DOI: 10.25136/2409-8671.2024.2.70476

Abstract: This article is devoted to the peculiarities of perception and representation of a multipolar world in Bolivia. Since the governments of the "Movimiento al Socialismo" party came to power, this country, on the one hand, can be called one of the leading critics of the world liberal order in the region, opponents of US dominance, and on the other hand, it is characterized by a nationalist course in the economy, proactive integration strategy and presence in reputable multilateral institutions for the Global South. These circumstances make the Bolivian case of attitude towards the issue of multipolarity very illustrative. Critical discourse analysis according to Teun Van Dijk was chosen as a research strategy. We consider selected materials of various genres and formats, referring to the semantic code “multipolar world” both explicitly and implicitly, through associations and metaphors. It is shown that, in general, for Bolivia the issue of forming a multipolar world is highly relevant and is associated with a number of fundamental aspects of the domestic and foreign policy model built by the ruling party “Movement to Socialism”. The positive expectations of Bolivian political leaders and international relations from the emerging multipolarity are associated not only and not so much with the decline of US dominance, but with the preservation of multilateralism and the opportunity for the country to diversify external relations, and integration is recognized as the key way to involve Bolivia in global dynamics. The scientific novelty of the work is ensured by the lack of study of the problem risen in both the Russian and foreign research fields; the author’s contribution is created by the results of a detailed analysis of the discourse concerning the multipolar world in Bolivia according to its main proponents, contexts and topics (“topics”).

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8671.2018.2.19446

Abstract: The object of the present study is influence of foreign soft power on the Republic of Belarus (RB) as one of the States of the former Soviet Union.   The subject of the study is unique features of the strategies of RB's involvement into the area of their "soft power" influence by such intra- and extra-regional actors of the former Soviet Union as Russia and the European Union (particularly Poland and Lithuania). The author analyzes the peculiarities of projects of the above-mentioned countries (a group of countries) on Belarus’ value and ideology involvement into the orbit of their "soft-power" influence; and subsequently characterizes the tools of such influence. The study uses methods of general logic and methods of international relations science such as historical and comparative. The author also uses method of statistical data procession. The novelty of the study lies in definition of the civilizational and ideological prerequisites for the RB's involvement into the orbit of foreign "soft-power" influence, as well as in identification of the reasons for Russian "soft power" inefficiency with respect to the Belarusian direction, and a certain mechanism for its correction is proposed. The author comes to the conclusion that Belarus is currently in the midst of Russian-European "soft-power" rivalry in a broad sense of the term. However, such a national "soft-power" influence as, for example, by Poland is not congruent with the European one in content and objectives, but represents a separate phenomenon that Russia should take into account. The Russian "soft power" in the Belarusian direction is well institutionalized, but its conceptual content requires updating, on the one hand, due to the current state of relations between the two States and the spiritual and intellectual demands of new generations of Belarusian society, and, on the other hand, because in the current environment the European civilizational and ideological projects constitute a very viable alternative to the Russian world.