Page 218 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

facilitated by the source strategies of Gorbachev and his media
advisers and spokespersons. The changes in presentation were
accompanied, of course, by major developments in Soviet foreign
and domestic policy, which might have rendered the ‘Soviet threat’
concept untenable in any case. Of major importance, however, is
the fact that Gorbachev, as the public face of the Soviet Union
during these years, effectively communicated to the world a vision
of Soviet society, and an account of Soviet government policy, which
undermined the Cold War propaganda of the NATO allies and
eventually made it appear anachronistic. In this sense, one might
say, skilful political communication brought an end to the Cold
War.
The experience of the Cold War is perhaps the most significant
example of the fact that contemporary international relations are,
like domestic election campaigns and political debates, focused on
and projected from the channels of the mass media, television in
particular. Inter-state relations are negotiated by appeal to domestic
and global public opinion, from which governments and inter-
national organisations such as the United Nations seek to draw
legitimacy. As was noted in the introduction to this chapter, much
diplomacy continues in secret, but the immediacy and scale of
modern reportage of diplomatic affairs requires political actors
always to consider the impact of their actions, and communi-
cations, on public opinion.
In 2001, at the height of Robert Mugabe’s campaign of ‘land
reform’, the US public relations company Cohen and Wood Inter-
national were employed by the Zimbabwean government in an
effort to improve its reputation abroad, a task that understandably
proved difficult amidst the violent intimidation, corruption and
incompetence which by the time of Zimbabwe’s 2002 election
had become associated with Mugabe’s ZANU PF party. With the
exception of a number of his fellow African leaders such as Sam
Nujoma of Namibia, Mugabe’s efforts to promote a positive image
of himself and his government overseas were a resounding failure.
As this book went to press, amidst mounting starvation and strife
in a country which a few years before had been prosperous and self-
sufficient, Zimbabwe remained a pariah state, banning foreign
journalists at one moment and blaming Britain and other ‘colonial’
powers for its problems on the other.
The South African government also employed professional
public relations in its efforts at international political communi-
cation, after negative publicity surrounding President Mbeki’s

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