RUSSIA’S PROPAGANDA IN THE MIDDLE EAST OR INTERCULTURAL ADVANTAGE?

Abstract

The primary purpose of the study is to indicate the increasing role of “the war of ideas” in modern conflicts of a different kind. Today, Russia practices information warfare, combining a number of well-known tools of influence with a new embrace of new technologies and capabilities, such as the Internet. Nevertheless, Russia has also initiated the updating of the principles of subversion. These new approaches cover internally and externally concentrated media with a significant online presence (RT and Sputnik are the most known sources), the use of social media (like online discussion boards and comment pages) as a force multiplier to ensure Russian narratives achieve broad reach and penetration, and language skills with the purpose of engaging with target audiences on a wide scale. In this connection, it is considered appropriate to pay attention to the experience of creating the US Foreign Service Institute in the 1950s. The need for the theoretical development of a special course, later a separate science called "intercultural communication", appeared after the Second World War. Experience of international cooperation during the war and after it, in particular, Peace Corps activists who were sent to various countries for help, revealed a lack of knowledge and skills in intercultural and interethnic communication. Therefore, the article aims to identify the difference between the so-called ethical component and the ultimate goal of the American means of intercultural communication and the persistent attempts of the Russian propaganda machine to attract modern tools and spread its narratives, as well as to identify the specifics of the possible impact on the system of international relations and to avoid negative feedback from the affected population all over the world in general and in the Middle East in particular.