Public diplomacy in transition: Articulating Russian identity and soft power

The relationship between identity, image/status, and public diplomacy contributes to our understanding of contemporary foreign policy; yet this aspect of public diplomacy has been largely understudied. Identity motivates and drives international actors’ behavior, while it is through communication and other performative behavior, as well as through feedback in response to it, that the actor’s identity is verified and reinforced, or rejected and challenged. This dissertation aims to contribute to a more systematic understanding of the role of identity in public diplomacy, which comprises the primary means of an actor’s deliberate international communication. Using the case of post-Soviet Russia, the study argues that by looking at an international actor’s articulation of their identity and its validation or rejection in the image perceived by others, we can draw conclusions about their potential courses of action. The study examines how identity is revealed in the Russian official foreign policy and public diplomacy discourse and, in turn, the identity and foreign policy implications of such evolution. Using an integrated framework of analysis, which incorporates models suggested by Doty, Hayden, and Hansen, the project analyzes 183 official texts and six examples of public diplomacy programs between 2004 and 2013. It demonstrates how the transformation of Russia’s official identity and perception of significant others, as well as its continued failure to gain recognition as a “great power” by “the West”, are closely followed by changes in its public diplomacy and foreign policy as a whole.