Russia’s war in Ukraine and the fractures in Western soft power

This essay engages with the relevance of soft power in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The analysis suggests that we might be witnessing two distinct but interconnected developments when it comes to soft power: (a) the waning appeal of Western values, especially during major military conflicts that involve the West; and (b) the increasing prominence of anti-Western narratives as a branding or a soft power strategy by major non-Western powers like China and Russia. This essay calls for further de-Westernization of the study of soft power through a deeper engagement with conflicted perceptions of the appeal of Western values in the Global South, and with the opportunistic deployment of anti-Western rhetoric as a persuasion strategy.