Dr Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary General, Emerging Security Challenges Division at NATO and a former NATO Spokesman, will deliver his annual contribution to the MA in Political Strategy and Communication with two specialist lectures followed by a Crisis Communications Workshop.
“Crisis Communication”: 17 February 13:00-15:00
Synopsis: Handling the media during a crisis. How does an international organisation like NATO cope with intense media pressure during a conflict like Kosovo or Afghanistan? How do you run a Media Operations Centre? How do you put your narrative across via the media and to the local population as well as your own public opinion? Lessons learned from the time of Dr Shea’s work as NATO Spokesman and Director, Information and Press. The focus will be on how a 24/7 news cycle, including more multiple and social media, influences decision makers.
“Public Diplomacy in a Fragmented World”: 24 February 13:00-15:00
Synopsis: What is Public Diplomacy and how do international organisations conduct it? The focus will be on how public diplomacy has evolved in recent decades and on how globalisation, the decline in influence of the traditional Western media and social change have forced international organisations like NATO to rethink the way they do public diplomacy. How do you get your message across in an increasingly fragmented and cluttered media environment and where you have to reach many different audiences across the globe?
Crisis Communication Workshop: 25 February 14:00-17:00
Drawing upon his considerable experience as spokesman, Director of Information and then as Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations at NATO, Dr Shea will help students examine three crisis situations to see how the governments reacted in each given situation, whether these reactions were normal, manipulative, cultural or institutional and to identify what lessons can be drawn from the handling of each incident.