The course aims to introduce the key assumptions of the international relations theory as a part of social science and as an analytic tool, focusing on the problems of war and peace, foreign policy decision-making, etc. The course combines historic approach and analysis of the modern political problems. The historic part shows the evolution of the international relations theory from being a part of political philosophy to its emergence as a special branch of political science, which is essential to understand the key ideas of the IR science. The lectures also include broad outline of the modern concepts and debates in the context of the contemporary political problems, such as rise of China and other emerging powers, threat of terrorism, US-Russia confrontation, etc. The lectures of the two outstanding Russian scholars and political analysts – Timofey Bordachev and Dmitry Suslov - cover such fields as the problems of international security and conflict resolution, international economic relations, foreign policy decision-making, global governance, the role of power in the IR.
Soft power
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En provenance du cours de National Research University Higher School of Economics
Understanding International Relations Theory
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National Research University Higher School of Economics
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Power in international relations
Power is the fundamental category of political science. What is power in IR and how can we classify it? What is the balance of power concept? Which state is the most powerful in the world and can a non-state actor dominate the world politics? The module give answers to these and other questions relating the topic.
Rencontrer les enseignants
Timofei BordachevAssociate professor
Department of international relations
Dmitrii SuslovSenior Lecturer
Department of international relations, HSE
The third type of power,
as proposed by Edward Hallett Carr,
was the power over minds,
power over brains, or the power of propaganda.
Later on, this idea of Carr was developed into the concept of soft power.
The concept of soft power,
invented American political scientist, Joseph Nye,
and this course emphasizes the role of ideas and image in the world politics.
So, from the perspective of Joseph Nye,
not only physical dimension matters,
not only how many helicopters, tanks,
or other military capabilities,
but also not only how strong is your economy,
matters for your success in the international affairs,
but also how attractive you are,
how your ideas, how your even style of life is attractive for the others.
So, Joseph Nye believes that if people in a certain country look at
the situation in the other country and
find that the life of the likes there is much better,
then they enjoy more freedoms and economic prosperity,
those people can influence their own government
to conduct a policy which closer to the country where people live better.
And thus, that image matters in the world politics,
how the others see you and not your physical capabilities.
Joseph Nye wrote in his book,
"Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics," that a country may
obtain the outcomes it wants in
world politics because other countries admiring its values,
emulating its example, aspiring to its level of
prosperity and openness want to follow it.
According to Joseph Nye concept,
soft power is first of all,
the ability to get others to want the outcome that you want,
and it rests on the ability to shape the preferences of the others.
So we can see that the purpose of power does not
change as well as it was with military power or economic power.
The purpose of power application is to change the others' minds,
is to change and influence the others' behavior.
But this goal is achieved by the different means.
It is achieved by the action which takes place primarily on your own territory.
You make yourself better and the others start to like you and start follow your example.
Soft power, according to the Joseph Nye, is attractive power,
the power to encourage others to do what you want
them to do without forcing them to do so.
So, if you have enough soft power,
you don't need to send your army.
You don't need to introduce economic sanctions.
You need only to look good for the others.
You need to be attractive.
So, Joseph Nye wrote that soft power is
essentially about getting others to want the outcomes that you want,
and the soft power co-opts people, engages with people,
rather than coerces them,
and this is a very essential,
central point of the soft power theory.
However, as any sort of power,
soft power also has its limits.
First of all, the limit is non-accessibility of soft power.
Many elements of soft power are beyond the control of political leaders
or policy makers and not readily available as instruments of policy.
But we can also say and believe that in order to exercise your soft power,
you need to have access to the territory and to the audience or your partner.
Look at the example of North Korea, very closed country.
I don't think that the Western democracies or the United States have
enough soft power to influence the population
of this country because the borders are closed.
You cannot show your television programs.
You cannot send your newspapers to this country.
However, you cannot send your newspapers even to China.
And the government is controlling the minds of people by limiting the borders,
by limiting the potential of the others to get
direct access to the subordinates over certain government.
The second limitation of soft power is non-fungibility of power.
Soft power may not be able to substitute for hard power.
Look at the map, for example.
Countries like Austria, Sweden,
and Italy, they have a great soft power.
People like these countries for one or another reason.
People want to live there.
