scholarly journals The field of Strategic Communications Professionals: a new research agenda for International Security

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Michelsen ◽  
Thomas Colley
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Strategic Communications ◽  
Elite Interviews ◽  
New Research

AbstractCommunication has long been accepted as integral to the conduct of international affairs. The role that discourses, ideas, norms, and narratives play at the systemic level of world politics has been examined extensively. Scholarly interest has now turned to how international actors use political communication tools to create and counter threats, such as propaganda, hybrid warfare, fake news, and election tampering, and it is often taken for granted that states are inferior to their challengers in these domains. To address this, ‘Strategic Communications’ has emerged as a mode of thought and practice promising to enhance state communication; encompassing long-established activities including public diplomacy, public relations, nation branding, and information operations. In this developing field, private sector professionals are increasingly being called on to support and advise governments. Particular attention has been paid to the ‘Big Data’ private companies may have access to, but there has been little IR research examining the experts seeking changes in how strategic communications is practised. Informed by elite interviews with communication professionals across the public-private space, this article sets out a research agenda to fill this gap, enhancing understanding of the expert relationships that shape international strategic communications.

scholarly journals Public Diplomacy: A Pragmatic View on the Variety of Actual Experience

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
K. Borishpolets
Keyword(s):  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
World Politics ◽  
General Interest ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Positive Interaction ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Youth Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Actual Experience ◽  
Unique Effect

Public diplomacy as a phenomenon of international affairs has many formats, and various actors of world politics differently utilize it. The public diplomacy experience of two modern integration projects – the CIS and EEU is of considerable general interest as it is focused on strengthening multilateral positive interaction and not directed to the creation of only one country’s attractiveness. In the context of cultural cooperation, youth policy, educational cooperation, promotion of foreign policy initiatives, work with diaspora, Russia and its partners increasingly use public diplomacy resources. Activity of Post-Soviet integration participants creates unique effect of complementarity of their efforts in the sphere of humanitarian cooperation. That is increasingly needed in establishing dialogue platforms with participation of state and non-state actors within not only CIS and EEU countries, but also their regional environment.

scholarly journals On the concept of international disorder

2020 ◽  
pp. 004711782092228
Author(s):  
Aaron McKeil
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Order ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Order And Disorder ◽  
Recent Interest ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Systems

International relations today are widely considered to be experiencing deepening disorder and the topic of international disorder is gaining increased attention. Yet, despite this recent interest in international disorder, in and beyond the academy, and despite the decades-long interest in international order, there is still little agreement on the concept of international disorder, which is often used imprecisely and with an alarmist rather than analytical usage. This is a problem if international disorder is to be understood in theory, towards addressing its concomitant problems and effects in practice. As such, this article identifies and explores two ways international order studies can benefit from a clearer and more precise conception of international disorder. First, it enables a more complete picture of how orderly international orders have been. Second, a greater understanding of the problem of international order is illuminated by a clearer grasp of the relation between order and disorder in world politics. The article advances these arguments in three steps. First, an analytical concept of international disorder is developed and proposed. Second, applying it to the modern history of international order, the extent to which there is a generative relationship between order and disorder in international systems is explored. Third, it specifies the deepening international disorder in international affairs today. It concludes by indicating a research agenda for International Relations and international order studies that takes the role of international disorder more seriously.

The Future of International Relations

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Reich ◽  
Richard Ned Lebow
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Research ◽  
Material Power

This chapter revisits the concept of hegemony, elaborating some of the most important connections among them and assessing their implications for both U.S. foreign policy and international relations theory. Drawing on empirical findings laid out in the previous chapters, this chapter contends that hegemony is no longer applicable to international affairs, as its constituent functions are widely shared and exercised more by negotiation than fiat. This constellation requires a new conceptualization of influence. The chapter points to a new research agenda for the present century based on the recognition that we now live in a multipowered world—where actors combine social and material power to gain influence in varying ways—and not a unipolar world.

