Seeking legitimacy: considerations for strategic communications in the digital age
ENWhile the Soviet Union in particular developed well-honed strategies for propaganda during the Cold War, the last ten years have seen an explosion in the speed and reach of a new breed of disinformation. Messages now travel far and wide on social media at the speed of thought, as people look to Twitter and TikTok for news. Governments find themselves attempting to sort out which stories will pass and which stories will stick, as they struggle to bet limited resources against emerging problems. Democracies are particularly vulnerable to disinformation because laws are designed to protect free speech, not to protect the state from speech. [...] This project seeks to understand the challenges that countries are facing in the modern media environment, and how they could unify messaging to increase legitimacy and resilience. This project’s objectives are the following: Identify how the dissolution of boundaries is perceived from a NATO alliance member perspective, especially how populations are affected when they receive simultaneous but separate messaging intended for different audiences; Evaluate whether any legal frameworks are in place for governing such situations, in particular the opportunities for new structures; Discuss strategic communications practices and how they may need to evolve to match the reality of a fluid information environment; Examine ways synchronisation or deconfliction might play a role, and how such practices could create resilience among NATO allies in the information space; Address the impact of contradictory messaging on NATO’s legitimacy and suggest ways strategic communications practitioners might approach this problem.
