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publication
Soft power vs hard power: the diplomatic struggle of the Western world in the East
By Dr. Michael Eric Lambert
  • Dr. Michael Eric Lambert
    Director of the French Black Sea Institute,
    "Meeting Russia 2018" Alumnus
  • Dr. Michael Lambert presents Russian and European view of the Eastern Partnership program and analyses how the EU and Russia seek the balance between soft and hard power.
"The European Union and Russia are both trying to find ways to develop their smart power. Russia is trying to increase its soft power, while the EU attempts to create a new kind of hard power by strengthening military cooperation between its member states. This quest for smart power seems to be at the very heart of the difficulties faced by both the EU and Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union"
"It will escape nobody's attention that Russia, in an effort to limit the EU's soft power, is trying to copy it. The name Eurasian Union naturally recalls the European Union, and the Eurasian Commission resembles the European Commission, and its initiatives are in many respects modeled on Brussels. The strategy has already attracted two new members, Belarus and Armenia, and is drawing increasing support from Moldova and Azerbaijan"