scholarly journals Cyber security in the national security & defence sector of Ukraine: todayʼs challenges and ways to avoid possible threats

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Ihor Proshchyn ◽  
Volodymyr Shypovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Strategic Communications ◽  
Cooperation Agreement ◽  
The North ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
Psychological Operations ◽  
Heads Of State

Development of strategic communications is necessary for the effective preparation and use of the Armed Forces, for the coordination of actions of state bodies in defence matters, as well as for the purpose of forming and strengthening the confidence of Ukrainian society in the stateʼs military policy. The basic elements of strategic communications of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces are public relations, public relations in the military sphere, public diplomacy, information and psychological operations. In turn, one of the components of the information operations system is cyberspace actions. The strategic importance of actions in cyberspace is due to the fact that cyber threats today, with devastating consequences, pose no less danger than direct military intervention. In 2016, during the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the first ever EU-NATO security cooperation agreement was signed, in particular on hybrid wars and cyberattacks. Cyberspace, along with land, air, sea, and space, has been recognized as a new operational space, and cyber-operations (cyberattacks) are an integral part of the hybrid war. Also, cyber weapons in terms of scale of successors are compared with weapons of mass destruction. In this regard, cyber security is one of the top priorities for the state. The article is devoted to the research of actual problems of providing the cyber security of the Armed Forces units of Ukraine in the current conditions of development of the information society and during hybrid threats from the Russian Federation side. The authors explain the basic concepts and definitions of the scientific field and explain conceptual approaches to cybersecurity and propose some ways to improve the existing cybersecurity mechanism or how to enhance it.

scholarly journals Country images and identities in times of populism: Swiss media discourses on the ‘stop mass immigration’ initiative

2020 ◽  
pp. 174804852091346
Author(s):  
Alina Dolea ◽  
Diana Ingenhoff ◽  
Anabella Beju
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Nation Branding ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Stop Mass ◽  
Media Discourses

The construction of certain country images and identities is traditionally studied in relation to public diplomacy, strategic communication and nation branding practices of state and non-state actors. However, we notice the increased instrumentalization of country images and identities in debates on issues beyond strategic promotional practices, such as those articulated around elections, referendums or migration. We analyse how Swiss media constructed Switzerland's image and identity in the debate following the 2014 referendum on ‘stop mass immigration’ initiative, in times of populism, a communication phenomenon and ideology discursively articulated by political and media actors. Thus, we: (1) bridge streams of research on country images, identities, migration and populism that have yet to be integrated; (2) propose critical discourse analysis to identify specific discursive strategies (offering insights into alternative methodologies for studying populist political communication content and style); (3) highlight the role of media in reproducing populist discourses on country images and identities.

INTRODUCTION STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARMED FORCES

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-14
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Strategic Communications ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fast Development ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Psychological Operations

