Does NATO need PR help?
Having taken command of the Libya operation, NATO now finds itself struggling to explain and defend the complicated mission. It’s not an easy task: NATO’s mission to defend civilians without taking sides in the conflict is tough to explain in the best of circumstances. Headlines about mistaken attacks on rebel forces and rebel despair at ...
Having taken command of the Libya operation, NATO now finds itself struggling to explain and defend the complicated mission. It's not an easy task: NATO's mission to defend civilians without taking sides in the conflict is tough to explain in the best of circumstances. Headlines about mistaken attacks on rebel forces and rebel despair at NATO's inability to turn the tide make for tough public relations. As the conflict drags on, and as the inevitable mistakes accumulate, public support may fade.
Having taken command of the Libya operation, NATO now finds itself struggling to explain and defend the complicated mission. It’s not an easy task: NATO’s mission to defend civilians without taking sides in the conflict is tough to explain in the best of circumstances. Headlines about mistaken attacks on rebel forces and rebel despair at NATO’s inability to turn the tide make for tough public relations. As the conflict drags on, and as the inevitable mistakes accumulate, public support may fade.
For all the resources of its members, it’s worth remembering that NATO itself is a relatively thinly staffed organization not necessarily equipped for the demands of a 24-hour news cycle. During the 1999 Kosovo operation, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton became so frustrated with NATO’s public relations abilities that the prime minister dispatched PR guru Alastair Campbell and a group of other senior advisers to manage the alliance’s messaging operation.
Mr. Campbell and media advisers from other NATO capitals, including the White House speechwriter Jonathan Prince, were sent to Brussels to sharpen NATO’s media operation in mid-April after a convoy of ethnic Albanians was bombed in southern Kosovo, killing dozens of civilians. Sowing confusion more than information, NATO initially suggested that Serb forces had shelled the convoy before acknowledging its own jets had bombed the refugees by mistake.
A lightning rod for criticism, Campbell came under fire later for overselling certain aspects of the conflict. But the bottom line was that public support for the difficult mission held together. If the Libya conflict drags on much longer, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and British prime minister David Cameron may start reaching for their own Alastair Campbells.
Update: As if to prove the point, NATO now backtracks on its initial refusal to apologize for the recent attack on rebel tanks.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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