Ukraine’s Soft Power: Historiography of the Issue

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze historiography of Ukraine’s soft power issue, directions, features, problems and prospects. The methodology of the research is based on a combination of theoretical provisions of the American scholar J. Nye’s concept and historical approach. In the research there has been used a broad understanding of historiography as a collection of scientific works on a certain issue. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that a historiographical analysis on Ukraine’s soft power issue, directions, features, problems and prospects has been done for the first time. The Conclusion. There are three main directions of Ukraine’s soft power research: 1) general issues (components, problems, possibilities, etc.); 2) the soft power issue of Ukraine in some states; 3) the image aspect of the issue. Nowadays the soft power issue of Ukraine is the most studied one in seven countries: Poland, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The research in this area is based on a fairly well-developed methodology, which cannot be said about other two aspects (with the exception of economic image power). The very neglect of the theoretical and methodological foundations caused the shortcomings in the studies of the Ukrainian soft power issue: 1) substitution of the research subject, in particular identification of soft power with cooperation; 2) the use of the term soft power in the title without its further use in the study; 3) lack of a unified approach to the soft power tools; 4) the use of arbitrary term “the soft power strategy of Ukraine”, which is not recorded in any regulatory document; 5) identification of soft power with economic sanctions against the aggressor country, which are demonstration of hard power. The above-mentioned shortcomings are related to the indeterminacy of the research subject, its unclear framework. In addition, there is the lack of normative and legal support for the soft power policy of Ukraine, its state strategy, as well as the long-term lack of special institutions for its effective promotion, which complicates the research significantly. A prospective direction of further research is to study Ukraine’s soft power, in addition to the abovementioned seven states, in other countries, relying on the theoretical and methodological achievements of the world science on this issue.