The importance of nation branding during crises and in day-to-day basis

In the 21st century, countries have started to realize the importance of nation-branding and the importance it has in the globalized world. Well branded nations can have various benefits starting from simply attracting tourism and strenghten economic relations to even protect against serious attacks. So far, countries have taken different approaches on branding nations and some have been more successful than others.

For the Icelandic tourist industry, year 2010 was as a nightmare. The Eyafjallajökulli volcane started to erupt, which in turn led to the greatest financial crisis in Iceland’s history. These events attracted media from all over the world and put Iceland to the centre of world news. Unfortunately, that was not a positive spotlight on Iceland. People who were planning to visit Iceland in the , thought that the entire island has been buried under ash and therefore, to avoid interrups, cancelled their already planned holidays. As a result of that, the Icelandic tourism industry was facing a serious challenge – how to prove these people that the situation was not that bad at all and holidays should not be cancelled. Icelandic toruism industry and banking sector were facing a very difficult time and this is when the government realised the threats and put their marketing skills into a good use.

The Icelandic Tourist Board called on its citizens to actively participate in social media. Their goal was to get their nationals to upload provocatives videos about Iceland into Youtube, and post attractive pictures to Twitter and Facebook. This campaign was an outstanding success as in total of more than half of Iceland’s population took part of this action. During the period of less than 12 months, fans of Iceland provided over 2 million units of content including videos, posts and tweets. In addition to ordinary citizens, even the president took part of this campaign. This campaign was more than successful. The number of tourists increased by 30% and the year 2011 hit the record numbers of tourists visiting Iceland.

The Icelandic Tourist Board won a prestigious Euro Effie award for the successful management of the volcano crisis thanks to social media. Also after the crises, Icelandic tourist office has been mainly focusing on nation-inclusive social-media centered campaigns which have been working very successfully.

Similar approach to a nation-branding has been adopted by the Swedish tourism development bureau Visit Sweden. Namely, some of the citizens (who are refferred as curators) can post to twitter under the formal twitter account of Sweden. That approach have attracted many followers as the tweets are from locals perspective and surely large amounts of tourists.

Vital role of sports in diplomacy

Without any doubt, sports in diplomacy has been singled out as one of the most untapped yet highly potent diplomatic tools respective governments can explore to remedy or drastically minimize estrangement, facilitate sustainability, growth as well as dialogue. As a matter of fact, the roles of sports in diplomacy has been proven to be universally language capable of dousing tension, engender compassion, tolerance and mutual respect  amidst political acrimony. Indeed, diplomacy is actually the engine room of foreign relations which is the master institution of committee of nations. Generally speaking, diplomacy and war is opposite to each other and ever mutually exclusive in nature. Diplomacy is the strategic requirement to take over where foreign policy has reached its very end. It is noteworthy to state that while taunting, bullying, blackmailing and bluffing could be counter-productive, the instruments of sports in diplomacy can always been be used to appeal to interest , pacify and attempt to strike a bargain.

Better still; sports in diplomacy can best be categorized under the ambit of public diplomacy. It includes representative and diplomatic events put together by athlete in collaboration with and on behalf of their respective governments. Sports in diplomacy is the using of sporting events and sporting people to engage, inform, and build favorable image among international organizations and public so as to change their perceptions to favorably and enhance positive image towards sending government’s foreign policy goals. Even though diplomacy could be the means to the country’s foreign policy ends, sports in diplomacy can simply be defined as the best means to the means of those ends in question. The following are the notable roles of sports in diplomacy:

• The continuous variation in diplomatic environment has made adaption and experimentation mandatory. Hence, sports in diplomacy showcase the government’s proactive response to the post – Cold War and obsolete arguments. The applications of sports as influence to foreign policy ends could be an innovative, exciting and effective tool for changing the country’s foreign policy among the populace.
•   Considering the fact that sport and sporting institutions are continually growing in appeal, scope and power, respective countries are exploiting the savvy whims of the public are passionately desires to coat tail on the popularity of sports.  This also include the relevance of influential non state players like FIFA and/or sporting demi-gods like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi. Obviously, there is hardly anyone who is against sports, not even the sadists, with regards to its global and universal quality. Virtually everyone in all countries and continents is interested in Olympic and World Cup for instance. Therefore, sports in diplomacy does more good far outweighs its evil, if at all there is any.
• Sports in diplomacy will continue to be beat the drum of peace in this 21th century because the world is getting fed up with violence. The public has more tendencies to listen and yield to soft power overtures from across the nations, like sporting or cultural exchanges. Nowadays, sports, age, and culture in diplomacy have become highly potent foreign policy tools unlike when it used to be backwater or niche institutions.
• It is undeniable fact that sports are the integral aspect of modern life being driven by an Akira-style system and receiving global audience. By creatively crafted diplomatic postures, message and image into sporting values, it goes a long way in positively affecting the perceptions of the foreign public. This is best illustrated in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing which was used to foster china’s image as the emerging modern and economic powerhouse. Ever the closing of the game, China has been experiencing enviable image, regardless of the fact that the farcical build-up. It is anticipated that via 2016 Olympics in Brazil, sport in diplomacy will equally move the country to up in the committee of nations.

