

  16. 16.

    Tsygankov 2015. Though Tsygankov only discusses the conflict in Ukraine, the point can easily be extended to Syria.

  17. 17.

    Putin 2015.

  18. 18.

    Allen 2014.

  19. 19.

    An alternative explanation (Larson and Shevchenko 2014) is that Russian policy is motivated by resentment, which also subconsciously affects the language used by its leaders. Considering the scrutiny routinely given to big speeches by leaders of major states, I assume that Putin’s tone is intentional.

  20. 20.

    Carr 2001; Schmitt 2007.

  21. 21.

    Schouten 2010.

  22. 22.

    Sakwa 2013.

  23. 23.

    Putin 2015.

  24. 24.

    Kissinger 2014; Mearsheimer 2014. Tsygankov 2015 pays more attention to domestic factors, specifically to historical and cultural ties between Russia and Ukraine; his critique of the Russian imperialism thesis also negates one half of the realist explanation.

  25. 25.

    Nye 2011, p. 16. This is the most commonly reproduced definition; variants, both by Nye and by others, usually specify means and outcomes.

  26. 26.

    Nye 2002.

  27. 27.

    Nye 2011, p. 20.

  28. 28.

    Nye 2011, p. 12.

  29. 29.

    Wilson 2015, p. 290.

  30. 30.

    Tsygankov 2013. See also Wilson 2015.

  31. 31.

    Bogomolov and Lytvynenko 2012.

  32. 32.

    Lukes 2005; Mattern 2005.

  33. 33.

    Lukes 2005, p. 487; see also Lebow 2005.

  34. 34.

    Mattern 2005, p. 591.

  35. 35.

    Mattern 2005, p. 596.

  36. 36.

    Lukes 2005; Mattern 2005.

  37. 37.

    The metaphor is from Keohane and Nye 1977.

  38. 38.

    Tilly 1978.

  39. 39.

    Tucker 2007.

  40. 40.

    Hale 2013. See also Snow and Benford 1992; Saideman 2012.

  41. 41.

    Goldstone 2011.

  42. 42.

    Hale 2013.

  43. 43.

    Goldstone 2011; Hess 2016.

  44. 44.

    Rothman 2011b.

  45. 45.

    Hussain and Howard 2013; Little 2016.

  46. 46.

    Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategy (no date).

  47. 47.

    Hale 2013, p. 342.

  48. 48.

    Solonenko 2009.

  49. 49.

    McFaul 2007.

  50. 50.

    Strange 1987.

  51. 51.

    Roser 2016.

  52. 52.

    It is possible to do so from the other side, even without foregoing the benefits of the internet altogether. See Rod and Weidmann 2015.

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  1. Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands

    Maarten Rothman

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  1. Maarten Rothman
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  1. Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands

    Paul A.L. Ducheine

  2. Faculty of Military Sciences, Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands

    Frans P.B. Osinga

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Rothman, M. (2017). On the Instrumentality of Soft Power; or Putin Against Democracy Promotion. In: Ducheine, P., Osinga, F. (eds) Netherlands Annual Review of Military Studies 2017. NL ARMS. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-189-0_3

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