Form of words:
IEarlier this year, the staff of Rwanda’s Minister of Justice Accidentally sent to Al Jazeera Journalists make a video recording that includes the minister’s preparation session with a public relations firm for an upcoming interview. Interview was about The Rwandan government’s involvement in the plan to take the exiled Paul Rusesabagina to Rwanda so that he can be arrested and prosecuted.
Rusabagina helped save hundreds of Rwandans by sheltering them during the genocide hotels, a story that was made into the film Hotel Rwanda. He later became an outspoken and sometimes controversial critic of Paul Kagame’s government from abroad. he is now facing trial terrorism charges.
Video shows advisors Chelgate, a UK “reputation and relationship management” firm, is preparing the minister to avoid questions about Rwanda’s involvement in the occupation of Rusesabagina.
This episode illustrates well the many ways that authoritarian states Where Leadership maintains power in non-democratic ways – manages its image abroad. There is much scholarly debate about “what matters” as totalitarianism and about the various subtypes of authoritarian states. But controlling domestic institutions to prevent genuine political competition and pluralism is the hallmark of modern authoritarian strategy.
As I argue in my new book Making the world safe for dictatorshipA good image abroad gives authoritarian leaders many advantages. It makes foreign policy goals easier to achieve and helps marginalize foreign critics. This makes it difficult for exile and domestic workers to work together and strengthens the legitimacy of government at the domestic level.
The book is based on a series of data. I scrutinized filings by public relations firms, collected data on cases of international repression, conducted fieldwork and interviews, watched authoritarian propaganda, and more.
Although the scope of the book is global, I also look closely at China, Rwanda and North Korea in the case study chapters. These cases were chosen to illustrate how things play out given the different types of governance, capabilities, regional contexts and ambitions. It is important to understand authoritarian image management. It helps to explain our global information environment and the behavior of authoritarian states in it.
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manage their image
To manage their image abroad, authoritarian states try to advance a favorable narrative about themselves. They do things like hire public relations firms to produce positive contentto spread self promotion And Cultivate Friendly Foreigners who can speak for himself.
But they also try to silence, obscure or discredit criticisms of their regime.
They try to “spin” negative news, sow discord or paranoia in communities operating abroad, and repression or even kill His outcast critic.
Return to Rwanda. During his decades in power, Kagame is systematically Weakened the opposition, rigged elections and repressed critics at home and abroad. He also amended the constitution so that he could rule till 2034. In 2020, based in Sweden Varieties of Democracy Institution Rwanda is ranked 150th out of 179 countries in the world on its Index of Liberal Democracy. In other words, clearly authoritarian.
Kagame’s ruling political party – the Rwanda Patriotic Front Pays a lot of attention to her image abroad. Rwanda is an avid consumer of public relations services from firms based in Europe and the US. For example, in the same year Kagame won over 95% Heavy rigging of votes in the 2003 election, Rwanda’s embassy in the US shrink American PR firm to promote the image of the country and its leader.
As Kagame consolidated power domestically, it was clearly important to be viewed positively in the US, a major support provider.
management of critics
But authoritarian image management goes beyond promoting a positive picture. This also includes silencing or marginalizing critics abroad.
The Rwanda Patriotic Front is very sensitive to criticism. It is so touching that what foreign academicians write attracts attention. Responses are sometimes published in Party-loyal newspapers or other forums. According to sawdust With the US Department of Justice, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a contract in 2013 american academic “Set a Publication Record” in Popular and Educational Places about the Rwandan Diaspora. The scholarly influence appears to be negligible, but years later the same academic appeared as an official witness in the trial of Russabagina.
Even more consequently, its agents have been included Supernatural repression, including assassination plots targeting critics abroad.
As shown in the case of Russabagina, the state seeks to avoid the reputational damage that comes with international repression. It probably also wants to signal to potentially troubled exiles that no one is out of reach.
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authoritarian strategy
Rwanda is not the only state using these tactics. Actually, my book is about authoritarian states in general.
using the publicly available filing Along with the US Department of Justice, I counted 33 authoritarian states that collectively paid PR and public affairs firms hundreds of millions of dollars in 2018 and 2019 to manipulate their image. It’s only in the US, only self-reported, and only apparent. The scope is much wider than these numbers suggest.
I collected data on authoritarian states targeting their exiled states for repression between 1991 and 2019. Again, using only publicly available sources, my team and I were able to find 1,117 instances in which states repressed their important citizens abroad. In ranged from Verbal threat of outright murder. Uzbekistan, China, North Korea, Turkey and Russia consistently stand out as violators.
Nor is it just today’s dictatorships that try to influence their international information environment. apartheid regime in south africa went to extraordinary lengths To tarnish his image overseas, Ferdinand Marcos retained high-powered Washington DC public relations and lobbying firms and tried to About Philippines Affect Academic Scholarships in America. China under Mao Zedong helped to maintain A global cult of personality despite millions of deaths due to the president’s policies.
Authoritarian states don’t just sit back and let foreigners define them. They actively try to manipulate their image and silence critics. Next time you watch an interview with a representative of the dictatorship, ask yourself what the preparation session with PR consultants looked like and what information the regime wants to obscure.
alexander dukalsky, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin
This article is republished from Conversation Under Creative Commons license. read the original article.
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