【Report】Summary of the lecture by Dr. Erik Underwood PhD, McGill University 7 July 2025

Revisionism by Other Means: Foreign Propaganda Strategies of Russia and China in the Attention Age

7 Juiy 2025

On July 7, 2025, Dr. Erik Underwood gave a presentation on his doctoral dissertation, which he successfully defended at McGill University, at Ritsumeikan University.

Dr. Underwood explained that his dissertation cuts through the puzzle of why Russia and China—revisionist great powers—have adopted different propaganda strategies to influence the publics in developed countries. To illustrate the differences between the great powers’ propaganda strategies, he noted that while Russia actively interfered in and sought to alter the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, China did not. “Why do the foreign propaganda strategies of revisionists vary?” Dr. Underwood asked.

Emphasizing the centrality of status in international politics, he posited that revisionist great powers devise their propaganda strategies towards the publics in developed countries based on the extent to which non-liberal international norms enable or hinder their ambitions for international status and territorial goals.

Dr. Underwood argued that the differences in propaganda strategies between the two revisionist great powers stem from the fact that Russia has expansive territorial ambitions, while China does not. The differences in territorial ambition made it imperative for Russia to legitimize its military interventionism. China, on the other hand, could focus on enhancing its attractiveness to the publics in developed countries by co-opting the economic elite and undermining public support for political actors critical of Beijing.

Dr. Underwood concluded his presentation, explaining that for future research, he is interested in expanding the scope of the research to incorporate targeted audiences beyond developed countries such as those in Southeast Asia.

During the Q&A, the audience asked many interesting questions, including those related to the intentionality of revisionist great powers’ propaganda strategies, the impacts of propaganda strategies in the targeted states, and the possibility of how Russia and China tailor their strategies to different audiences.