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International student recruitment in Russia: heavy-handed approach and soft power comeback
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Malinovskiy S, Chankseliani M.
The chapter examines how the Russian federal government has been driving international student recruitment with attempts to force the modernization of higher education (HE) and promote soft power interests. We provide an overview of Soviet policies related to international student mobility, scrutinize the cyclic and multi-rational educational transformation that has been taking place since the 1990s, and reflect on the implications for the future. We explain the rationale of HE internationalization in contemporary Russia and show that the government’s reforms have focused on the political rationale inherited from Soviet times, combined with the heavy-handed modernization policy to fit in the context of global competition. This curious combination encourages higher education institutions to fixate on meeting government-led performance indicators, preserving the current structure of student mobility concentrated in a few institutions, and creating constraints for the development of academic excellence in Russian HE.
In book
Hong Cong: Springer, 2018.
Claire Amuhaya, Denis Degterev, , in: Understanding Soft Power in Africa. The Power of Attraction from Pretoria to Beijing.: Routledge, 2025. Ch. 14 P. 178–193.
The East African Community (EAC) is often used as a yardstick by the Africa Regional Integration Index, which at times cites it as the most integrated regional bloc. Recently, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) joined the EAC seduced by its perspectives, and now, member states of the Community stretch from ...
Added: July 13, 2026
Routledge, 2025.
Negative images of Africa, which define the continent as being riven with poverty, crime, or war, are increasingly being challenged. Examples of soft power, such as Nigeria’s Nollywood, athletic successes in Kenya, Rwanda’s commercial diplomacy, and South Africa’s liberal constitution, are all reasserting African agency and shaping more positive understandings of the continent.
This book considers ...
Added: July 13, 2026
Polina A. Voronova, Varpahovskis E., Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Bulletin of International Relations 2025 Vol. 25 No. 4 P. 580–597
Despite the growing academic interest in the field of cultural diplomacy, research of how this phenomenon evolves and transforms in one of its most prolific users, France, remains limited. A review of the literature on cultural diplomacy reveals a paucity of attention to institutional aspects, despite institutional reforms having the potential to effect transformative changes ...
Added: January 7, 2026
Nikiporets-Takigawa G., Филатов О. А., Политическая экспертиза: ПОЛИТЭКС 2025 Т. 21 № 2 С. 244–256
The "Taiwan issue" is becoming particularly relevant in terms of the current international situation, from the problem of relations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait it is transforming into the most important factor of the Sino-American confrontation and, thereby, security in APR. Taiwan also represents the example of the policies of national territorial entities ...
Added: December 5, 2025
Varpahovskis E., Anastasiia Borisenko, Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia 2025 Vol. 24 No. 2 P. 136–162
Prominent video games such as Genshin Impact have been increasingly recognized asinstrumental vectors for the diffusion of information, possessing the capacity to shape attitudesand behaviors across diverse life spheres. This study employs a bifurcated methodologicalapproach involving primary and secondary data: firstly, a functional ludostylistic analysis ofthe game’s semiotic structures, and secondly, a series of in-depth ...
Added: December 5, 2025
Mokhova E., Журнал "Петербургский международный юридический форум - 2025" 2025
The article is devoted to regional model laws as a significant direction in the development of advanced legal standards. In global agenda regional model laws can become a means of influence of a regional association of a group of states in the legal space, contributing to the ‘soft law’ acting as a ‘soft power’ ...
Added: May 23, 2025
Golovlev A., Новая и новейшая история 2025 Т. 69 № 2 С. 165–177
This article examines Austria’s “Auslandskulturpolitik” (foreign cultural policy) as a distinctively Austrian form of cultural diplomacy. Unlike Germany, France, Italy, or the United States, Austria faces the challenge of representing a small, neutral European country with special ties to Central and Eastern Europe while aspiring to a leading cultural role. The study is based on ...
Added: March 14, 2025
Смагин Е. А., В кн.: Шестнадцатые международные научные чтения в Москве «СМИ и массовые коммуникации–2024». ЦИФРОВЫЕ МЕДИАСИСТЕМЫ: ОСМЫСЛЯЯ ПРОШЛОЕ И ИССЛЕДУЯ БУДУЩЕЕ.: [б.и.], 2024. С. 207–209.
Данная работа рассматривает феномен трансформации СМИ как инструмента мягкой силы и их функциональный переход от формирования новостной повестки дня к информационному сопровождению других государственных инициатив. ...
Added: February 9, 2025
Иванова Н. А., Novikov D., Fan X., Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Литературоведение, журналистика 2025 Т. 30 № 1 С. 172–185
One of the possible scenarios for resolving the turbulence in world politics that is being observed is a switch to a multipolar world order. Russia and China are major powers that have stated in the public affairs that a multipolar world order is a real option to a unipolar one. The article is exploring the ...
