Storytelling in EU public diplomacy: reputation management and recognition of success

European Journal of Politics and Gender

2022

Self Cite

This article interrogates the digital storytelling of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy. Drawing on scholarship on state feminism and digital diplomacy, it shows how digital platforms offer opportunities to reproduce narratives of state feminism through storytelling. We propose that digital diplomacy is used to advance feminist foreign policy through emotional sense-making that requires the telling of personal stories. The article provides a narrative analysis of the stories of women and girls that symbolise and embody feminist foreign policy, and the way in which they are communicated by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The article concludes by noting that the digital storytelling of feminist foreign policy allows the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to communicate to a wider digital audience. These stories, however, run the risk of obscuring the feminist ambitions of feminist foreign policy by insufficiently considering the gendered injustices that undergird the global gender order and by bringing together seemingly incompatible stories of feminist exceptionalism and success.

Section: The Branding Of the State: Digitalisation And Feminismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The digital storytelling of feminist foreign policy: Sweden’s state feminism in digital diplomacy

Rosamond

European Journal of Politics and Gender

2022

Self Cite

“…Social media have become a competitive scene where political influence is measured in terms of engagement. To compete for the online public, leaders and organisations therefore adapt to market demands by framing politics through engaging storylines (Hedling 2019).…”

Section: Foreign Policy Leadership In a Mediatised Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have to educate them on EU foreign policy. (Interview, EEAS official, April 2018) Essentially three types of online videos were projected in relation to the EUGS, speeches by Mogherini filmed up-close with her addressing citizens directly, informational videos describing facts and animated stories of EU's foreign policy (Hedling 2019). These videos demonstrated media logic; they simplified the message; they provided a personal connection to Mogherini or to the EUGS and they used compelling dramaturgyall known ways in which media logic assists the framing of leadership (cf.…”

Section: The Leaderisation Of Mogherini In the Projection Of The Eugsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaderisation in foreign policy: performing the role of EU High Representative

Aggestam

2020

European Security

Self Cite

This article examines how the mediatised context of foreign policy provides new opportunities for political leaders to both frame and project their own leadership role to new audiences. The past ten years have witnessed a sharp rise in political leaders' use of new social media to communicate on a range of foreign policy issues. We argue that this new media context of foreign policy, combined with a bolstered leadership mandate, has been central to the construction of a more visible public leadership role for the EU High Representative in the post-Lisbon era. Departing from recent scholarship on performative leadership and new media in International Relations theory, we develop an original theoretical framework drawing on Erving Goffman's dramaturgy of impression management. We employ the concept of "leaderisation" to analyse how mediatisation shapes the leadership process in terms of personification and drama to enable new forms of interaction with followers. We apply this framework in an illustrative case study focusing on the process of negotiating the EU Global Strategy. This diplomatic process provided the High Representative Mogherini with a stage on which she could frame herself in a central leadership position visà-vis European citizens to mobilise greater legitimacy for the EU as a global actor.

“…In contemporary global politics, states are investing in the digital management of their national images and relationships online (Hedling 2020). The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the pursuit of diplomatic goals has become an important practice whereby foreign policy actors can digitally project their policy preferences, normative values and nation brands globally (Bjola and Holmes 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist digital diplomacy and foreign policy change in Sweden

Aggestam

Rosamond

Place Brand Public Dipl

2021

Self Cite

This article analyses how the launch of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy marked a change in Sweden’s digital diplomatic efforts. It draws on three strands of research: digital diplomacy, foreign policy analysis (FPA) and feminist scholarship. Informed by FPA, the article explores the relevance of political leadership, bureaucratic agency and political context as drivers of policy change, and, specifically, Sweden’s feminist digital diplomacy. The article provides an empirical case analysis of Sweden’s foreign policy change and conduct of digital diplomacy during the period 2006–2020. It draws on documents available on the official websites of the Government Offices of Sweden and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including sites such as SwedenAbroad and Swedish Foreign Policy Stories. The article concludes that Sweden acted on a window of opportunity in global politics, which advanced a novel feminist digital diplomacy. Sweden’s competitive edge was based on a strong transformative political leadership in foreign policy, state feminism and an early engagement of digital diplomatic management of its state image online.