In summary, sports in diplomacy could be a deliberate application of sports by Government as mechanism for carrying out foreign diplomacy. Besides, it is also a serve as wider networks of interaction fashioned around international sporting activities between government, civil society, NGOs, media, business and teams. Sports in diplomacy have always been used to send diplomatic message from time immemorial till date. In 1970s, for instance, the roles of sports in diplomacy were explored to facilitate the US-China relations. Likewise, several countries effused to compete with South African national rugby team as protest and condemnation of apartheid regime in 70s and 80s.

 

References:

• Berridge, G.R. (200). Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, London: Palgrave
• Jackson, Robert. (2002) Martin Wright’s Though on Diplomacy. Diplomacy & Statecraft
• Kelly, John Robert.(2010) The New Diplomacy: evolution of a revolution, Diplomacy and Statecraft
• Keech, marc and Houlihan, Barrie (1999) Sports and the end of apartheid.
• George (1972). Principles of World Politics. New York: Free Press

Can and how media communications influence conflicts? Conflict between Russia and Georgia taken as an example.

When the war begins it is not immediately noticeable that alongside with the ‘real war’ there is often a break out for so called ‘information war’ or ‘media war’. Media war is literally a meditated event that is based on reality but is rather limited and desensitized representation of the actual war. Often, the role of media during a conflict is not often only to act as a middleman but also to reflect the news in dependence with their own interests. For example, the national media is driving the national lineage, while the commercial media focuses on the drama and entertainment side of the war. Media is not, and will be never able to provide a complete picture so therefore in one way or another it is disfigured.  The way country is presented to the rest of the world has a big importance as wars can be often win purely thanks to the support of media. One great example where war was partly won because of the flow of information was in 2008 when Russia conducted a high intensity war with Georgia. News was published selectively and often leaving the public to think of Russia in a bad light. Russian-Georgian war is often considered as an information war because the picture that media was painting was crucial to both parties.

To understand how big is the influence that media can have and what countries are capable of doing to leave a good impression to the world – Ian Traynor from the Guardian writes how Georgia had paid 500000 EUR to Brussels PR company Aspect Consultations so it would market Georgia as a Western and democratic country that wants to strive for both the European Union and NATO. Georgia had also employed several PR agencies, ranging from Tbilisi to Brussels and from London to Washington.  The communication between Georgia and the journalists during the war was effective and firmly in place. They set up a media centre, where it was possible to report immediately to the front line close, while the Russian army controlled the access to south Ossetia, thus making it difficult for journalists to reflect their own actions.

Also, Georgian president Mihhail Saakašvili took an advantage of his good English language to dominate the media coverage in the rest of the world. He was successful leaving an impression that he was the sufferer in this conflict and even when the Russian tanks entered to Georgian territory, he had time to write an article to Wall Street Journal. It is a rare occasion that president writes articles to the newspapers especially during the war. But because of his activism, Georgian message was carried out worldwide and the media was provided with updates basically 24/7.

Russia’s’ role in the conflict was evaluated in a number of articles rather negative or neutral. Russia earned the negative role in pursuing with the military actions even after the announcement of truce and also after the bombing and occupying Georgian towns.

Russia and Georgia on brink of war

Before the actual crisis in Georgia, Russia was thoroughly prepared also for the information war. Already the day bef
ore the actual start of military engagement, an extensive cyber-attack was launched. It knocked out the whole information system in Georgia thus preventing it fro
m sharing information. South Ossetia was full of journalists who were waiting to let the world know about the genocide of Georgians. Independent news at that point was non-existent as Georgians news could not get an access to the world and Russian journalists published articles selectively. However, in few days, Georgians managed to c
ollect themselves and managed to beat back and then to go on the offensive. The success was achieved by the fast recovery and openness about the situation – unlike the Russian head of states, Georgians were opened and clear. Western journalists started to provide adequate picture about the situation in Georgia, often paying for it unfortunately in their lives. But it was that that win
over the public opinion to the side of Georgia, making it clear that Russia is a
mounting aggression.

Bibliography:

ALLISON, R. (2013). Russia, the West, and military intervention.