People want to go there as a tourist,
but it doesn't help them in promoting their international agenda.
Despite being such attractive,
many countries in the world are not influential in the world politics.
The another limitation of soft power is about its non-tranferability.
It's time and space-bound.
Yesterday's soft power may not be effective or appropriate today or tomorrow.
What passes as soft power in one place may not in another.
What people find attractive today can become not so attractive tomorrow.
So, even if now, people like you,
even now you can be leading power in terms of
the soft power and influence of the others, tomorrow,
the situation can change,
and you cannot keep this power how you can keep
your military capabilities or economic capabilities.
And last but not least,
the limitation of soft power is that it needs lots of money and lots of effort.
Long-term investment is required for building soft power.
So, for many newcomers to the international scene,
soft power is highly accessible because they just arrived,
because they need to invest in their own development,
not into building of their soft power abroad.
Let us look at the several cases of how
the soft power has been exercised during the international relations history.
First case is about the role of the Rome,
the Vatican, and the church in the Medieval Europe.
In the Medieval Europe, religion, and therefore,
the church played an extremely important role in
all aspects of people's life, including politics.
Basically, Roman Popes decided for the princes
and sovereigns how they should conduct the relations between them.
And the Roman Pope could punish
sovereigns if they misbehaved in his understanding or the behavior.
It all allowed the Pope to struggle for political supremacy and even hegemony in Europe,
while the so-called Papal State fight for the leadership in
Italy with other Italian states and even neighbor kingdoms.
Nowadays, Vatican remains influential actor on the world politics,
despite its size hardly is larger than 60 football fields put together.
The reason is rather simple.
The church has one billion of Catholics behind it influencing their minds and values.
Another case is the Qatar,
which can be called a media great power.
It is example of the state,
which power on opinion allows it to play
an improportional important political role still being a small state in the Persian Gulf.
One of the most important sources Qatar's power over opinion is Al-Jazeera,
a Global TV channel with a huge influence in the Arabic world,
more than 40 million of viewers in
the Arabic world and several millions outside of the region.
Al-Jazeera, a television, allows very,
very tiny Qatar to influence public opinion in the Arabic countries and in the West.
For instance, Arab Spring in 2010,
2011 was hugely supported by the Al-Jazeera's media resources.
And consequently, that led to the change from
the regime in the several Middle East and Northern African countries.
So, let us look other countries with the largest soft power potential.
And more of the top 10 countries that hold the most soft power,
neither Russia nor China economic and military superpower are present.
However, the number one is France,
which influence on the world affairs is much
more limited than it has been during the previous centuries.
The number two is the United Kingdom,
which can pretend to be
an important international player but not as it has been nearly one century ago.
The unique position is taken by the United States of America.
Being military superpower, economic superpower,
United States are also leading in terms of the soft power potential.
Many people in the world,
in Africa, Latin America, or Asia,
or even Europe wants to live in
the United States because this country offers them lots of opportunities.
And then, we see that the other countries like Germany,
Canada, and Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden,
and Netherlands are relatively much less
important in the international affairs than the United States,
and China, and Russia,
which are not present on this graph.
So, before we come to the conclusion of
our conversation about the role of power in international affairs,
let us try to measure our power to
summarize what has been said during our today's lecture.
And we will see that a more complex understanding of power nowadays
reflects the objective complexity of the modern international politics.
So, how we see power,
how we understand power now is a direct reflection on what is the world about,
that world has changed not only military or economic power matters,
but also power over minds.
And unlike several centuries ago,
when military power was almost the only source of influence,
today, analysts and strategists have to take
into consideration many other aspects of power and influence.
For scholars, it is both theoretical and practical challenge.
Who is strong, emerging China or stagnating, but technologically-capable Europe?
Small, but developed Singapore or larger,
but much poor Indonesia?
Which aspect of power will be the most important in the future?
Answers to these questions may bring peace or cause a conflict.
It means that like many centuries ago,
power remains a fundamental element of the international politics.
Now, let us look at the basic readings,
which can be proposed to develop our knowledge
about the nature of power and the role of power in the international relations.
Of course, we should look at the works of Edward Carr,
Hans Morgenthau, Joseph Nye,
but some other scholars are also very much applicable and
their works are very useful to understand the nature of power,
the most important factor which shapes international politics.
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