ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an effects-based approach to better understand the nature of strategic communication in Russia. It challenges the traditional Western notion of conducting a strategic communication campaign in a time-driven and message-focused manner. The chapter argues that this effects-based approach is a heuristic way to understand non-Western nonstate and state actors and their communication strategies. Building on previous research in communication, public relations, and security studies, the chapter discusses how a focus on a grand strategy and identification of the intent of communication can yield a more comprehensive and complex understanding of actions and rhetoric of Russia’s communication strategy. This chapter addresses strategic communication as a process and thus refers to communication in the singular and as defined by most Western dictionaries. Theoretical and practical implications of the effects-based approach are also discussed.
