DISCURSIVE POWER AS A RESOURCE OF RUSSIA’S IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of values-oriented political projects as instruments of ideological and political influence employed by leading global powers. It shows how political discourses and discursive power shape attractive images of these centers and establish specific interpretations of concepts, language, and meanings through which actors describe social realities in domestic and international contexts. The author examines the core elements of the values-oriented political projects of the US, China, the EU, and India, identifying how these actors use discursive power to enhance their domestic and international influence. The analysis demonstrates that the values-oriented political projects advanced by the US, China, the EU, and India rest on each center’s distinct cultural and civilizational foundations. Moreover, the core components of Russia’s values-oriented political project are a response to the global challenges of the present era. These components include: (1) a polycentric, multi-civilizational world order; (2) Russia’s development as a state-civilization based on a supra-ethnic civic identity; (3) a commitment to sovereign development; and (4) complementary interaction between traditional and innovative values. The article argues that these elements of the Russian project enable substantive compatibility with those advanced by China and India within the conceptual and practical framework of civilizational integralism.