CGSC presents "Cultural and Soft Power Influences of China and Russia in the Americas"

By Harry SarlesApril 1, 2019

China, Russia, draw crowd
1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Dr. Evan Ellis, research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College speaks on "Cultural and Soft Power Influences of China and Russia in the Americas" to the full-house audience, at the Lewis and Clark Center's Arnold Conference... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Western Hemisphere specialist warns of Russian, Chinese 'Sharp Power'
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Dr. Frank Mora, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, speaks about 'Sharp Power' during the Command and General Staff College's Cultural and Area Studies Office's presentation on "Cultural and Soft Power Influences ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Expert panel on Russia, China influence in Western Hemisphere
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Panel members for the CGSC Cultural and Area Studies Office's "Cultural and Soft Power Influences of China and Russia in the Americas" presentation were (l-r) Dr. Gary Bjorge, retired professor from the Command and General Staff College's Department ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas -- "Cultural and Soft Power Influences of China and Russia in the Americas" was the topic of the College's Cultural and Area Studies Office's second presentation of 2019, Thursday, Mar. 28, at the Lewis and Clark Center's Arnold Conference Room.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Dr. Frank Mora, Dr. Evan Ellis, research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College, and Dr. Gary Bjorge, retired professor from the Command and General Staff College's Department of Military History provided insight into the efforts of China and Russia to exert influence in the Americas.

Dr. Mahir Ibrahimov, CASO director, moderated the event and Dr. James Martin, CGSC Dean of Academics provided opening remarks to the full-house audience here as well as 10 remote stations participating through video teleconference. Remote stations included faculty, staff, and students at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, Fort Benning, Ga., and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Other remote stations were at U.S. AID's Washington headquarters, Fort Bragg, N.C. and Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Ellis led off the discussion. He said one of the differences in soft power for China is its expectation. Where most Western nations consider soft power in terms of culture and values, Chinese soft power is more often looked at in terms of expectation of benefit. There is still a large amount of distrust in Latin American when dealing with the Chinese, he said.

However, Ellis warned, we cannot discount China's cultural influence. There are 39 Confucius Institutes in Latin America. The Chinese also put much effort into people-to-people influence with more than 6,000 Latin Americans scheduled to make cultural visits to China between 2019 and 2021.

Expected benefits can be seen in both political and business sectors said Ellis. He added China has invested $114-billion in Latin America. Loans from Chinese banks are looked at favorable because they often come with less oversight than loans from U.S. and other Western banks.

Russia, said Ellis, has expended limited resources in Latin America and has focused on its strengths. Those strengths include long-term knowledge of the region going back to the Cold War, and expansive experience in information operations. The tools Russia uses include the publications Sputnik and Russia Today and social media.

Mora began his talk by introducing the term 'Sharp Power.' 'Hard Power,' he explained, is coercive or military power. 'Soft Power' is attraction and influence. 'Sharp Power' includes projecting influence but also efforts to undermine the influence and prestige of 'the other.'

For China and Russia, 'the other' is the United States. They use multiple resources to attack the U.S. including misinformation, propaganda, and social media tools, said Mora.

Mora said the Russians seem to be following the doctrine of Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russian Army chief of the general staff. Gerasimov advocates hybrid information warfare. Two examples are the 2018 elections in Colombia and Mexico, he said.

The Russian efforts didn't seem to favor one party or one candidate in the elections, he said. Rather, they were intended to sow distrust and doubt about the election process and the leadership of the country. Mora said he did an interview prior to the Colombian election and within 30 hours a video prepared by the Russians countering his points, discrediting the U.S., and portraying the U.S. as exerting colonial influences was going viral on WhatsApp, the preferred social media platform in Latin America.

Bjorge has studied the Confucius Institutes intensely. He calls them "The CCP's (Chinese Communist Party) wondrous IO platform." Although several U.S. universities have closed their Confucius Institutes, there are about 110 institutes at universities in the United States.

He explained that the institutes began as a program of the Chinese Haiban in 2004. The University of Maryland opened the first institute that year. Locally, Kansas University opened an institute in 2006 and Kansas State in 2015.

The Confucius Institutes offer Chinese language instruction and culture instruction. They are also staffed with Chinese instructors and funded from China. Many universities have adopted the institutes as a way to create intellectual and ethnic diversity.

The institutes' objectives, said Bjorge, are just the opposite. They intend to shape opinion, influence how China is taught and studied, deliver propaganda on Chinese issues, and plant the seeds of CCP ideology in foreign cultures. Issues that the institutes have covered include Tibet, Xin Jian, Taiwan, human rights, and Falun Gong, said Bjorge.

Following panel presentations, a question and answer period that extended beyond the announced end time ensued. Although CASO's panel presentations have always included VTC audiences, it was the first time remote audiences were especially active in asking questions and making comments during the Q & A.

In response to one question, Mora noted that although we're talking about Russia and China and threat based analysis, "I've got to tell you that sometimes the focus tends to be more about what they're doing and not what we're doing or not doing. We can draw a list of things China's doing and conclude that they present threat. And that's fine," he said. "But what the Chinese are doing is forcing us to compete. So rather than focus on what they're doing, let's focus on what we're doing or not doing in terms of our policy."

Ellis added that we need to have a compelling strategic concept. That concept includes governance, working with like-minded allies, and intervening selectively in areas where Russia or China are doing things that would overturn the apple cart. That includes things like technology theft and infrastructure, he said.