Sept. 11, 2024

"How Russia employs ‘hard soft power’ to influence overseas media and sow dissent and fear among foreign populations"

Minerva-funded researchers, Catherine Luther and Brandon Prins highlight a new form of public diplomacy called "hard soft power," which combines traditional soft power (influence through cultural appeal) with subtle threats to create fear and division among foreign populations in their latest article.

April 13, 2022

Minerva-funded Research Reveals How Misinformation can be Re-invigorated in Discourse Through the Novelty of a Major Event

Analysts of social media differ in their emphasis on the effects of message content versus social network structure. The balance of these factors may change substantially across time. When a major event occurs, initial independent reactions may give way to more social diffusion of interpretations of the event among different communities, including those committed to disinformation.

April 28, 2021

Minerva funded researchers publish "India's multi-alignment management and the Russia–India–China (RIC) triangle" in International Affairs

Minerva researcher Mihaela Papa is co-author on a new article on Indian multi-alignment strategies and the Russia-India-China triangle in Foreign Affairs Magazine.

April 30, 2020

Mariya Omelicheva's new article, "When Does the Crime-Terror Nexus Fail to Materialize? Drug Trafficking, Militants, and the State in Russia"

Minerva-funded researcher, Mariya Omelicheva's new article "When Does the Crime-Terror Nexus Fail to Materialize? Drug Trafficking, Militants, and the State in Russia". What are the conditions that obstruct the formation of a crime-terror nexus? To answer this question we carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Russia's North Caucasus (2008–2016) where no durable crime-terror nexus materialized despite the presence of conditions conducive to the emergence of linkages between criminals and militants.

March 20, 2020

Owl in the Olive Tree post "Casualties of Good Governance: How Corruption Helps Ordinary Citizens in Autocracies"

Minerva-funded researcher, Marina Zaloznaya's Owl in the Olive Tree post "Casualties of Good Governance: How Corruption Helps Ordinary Citizens in Autocracies". In forty-eight countries around the world—most of which are poor and non-democratic—at least a quarter of citizens report giving bribes to doctors, teachers, policemen, and other public officials in exchange for services (Transparency International 2019). To decrease the documented negative effects of such widespread bureaucratic corruption on economic and political health of....

Jan. 30, 2020

Owl in the Olive Tree post on "It Takes Social Science to Counter the Power of Russia's Malign Influence Campaign"

Minerva-funded researchers Scott Atran, Richard Davis, and Hasan Davulcu's Owl in the Olive Tree post on "It Takes Social Science to Counter the Power of Russia's Malign Influence Campaign". Despite recent technical innovations, such as the use of social media, Russia’s current malign influence campaigns follow those of its Soviet predecessor. Unless we understand these strategies, we remain vulnerable to them. The new National Security Strategy acknowledges the return of great power competition along with...

Oct. 29, 2019

Owl in the Olive Tree post on "Explaining Great Power Status in Central Asia: Unfamiliarity and Discontent”

Minerva-funded researcher Eric Mcglinchey and Marlene Laruelle's Owl in the Olive Tree blog post on "Explaining Great Power Status in Central Asia: Unfamiliarity and Discontent”. Great powers see Central Asia as a region where they can test strategies for building a post-Cold War international order. Of the great powers, Russia and China are the most influential in the region. Washington’s soft power, despite the continued United States presence in neighboring Afghanistan, trails far behind…