Seeking Legitimacy: Considerations for Strategic Communications in the Digital Age

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; and Address the impact of contradictory messaging on NATO’s legitimacy and suggest ways strategic communications practitioners might approach this problem.