On 19th May in Stockholm, the embassies of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Swedish security policy research association, Folk och Försvar, jointly organised a seminar entitled “Information Operations as a Foreign Policy Tool — the Situation in the Baltic States and Consequences for Sweden”, at which the opening presentation, “Communication and Information as Strategic Instruments”, was given by Jānis Kārkliņš, Ambassador and Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. He presented the analysis carried out by the Centre on the instruments used in Russia's information operations and the possible countermeasures for neutralising them, the assessment of strategic communication measures and the development of recommendations on a much broader geographical scale, inter alia, a study on the results of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, and an analysis of the media strategy employed by the Islamic State.
On 18th May, during his visit to Stockholm, the Director of the Centre also met Ola Hendin, Deputy Director of the Secretariat of Security Policy and International Relations of the Ministry of Defence of Sweden, Annika Elmgart, Deputy Director of the Division for Crisis Preparedness of the Ministry of Justice, as well as representatives from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), to inform them about the Centre's goals, directions of action, completed and future studies, and also to invite Sweden to participate in the Centre's activities, by sending experts in public psychology, social media and the Middle East. The Swedish representatives were invited to attend the official opening conference of the Centre on 20th and 21st August.
This event will mark a fruitful future cooperation for the NATO StratCom COE and Swedish institutions.
More information about the seminar and a video from it is available here.