Soft Power and the Geopolitical Battles of the 21st Century

• In Event: Propaganda, Disinformation, and War

Abstract

The Cold War is commonly viewed as a global struggle between the two dominant powers that emerged from the destruction of World War II. The military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was, however, only one component of that global conflict. Also of great importance was their battle to control the world’s information space and shape global opinion over which nation and which ideology should lead the world: American liberalism or Soviet communism. America’s victory in the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union led many to believe that the great ideological contests of the twentieth century had been resolved in America’s favor, what Francis Fukuyama suggested was an end of history moment.

The rise of China, the resurgence of traditional Russian imperialism, and the spread of populist authoritarians within the Western community, have caused many to reconsider history’s demise, arguing instead that great power conflicts, both militarily and ideologically, will again dominate the global space. These challengers attack the core of the American system as China and Russia aim to discredit the United States and undermine Western liberalism, offering their own authoritarian model as an alternative

Despite Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s continued military campaign to intimidate Taiwan, this new conflict remains largely confined to the informational space, areas we know today as soft power, but also including psychological warfare and covert action. These instruments are designed to create the greatest instability within the Western community, exploiting recent technological advances to spread misinformation and disinformation on a stunningly wide scale.

Both the Russians and Chinese have engaged in large-scale efforts to undermine American standing around the world through use of these methods. Russian disinformation campaigns are widely believed to have disrupted the electoral processes in both the United Kingdom during the Brexit referendum and the United States during the 2016 election. Both cases resulted in the fundamental reshaping of both nation’s role in the world, with the United Kingdom’s disastrous withdrawal from the European Union and Donald Trump’s attack on the role of the United States in longstanding global security alliances. How the United States (and the Western world in general) faces this multi-prong informational warfare campaign will determine the fate of the liberalism in the 21st century.

However, the United States faced similar provocations during the Cold War where Soviet disinformation and propaganda tried to undermine the spread of western liberalism, first in establishing domination in Eastern Europe and then in a wide-ranging campaign to discredit the United States in the minds of West Europeans. These efforts especially targeted the many socialists and communists who already questioned the value of America’s presence in Europe, opposing even the Marshall Plan, fearing that it gave the United States excessive influence over European affairs. The United States responded with its own multi-pronged informational attack, including the creation of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the Congress for Cultural Freedom and a slew of covert psychological warfare campaigns designed to undermine Soviet power and discredit the communist system. These campaigns played an important, if unheralded role in stabilizing Western Europe, and over decades, undermining Soviet power in the East.

My paper will examine how the United States responded to Soviet-era informational campaigns focusing on the role played by the American radios (VOA and RFE/RL), as well as the massive campaign launched under the Marshall Plan to educate West Europeans on American culture and to dispel the massive amounts of misinformation and disinformation produced by Soviet propagandists. The paper will then analyze how this history informs our current debates regarding the challenges posed by America’s authoritarian rivals.

Gregory Mitrovich is the author of Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947-1956 published by Cornell University Press. The book was awarded the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize for outstanding book presented by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He is also the author of the forthcoming book: An Exceptional Rise: Great Britain, the United States, Germany and the Making of the American Century. His research interests focus on the rise of the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries and the sustainability of the American model in the 21st century. He has held appointments at the Olin Institute of Strategic Studies, Harvard, the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, CISAC/ Stanford, and the Saltzman Institute at Columbia University. His received grants from the DOD Minerva Research Initiative and Smith Richardson Foundation. He has authored numerous articles in the Washington Post, South China Morning Post, the National Interest, and Responsible Statecraft.

Author

• Gregory Mitrovich