I. A. Chikharev, O. V. Stoletov Soft power in the Russian foreign policy

Abstract: The article raises the problem of identification of the most perspective strategy of the Russian foreign policy on the modern stage of the world politics evolution. The first part of the article considers the international political and intellectual context of the scientific concepts of “soft power” and “smart power” formation, analyzes the Russian specificity of their understanding. In the second part of the article the authors consider the “soft power” and “intelligent power” analyses as the international political strategies of states. Structuring these strategies, the authors correlate them with the strategies of “hard power” and “smart power”. The resources, instruments and goals of each of the four strategies are analyzed and compared to each other. In the third part of the article the authors consider several particular cases of successful use of “intelligent power” in the Russian foreign policy. In the result of the research the authors come to the conclusion that the states, competing for the world leadership, possess the ability to choose one of these four strategies. The analysis held shows that the “intelligent power” strategy corresponds to the demands of the modern world political system best of all. It gives the state the opportunity to act in the world politics as a “responsible leader” but not as a “manipulator”, to form a more stable collective decision-making system, to solve the problems of global development by means of innovative and flexible, but strategically well-thought approaches.

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