Diplomaatia.ee,. ‘Sõda Gruusias’. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Fawn, R. and Nalbandov, R. (2012). The difficulties of knowing the start of war in the information age: Russia, Georgia and the War over South Ossetia, August 2008. European Security, 21(1), pp.57-89.

Hanimägi, Andre. GRUUSIA-VENE SÕJA KAJASTUS AJALEHTEDES THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JA DIE WELT. 1st ed. Tartu: Tartu Ülikool Sotsiaal- ja haridusteaduskond Ajakirjanduse ja kommunikatsiooni osakond, 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

The Times,. ‘Georgia Loses The Fight With Russia, But Manages To Win The PR War | The Times’. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Traynor, Ian. ‘While Georgian President Might Have Lost War Against Russia, He Is Widely Seen To Have Won Propaganda Battle’. the Guardian. N.p., 2008. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

The future of wars

What is cyber-terrorism and has it been a real danger?

As the world is changing more rapidly in terms of technology than ever before then it becomes relevant to discuss about terrorism but not just terrorism that gained popularity during the French Revolution but cyber-terrorism which is a relatively new term. In fact, cyber operations began to draw the attention of international legal community in the late 1990s and most significantly with the convention of the first major legal conference by the United States Naval War College in 1999. Cyber-terrorism by its definition is considered as “premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents” (SearchSecurity, 2015). The United States’ 2010 National Security Strategy have cited cyber threats as ‘’one of the most serious national security, public safety, and economic challenges we face as a nation’’. (COE, 2013) But has cyber-terrorism had any real danger on a nation?

In 2007, NATO started urgently examining the cyber aggression and its implications and the capability of Article V of the NATO charter regarding the non-kinetic realm was tested. Why? Because of a three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks that started on the 27^th of April 2005 against a small Baltic country on the East coast of the Baltic Sea – Estonia. After a removal of a Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn and during the aggregations that followed, the websites of government ministries, political parties, major newspapers, banks and companies faced a massive cyber-attack. The attacks were carried out with military precision – it was only a matter of hours when after moving the memorial, a cyber war broke out and Estonian’s online existence was under attack from Russia and clearly was put into a serious test. Cyber-attacks are a new means of warfare and Estonia’s example clearly serves a warning sign especially because Estonian state and private companies rely heavily on the flawless functioning of internet connection.

Before 2007, the term ‘cyber’ did not have a clear meaning and attention that was paid to this field was poor or non-existant. Cyber-security could have been to building a house – you build a house, a fence, lock the door i order to to be sure everything is safe inside and then your house lights up on fire. That made  Estonian government, after being the first country to fall victim to one country attacking another over the internet to rethink their cyber security as they firmly believed that the first inter-state cyber wars had had begun as it seriously interrupted commerce and day-to-day functions. After, when the cyber-terrorism stopped, the everyday life of people was disturbed for several days. According to John Negroponte, former deputy U.S. secretary of state, “Cyber terrorism is becoming an increasing concern as familiarity with these technologies grows and more and more actors get involved in information technology”. (FT, 18.05; TIME Magazine, 31.05). Read more about the cyber-attacks in Estonia: Hackers Take Down the Most Wired Country in Europe
Cyber-attacks have not been only against nation states but companies as well. ‘2014 was a bad year for cyber-security’ – ‘Apple, Target, Ebay and Sony become victims of cyber theft’ (Eandt.theiet.org, 2015). In Sony case, the leakage of the movies and disclosure of the sensitive employee information has caused a serious loss in the revenue and Sony’s both, current and potential customers are more likely to question purchasing Sony products. Those doubts can have drastic impact on Sony company in long-term (WIRED and Normal?, 2015).

Mr Francis Maude has said that the Internet is a wonderful thing; it has driven economic growth and prosperity and it improves people’s lives. We only have a problem with cyber-attacks because of something incredibly positive’’ (Diplomaatia.ee, 2015). Indeed, Internet is an incredibly wonderful thing and it has helped the human kind in many ways. But in ordet to not let the Internet become a serious weapon, different actions have been taken to protect countries and organisations against cyber-terrorism. For example the creation of NATO cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE) in Tallinn has a mission to ‘’to enhance capability, cooperation and information sharing among NATO, its member nations and partners in cyber defence by virtue of education, research and development, lessons learned and consultation’’ (CCDCOE, 2015). CyCon is another example of international Conference on Cyber Conflict which focuses on ‘’ ‘cyber power’ as one of the core elements of relations between different stakeholders and will discuss how the traditional concept of ‘power’ applies to cyberspace’’ (Ccdcoe.org, 2015). These are just two examples but there is more – INCYDER, ‘’The Tallinn Manual’’, Locked shields and a field for cyber-exercises. These examples are coming from Estonia but there many more worldwide. Cars that people use every day around the world, kill thousands of people every year; but it does not mean that people would not use them anymore – we are just trying to build them to be more safe.

