International activities of German political foundations and American philanthropic funds. A comparative analysis

The paper is aimed at investigating the influence of political foundations upon internal and external policy of a state, analyzing place and role of foundations in international relations. The relevance of the topic under investigation is stipulated by the expansion of semi-official and guerilla diplomacy instruments in governments’ external policy toolkits, which are widely financed by political foundations. The paper deals with the development of contemporary political foundations of the USA and Germany, including comparative analysis of performance features. The classification of foundation functions in the context of international relations is introduced. A conclusion is drawn that German political foundations are designed according to a model of a ministry of foreign affairs with the elements of a political party whereas a typical American philanthropic foundation is based on a model of a business corporation. German representatives tend to be present on the spot, continuously make contacts and keep track of local developments. The Americans apply project-based approach, and aim at creating NGOs or partnerships geared towards concrete actions or tasks making claims for international legitimacy. Foundations in Germany and the US are different in terms of funding models, degree of governmental involvement, scale and methods both serve as proxies and commentators of ruling elites' ideology contributing to foreign policy aims of their countries of origin. Foundations due to distancing from official diplomacy and legal autonomy (although activities of major foundations are frequently adjusted to the policy of a state of origin) achieve a wide room for maneuver. They penetrate into foreign societies and exert influence over sensitive spheres of modern statehood, such as education, domestic policy, expert community, media, etc. Hence a great deal of ties and points of influence “from inside” upon social and power structures of a foreign country are shaped, and could be exploited to further interests of a state of foundations’ origin. Experience of Western foundations is actively employed by other states and organizations, including non-Western. A range of tools could be applied for the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian integration project of Russia according to the principles of mutuality and inclusivity.

1. (2012). Mezhdunarodnyj tribunal po byvshej Jugoslavii: Dejatel'nost', rezul'taty, jeffektivnost'. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferencii (Moskva, 22–23 aprelja 2009 g.) [The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: activities, results, effectiveness]. Moscow: Indrik. 544 p.

2. Aksartova S. (2009). Promoting Civil Society or Diffusing NGOs. In: Heydemann S., Hemmack D. (eds) Globalization, Philanthropy, and Civil Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. P. 160–191.

3. Anheier H. (2018). Philanthropic Foundations in Cross-National Perspective: A Comparative Approach. American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 62. P. 1591–1602.

4. Anheier H., Toepler S. (2020). The Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Management. London: Routledge. 560 p.

5. Anheier H. (2018). Performance Measurement in Philanthropic Foundations: The Ambiguity of Success and Failure. London: Routledge. 216 p.

6. Anheier H., Leat D. (2013). Philanthropic Foundations: What Rationales? Social Research. Vol. 80. P. 449–472.

7. Baykov A., Crowley-Vigneau A. (2019). Pochemu gosudarstva zaimstvujut jekologicheskie normy: opyt Rossii [Transnational Networks and Russia's Environmental Policies]. Mezhdunarodnye protsessy. No. 4. P. 137–153.

8. Bek U. (2007). Vlast’ i ee opponenty v jepohu globalizma. Novaja vsemirnopoliticheskaja jekonomija [Power and its Opponents in the age of globalisation]. Moscow: Progress-Traditsija. 464 p.

9. Berman E. (1983). The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy: The Ideology of Philanthropy. New York: Suny Press. 238 p.

10. Bol'shova N.N. (2014). Gosudarstvennaja politika v oblasti vysshego obrazovanija i nauki kak instrument mjagkoj sily (Opyt Germanii) [Public Policy in the Sphere of Higher Education as a tool for soft power (Germany’s Experience)]. Vestnik MGIMO. No. 2. P. 71–80.

11. Boesso G., Cerbioni F., Kumar K. (2014). What Drives Good Philanthropy? The Relationship Between Governance and Strategy in Foundations. In Luca G., Hinna A., Monteduro F. (eds)Mechanisms, Roles and Consequences of Governance: Emerging Issues. Emerald Group Publishing. P. 159–180.

12. Brown R. (2020). Alternatives to soft power: Influence in French and German external cultural action. The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power. Ed. by N. Chitty, L. Ji, G. Rawnsley, C. Hayden. London: Routledge. P. 37–47.

13. Burns R. (2019). New Frontiers of Philanthro-capitalism: Digital Technologies and Humanitarianism. Antipode. Vol. 51. P. 1101–1122.

14. Çevik S. (2019) Reassessing Turkey’s Soft Power: The Rules of Attraction. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. Vol. 44. P. 50–71.

15. Cumings B. (2014). Biting the Hand That Feeds You: Why the “Intelligence Function” of American Foundation Support for Area Studies Remains Hidden in Plain Sight. Global Society. Vol. 28. P. 70–89.

16. Cunningham H. (2016). The multi-layered history of Western philanthropy. In: Jung T., Phillips S., Harrow J. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy. London: Routledge. P. 42–55.

17. Grincheva N., Kelley R. (2019). Introduction: Non-state Diplomacy from Non-Western Perspectives. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. Vol. 14. P. 199–208.

18. Halberstam D. (1973). The Best and the Brightest. New York: Fawcett-Crest. 720 p.

19. Istomin I., Baykov A. (2020). Aljansy na sluzhbe gegemonii: dekonstruktsiya instrumentariya voenno-politicheskogo dominirovaniya [Alliances at the Service of Hegemony: Deconstruction of the Military Domination Toolbox]. Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya. 2020. No. 6. P. 8–25.

20. Jung T., Harrow J. (2015). New development: philanthropy in networked governance—treading with care. Public Money & Management. Vol. 35. P. 47–52.