This second edition in the 21st year of the publication of ‘Contemporary Military Challenges’ is dedicated to strategic communications and their influence, connections and interactions connected to the armed forces. Maybe you have already noticed that we use the term communications, and not communication? At first glance, many would think that the difference between these words and phrases is minor and irrelevant, because strategic communication and strategic communications cannot be that different in meaning; while others may be of the opinion that one form or the other is incorrect. Terminological consensus has not yet been reached in Slovene or in English. Based on the opinion of the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language1, the term ‘strategic communications’ is used in Slovene in this edition in the context of the NATO concept. We would like to emphasize that we are not trying to codify the use with our choice of the term, but rather seeking to achieve consistency and encourage debate. The articles in this edition show that a lot of effort needs to be put into terminology. Some believe that it is not important to focus on small terminological differences, claiming that it is the content and its associated development that really matters. But is that really the case? While preparing this themed edition, we encountered numerous challenges, beginning with the planning phase itself. The basic idea was to devote some attention to the communications and communication of armed forces with different target audiences (internal or external), in different forms, such as classic media, social media, various public events and the use of force, among others. For the armed forces, the relationships within the forces, that is, between their personnel, and the relationships with other audiences, who may decide on the functioning and future of the armed forces, are of the utmost importance. In order to achieve the best possible result, we contacted Professor Marjan Malešič, PhD, from the Faculty of Social Sciences, a long-standing coordinator of the Public Opinion, Mass Media and the Military Working Group at the European Association of Military Sociologists, Ergomas. This edition includes some content from the special edition of the international publication on Strategic Communication, entitled ‘Guidelines for the Future of Strategic Communication’, published by Routledge Publications in November 2018. We have addressed not only the issue of terminology, but also the concept. This topic often appears in writing and has a rich history in terms of its content. The terms used most frequently in its history are: propaganda (the oldest), public relations, information influencing, communication, strategic communication, corporate communication, and strategic communications, among others. As concepts, they are listed in the NATO Military Concept for Strategic Communications, and described as the coordinated and dedicated use of NATO’s information-communication capabilities and activities. These include activities in public diplomacy, public relations, information and psychological operations, serving as an appropriate support of the politics, operations and activities of the Alliance for the implementation of NATO goals. The Republic of Slovenia has been a member of the Alliance for 15 years. The Slovenian Armed Forces have been fully engaged in various NATO activities and committed to NATO’s Strategic Communications Concept. So, the title of this themed edition is ‘Strategic Communications and the Armed Forces’. The conceptual and terminological aspects are only two of the many aspects of exploring this interdisciplinary and highly relevant topic. With its fast development, it offers many opportunities, but also questions. In the future, there will be even more opportunities for research, debate and various solutions.

scholarly journals Media diplomacy in public administration: analysis of the effectiveness of Ukrainian national branding

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 120-127
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Shypovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
The State ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Strategic Communications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Military Relations

Since 1991, the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly changed the vector of the country's development depending on the views and intentions of the ruling politicians, which has led to negative consequences for the development of all spheres of activity of Ukrainians. One of these consequences is a decrease in the country's authority in the world community. Among the threats facing our state on the way to protection of national interests and national security, the most vulnerable link was the information sphere. It should be noted that the issue of coordinated and proper use of communication opportunities at all levels of public policy – public diplomacy, public relations, military relations, information and psychological operations, measures aimed at promoting the goals of the state has always been acute. Public diplomacy is the realization of the soft power of the country in the international arena, the promotion of the interests of the state in the world by mobilizing the support of the foreign community. This support is achieved by stimulating the desire of the foreign community to consume the ideals of democracy, good governance, integrity, prosperity, security, success and unlimited opportunities for human development. Public diplomacy is one of the components of strategic communications, which has a key task – the formation of the image of the state and its institutions at the international level, the consolidation of important brands in the global information space. The development of state branding should be based primarily on the formation of the state/institutional narrative and broadcast to different target audiences. Thus, public diplomacy involves the formation of the image of all institutional components of the state. The success of economic growth and the dynamic development of relations with other countries largely depends on how the country's brand is formed and promoted in the domestic and global markets. Creating a positive image of the country should be the subject of special attention of the Government and any composition of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine. The most effective tool of public diplomacy is the media and social networks, which, as mass media, should work to promote national ideas among the population of the country and outside Ukraine.

Systemic Unsustainability as a Threat to Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Felicetti
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Sustainability Transition ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Illustrative Case Study ◽  
New Research

Resilient socioeconomic unsustainability poses a threat to democracy whose importance has yet to be fully acknowledged. As the prospect of sustainability transition wanes, so does perceived legitimacy of institutions. This further limits representative institutions’ ability to take action, making democratic deepening all the more urgent. I investigate this argument through an illustrative case study, the 2017 People’s Climate March. In a context of resilient unsustainability, protesters have little expectation that institutions might address the ecological crisis and this view is likely to spread. New ways of thinking about this problem and a new research agenda are needed.

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