Weakened from Within: Russia's Disinformation War on American Soft Power

Abstract

Currently, the United States’ relationship with Russia is as confrontational as it has been since the height of the Cold War. In early January 2017, the U.S. intelligence community published a joint report on Russia’s campaign to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The report concluded that the goals of the campaign, which was directly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, “were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process”, to damage Secretary Hilary Clinton’s reputation and electability, and to improve the electoral prospects of current President Donald J. Trump. The issue of Russian disinformation has, since, taken center stage in the American political discourse. However, the Kremlin’s recent use of disinformation is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the Putin regime has simply applied the operational techniques of KGB-era “active measures” to modern digital technology, with the aim of exacerbating polarization among Western publics and destabilizing Western liberal democratic institutions. This thesis evaluates the threat that Russian disinformation poses to the United States ability to conduct effective foreign policy in the global information era. More specifically, it presents a theoretical framework based on Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power to explain how foreign public attitudes towards American culture, values, and foreign policies influence the United States’ ability to secure its objectives in world politics. This thesis argues that soft power, the attractive power of a nation’s culture and political values, plays an essential role in creating an “enabling environment” for the Untied States’ medium and long-term interests. In the modern global information age, the social, political, and economic costs of coercive military and economic strategies increasingly outweigh their benefits. As globalization and the spread of the Internet continue to cause power in world politics to be diffused among a wider range of both state and non-state actors, the ability to cooperate with others will become an even more essential component of successful foreign policy strategies. This thesis then analyzes the effect of the Russian disinformation war on American soft power. It first presents a review of the use of disinformation in the Soviet Union and discusses the similarities between Soviet-era subversive techniques and the current regime’s disinformation program. Next, this thesis contends that, by undermining public support for the liberal values and institutions that serve as the foundation of American soft power, Russia’s disinformation program poses a threat both to America’s ability to promote its foreign policy agenda, as well as to the stability of the liberal democratic world order. In other words, by encouraging the rise of anti-Americanism, nationalism, and isolationism in countries throughout the world, the Kremlin’s disinformation program threatens the United States’ ability to build cooperative relationships with other nations and promote its interests abroad. Moreover, this thesis finds that, by exacerbating distrust in the democratic process and undermining support for multilateralism and liberal values, the Putin regime has damaged the ability of the U.S. and its Western allies to promote cooperation within the current international system. Finally, this thesis concludes with an assessment of the policy implications of Russia’s disinformation war on American soft power.