Added: February 6, 2025
Основные виды силы на международной арене: структурная, сила взаимозависимости, «жесткая» и «мягкая»
Degterev D. A., Россия и мир: научный диалог 2024 № 4 С. 20–33
One of the most ambivalent and complex concepts in world politics is power, which is intangible. There are numerous approaches and interpretations of power. This paper presents the author’s hierarchy of types of power, which includes structural power, complex interdependence, “hard” and “soft power”. For each, the main methodological challenges and prospects for operationalization (including ...
Added: January 25, 2025
Колнин И. С., Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность 2024 № 5 С. 58–69
This article marks the first attempt of a complex analysis of appeals to the image of
Zheng He and early Ming maritime expeditions (1405–1433) in the present rhetoric of the head
of PRC. In the beginning, history of the formation and transformation of the image of Zheng He
and the early Ming naval expeditions prior to Xi Jingping’s ...
Added: November 1, 2024
Chedia A., Контуры глобальных трансформаций: политика, экономика, право 2023 Т. 16 № 3 Статья 5
This article examines the activities of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency for Central Asian Countries (TIKA). The organization was established in 1992 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey. Since its establishment TIKA, along with other conductors of Ankara's interests (such as public foundations, NGOs, and cultural and academic centers), ...
Added: February 16, 2024
Alina V. Vladimirova, , in: Alternative Paths to Influence: Soft Power and International Politics.: Oxon: Routledge, 2023. Ch. 9 P. 556–571.
Soft power is one of the most influential concepts in the discipline of international relations, yet it is highly criticized for ambiguity and analytical weakness. Thus, through thoughtful literature reviews, scholars continue with clarifying and mapping the theory within a broader political power research programme. It is in this scholarly context that this article offers ...
Added: February 14, 2024
Oxon: Routledge, 2023.
This book offers new and cutting-edge analyses of under-explored subjects and issues in the realm of soft power. It attempts to fill significant scholarly gaps in understanding the process by which soft power is created, as well as gaps in demonstrating its impact.
Soft power is one of the most influential ideas in the study of ...
Added: February 14, 2024
Alina V. Vladimirova, Journal of political power 2022 Vol. 15 No. 3 P. 556–571
Soft power is one of the most influential concepts in the discipline of international relations, yet it is highly criticized for ambiguity and analytical weakness. Thus, through thoughtful literature reviews, scholars continue with clarifying and mapping the theory within a broader political power research programme. It is in this scholarly context that this article offers ...
Added: February 14, 2024
Royce D. P., Laruelle M., Beyssembayev S., Eurasian Geography and Economics 2019 Vol. 60 No. 2 P. 211–243
The theme of “Russian influence” has been invading the think tank world. Yet the concept of influence must be deployed with care. Analysts have frequently assumed that, when states do things thought favourable to Russia, it must be because Moscow has either forced them to act in that manner, or has actively manipulated their domestic ...
Added: November 4, 2023
Royce D. P., Laruelle M., Central Asian Survey 2019 Vol. 38 No. 2 P. 197–216
Though Central Asia is often studied through the prism of its relationships with external powers, research on local public perceptions of these different actors has largely been overlooked. The literature on Kazakhstanis’ perceptions of their neighbours, for instance, is scarce, and mostly focused on analysis of official discourse on Kazakhstan’s multi-vector policy, with little exploration ...
Added: November 4, 2023
Varpahovskis E., Kuteleva A., , in: The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power. 2nd Edition.: NY: Routledge, 2023. Ch. 27 P. 356–367.
Added: October 6, 2023
Павлина С. Ю., Высшее образование в России 2021 № 4 С. 146–157
Modern educational landscape has been undergoing drastic changes due to the processes of internationalization and transnationalization. Internationalization in higher education
is manifold, student academic mobility being one of its manifestations. It is often associated with
ERASMUS, the programme that has been implemented in European higher education for almost
30 years. It provides short-term student exchange programmes and involves ...
Added: September 13, 2023
Marchukov A., Современная Европа 2022 № 6(113) С. 51–66
This article exposes internal and external challenges for EU public diplomacy. The first group of challenges include difficulties in establishing a dialogue with a foreign audience, budget and staffing shortages; lack of relevant indicators for measuring public diplomacy. The second one consists of the impact of COVID-19 on the public diplomacy practice, EU competition with ...
Added: September 11, 2023
Pomiguev I., Захарова Е. А., Политическая экспертиза: ПОЛИТЭКС 2022 Т. 18 № 3 С. 254–271
The article is about the development of the connections of young political scientists with the international scientific community in the context of the Russian academic policy. With the help of the network analysis the authors examine the capacity of young political scientists’ network as agents of soft power, as well as the external factors that ...
Added: February 7, 2023
Емельянов А. И., Вестник Московского государственного лингвистического университета. Гуманитарные науки 2021 № 12(854) С. 189–202
The article examines the current state of relations between China and Latin American countries, including the place of China's "soft power" in foreign policy towards Latin American states. The main sources and tools of Chinese "soft power" are studied in various spheres, including economic, cultural and educational, which also includes the activities of Confucius Institutes. The question is raised ...
Added: October 31, 2022