Strategic communications: the experience of Afghanistan for Ukraine

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the experience of developing strategic communications in Afghanistan after Taliban regime has lost power and military and humanitarian aid missions came to the country; strengths and weaknesses of strategic communications documents are analyzed, conclusions on success reached in implementing strategic communications are made. The article analyzes strategic communication plans of ISAF NATO, USA Department of Defense and of other international missions active in the country; research papers on this topic were studied. Government efforts in establishing communication with population and negotiation with Taliban by creating GMIC and establishing High Peace Council are described. The paper leads to the following conclusions: implementing information campaigns and communication strategies resulted in positive changes of communication landscape in the country and increasing awareness of the population on activities of the Government and international organisations: double-sided communication with the population remains being poor; counteracting Taliban’s information warfare is established but is not efficient. Further work on effective strategic communication includes deeper inclusion of culture factors, inclusion of opinion leaders, decreasing a say-do gap of Afghan Government and international missions.