Abstract
This thesis studies the effect that US and Russian soft power has on the voting behavior of Member States in the UN General Assembly and asks whether soft power possesses real capabilities to interfere with and promote foreign policy goals. In order to examine this relationship a new dataset is created that compares the level of public support from Member States towards the United States and Russia, and the UN General Assembly voting records of those Member States. Three hypotheses were made to test the relationship between positive levels of soft power among Member States (favorable opinions), and negative soft power among Member States (unfavorable opinions), as well as the relative effect that soft power has on democracies and non-democracies. The dataset was analyzed using regression analysis. This study provided mixed results, finding evidence that suggested soft power’s presence to varying degrees, but also found that non-democracies were influenced by soft power slightly more than their democratic counterparts.
Advisor
Lantis, Jeffrey
Department
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Knecht, Henry B., "Soft Power in Hard Focus: An Analytical Approach to Power in International Relations" (2015). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 6793.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/6793
Disciplines
International Relations
Keywords
Soft Power, Regression Analysis, United Nations, United States, Russia, Democracy
Publication Date
2015
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2015 Henry B. Knecht