Bibliography:

CCDCOE, (2015). CCDCOE. [online] Available at: https://ccdcoe.org/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015].

CCDCOE, (2014). INCYDER. [online] Available at: https://ccdcoe.org/incyder.html [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015].

COE, N. (2013). Tallinn Manual. [online] Issuu. Available at: http://issuu.com/nato_ccd_coe/docs/tallinnmanual?e=0/1803379#search [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

Eandt.theiet.org, (2015). Cyber-security: organisations vulnerable to new swathe of attacks in 2015 – E & T Magazine. [online] Available at: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2015/01/special-report-cyber-security.cfm [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015].

Nato.int, (2015). NATO Topics – NATO and the Scourge of Terrorism. [online] Available at: http://www.nato.int/terrorism/five.htm [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

Nytimes.com, (2015). Inside Terrorism. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-terrorism.html [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

SearchSecurity, (2015). What is cyberterrorism? – Definition from WhatIs.com. [online] Available at: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/cyberterrorism [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

The Economist, (2007). A cyber-riot. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/node/9163598 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

Click to access cyber_attacks.pdf

Local, national and global citizenship – how do we concieve ourselves?

Today, information and communication technologies (ICT) are increasing in its influence and gaining even more and more power every day. Technologies such as the Internet, personal computers and wireless telephone have fundamentally changed the nature of global relationships, sources of competitive advantage as well opportunities for economic and social development. They have turned the globe into an increasingly interconnected network of individuals, firms, schools and governments communicating and interacting with each other through variety of channels.[1] The changes in the nature have made people to seriously question about their belonging in the world – whether they are local, national or global citizens; or what does it mean to be a citizen of a nation or world?

The term ‘global citizenship’ or ‘world citizenship’ usually defines a person who places their identity with a so called ‘global community’ above their identity as a citizen of a particular nation or place. It has been used in education, political philosophy as well as it has had popular use in numerous social movements e.g. ‘World Citizen’ movement and the Mondialisation movement. The whole idea of this concept is that identity does not recognise geographic or political borders and the planetary human community is interdependent and humankind is whole and essentially one.[2] UBC Okanagan Academic Planning Team defined and modelled ‘global citizen’ as follows: ‘’Global citizens are willing to think beyond boundaries of place, identity and category, and recognize all human beings as their equals while respecting humanity’s inherent diversity. Within their own spheres of influence, global citizens seek to imagine and work towards a better world.’’[3] It is important to understand that global citizenship is something that one decides to implement.

National citizenship, on the other hand, is defined as a status which is related to a state or condition when a person is a legally recognized inhabitant of the country they live in. It has its roots in the historical development of human kind exercising four rights (liberties) and duties of formally equal individual subjects of an association which is under the constitutional rule of law and representative government.[4] But being a citizen of a country is not an easy task either – it requires a full understanding and accepting the culture as well as being a part of it rather than an observer from the outside. It does not mean that the person has to completely agree with the ways of doing things but it is vital to at least to understand how and why things happen.

Local citizenship is in the middle of two previously described citizenships. People live their lives at the local level and that is also where they engage on a daily basis with the state, public services, markets and the political system. Local citizen is mostly associated with a particular locality or area which can be a city, community etc.

Is it even necessary to conceive ourselves as global, national or local citizens? I think it is crucial to understand that global and local are not some kind of opposites that need to be balanced. One can balance its time both – locally and globally. It does not mean giving up one or another ‘citizenship’ that if you commit yourself locally, you cannot commit yourself globally and vice-versa.

Used literature:

DALGLIESH, B. (2013) Mondialisation and critiques of capitalism [Online] Available from: https://www.uta.edu/huma/agger/fastcapitalism/10_1/dalgliesh10_1.html

MORGAN, J. P., COLEMAN, J. M., & GAGLIANO, S. M. (1963). Mudlumps at the mouth of South Pass, Mississippi River; sedimentology, paleontology, structure, origin, and relation to deltaic processes. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press.

[1] Harvard, What Is the Networked world?, [Online] Available from: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/readinessguide/networkedworld.html

[2] KASWORM, C.E., ROSE, A.D. and ROSS-GORDON, J.M. (2010) Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education, ch. 8.

[3] The University of British Columbia, Defining – and Modeling – Global Citizenship, [Online] Available from: http://news.ubc.ca/annualreports/2005/citizenship.html

[4] TULLY, J. (2014) pp. 11-12