Higher Education as a Resource of Russia’s “Soft Power” under the New Geopolitical Conditions. Part 2: a case-study

Abstract

In the first part of the paper (available at https://www.nxtjournal.ru/jour/article/view/442), the author conducted a literature review and stated a problem.
The second part of the article, devoted to the soft power of higher education, engages in the analyses of the Russian case: its experiences in deploying soft power since 2000s and its prospects for development after the start of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine. As for the samples, such databases as Wissenschaft Weltoffen, OECD, Project Atlas and UNESCO as well as reports of Rossotrudnichestvo and the Higher School of Economics were applied in the study. The main conclusion of the study is that although the concept of soft power is relatively new in Russia, the potential of higher education soft power is actively used as a political and ideological tool in the struggle against neoliberal states for cultural and civilisational supremacy on the world stage, which is particularly evident after February 2022. Russia has fundamentally revised its humanitarian policy in the field of education and has moved away from cooperation with Western European countries towards establishing and strengthening inter-state relations in the field of education with the Asia-Pacific region, the Islamic world and Africa.
Finally, the author proposes some recommendations for enhancing Russia’s influence in the international arena by strengthening Russian soft power in higher education. These include increasing funding for this social sphere, establishing an academic exchange service based on an association of Russian universities, attracting foreign specialists to implement best educational practices, and implementing licensed programmes in foreign languages in order to expand the target audience of higher education.