21. Jung T., Harrow J. (2019). Providing Foundations: Philanthropy, Global Policy, and Administration. In: Stone D., Moloney K. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Global Policy and Transnational Administration. Oxford University Press, 2019. P. 619–637.

22. Krige J. (2006). American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe. Cambridge: MIT Press. 384 p.

23. Krige J., Rausch H. (2012). American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 301 p.

24. Lan'shina T.A. (2014). Mjagkaya sila Germanii: kul'tura, obrazovanie, nauka [German Soft Power: culture, education, science]. Vestnik mezhdunarodnyh organizatsij. No. 2. P. 28–57.

25. Lipman P. (2015). Capitalizing on crisis: venture philanthropy’s colonial project to remake urban education. Critical Studies in Education. Vol. 56. P. 241–258.

26. Lofgren M. (2016) The Deep State. The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government. New York: Viking. 336 p.

27. Luqiu L., McCarthy J. (2019). Confucius Institutes: The Successful Stealth “Soft Power” Penetration of American Universities. The Journal of Higher Education. Vol. 90. P. 620–643.

28. Mikhaylenko E.B. (2022). Uroki mezhdunarodnoj kampanii po zapreshheniju jadernogo oruzhija [From Advocacy to Diplomacy. The case of the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons]. Mezhdunarodnye protsessy. Vol. 20. No. 1(68). P. 55–79.

29. Moran M. (2014). Private Foundations and Development Partnerships: American Philanthropy and Global Development Agendas. London: Routledge. 200 p.

30. Nielsen W. (1972). The Big Foundations. New York. 475 p.

31. Ogneva A.V. (2011). Politicheskie fondy FRG i ih vklad v razvitie mezhdunarodnogo dialoga [Political Foundations of Germany and their Contribution into the Development of International Dialogue]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. No. 4. P. 113–118.

32. Parmar I. (2002). American foundations and the development of international knowledge networks. Global Networks. Vol. 2. P. 13–30.

33. Parmar I. (2014). American Power and Philanthropic Warfare: From the War to End All Wars to the Democratic Peace. Global Society. Vol. 28. P. 54–69.

34. Parmar I., Rietzler K. (2014). American Philanthropy and the Hard, Smart and Soft Power of the United States. Global Society. Vol. 28. P. 3–7.

35. Parmar I. (2012). Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power. New York: Columbia University Pres. 368 p.

36. Pierobon C. (2017). German Political Foundations in Central Asia: Promoting Democracy through Civil Society. European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research. Vol. 4. P. 80–86.

37. Pisarev I.I. (2022). Politika grupp interesov v Evropejskom Sojuze v sfere vysshego obrazovanija [Interest group politics in the higher education sphere of the European Union]. diss. kand. polit. nauk: 23.00.04: defended 29.03.2022. Moscow: MGIMO. 235 p.

38. Pogorel'skaja S.V. (2009). Nepravitel’stvennye organizatsii i politicheskie fondy vo vneshnej politike Federativnoj Respubliki Germanii [Non-Governmental Organizations and Political Foundations in German Foreign Policy]. Moscow: Nauka. 215 p.

39. Pogorel'skaja S.V. (2014). Deyatel’nost’ germanskikh politicheskikh fondov v sredizemnomorskih stranah ES v period krizisa evrozony (na primere Gretsii) [Activities of German Political Foundations in the Mediterranean EU Member-States during the Eurosone Crisis (the Case of Greece)]. Aktual'nye problemy Evropy. No. 2. P. 56–75.

40. Prewitt K., Mattei D., Heydemann S., Toepler S. (eds) (2006). Legitimacy of Philanthropic Foundations: United States and European Perspectives. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 312 p.

41. Roelofs J. (2015). How Foundations Exercise Power. American Journal of Economics and Sociology. Vol. 74. P. 654–675.

42. Roelofs J. (2003). Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism. State University of New York Press. 284 p.

43. Shi Y. (2020). Charitable Foundations and American Diplomacy. IEESASM. London: Francis Academic Press. P. 449–452.

44. Stone D. (2013). Knowledge Actors and Transnational Governance: The Private-Public Policy Nexus in the Global Agora. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 240 p.

45. Shakleina T.A. (2015) Liderstvo i sovremennyj mirovoj porjadok [[Leadership and Current World Order]. Mezhdunarodnye protsessy. No 4. P. 6–19.

46. Sussman G., Krader S. (2008) Template Revolutions: Marketing U.S. Regime Change in Eastern Europe. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture. Vol. 5. P. 91–112.

47. Sutyrin V.V. (2020). Gumanitarnoe vliyanie vo vneshnej politike: resursy, kanaly, infrastruktury [Humanitarian Influence in Foreign Policy: resources, channels, and infrastructures]. Obshhestvennye nauki i sovremennost'. No. 5. P. 5–20.

48. Toganova N.V. (2018) Jekonomika i bezopasnost' kak motivy pomoshhi razvitiju: primer Germanii [Economic and security motives in international development assistance: The case of Germany]. Mezhdunarodnye processy. No. 3. P. 39–55.

49. Weaver W. (1967). U.S. Philanthropic Foundations – Their History, Structure, Management and Record. New York: Harper & Row. 492 p.

50. Whitaker B. (1974). The Foundations. An Anatomy of Philanthropy and Society. London: Eyre Methuen. 287 p.

51. Youde J. (2019). The role of philanthropy in international relations. Review of International Studies. Vol. 45. P. 39–56.