Russia's soft power in the post Soviet space

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2009

Öğrenci: HASAN SELİM ÖZERTEM

Danışman: OKTAY FIRAT TANRISEVER

Özet:

This thesis seeks to examine Russian foreign policy in the post-Soviet era and its evolution in terms of Russia’s use of soft power in the post-Soviet space. Contrary to the views that consider Russia exclusively as a hard power, this thesis argues that Russia has started to develop its soft power capabilities and how to use its soft power effectively in the post-Soviet space, especially since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s second Presidential term in 2004. In this context, Russia pursues a proactive foreign policy particularly in the spheres of language and education, which are important elements of its soft power. The thesis is composed of three main chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion chapters. The first main chapter discusses the evolution of the soft power concept in Russian foreign policy by analyzing the period of 1992-2008. The second chapter seeks to analyze the position of Russian language in the CIS countries as lingua franca. The last chapter examines the Russian education system and the attraction of its higher education institutes for students from the CIS countries.