Speech

by the Minister of Defence of Denmark,
Mr. Søren Gade at the Seminar on
"Public Diplomacy in NATO-led Operations"

Mr. Secretary General, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would also like to welcome you all to Copenhagen on this typical Danish Autumn day. [As Mark Twain ones said about New England: If you do not like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change!]

Personally, I have looked forward to this seminar. I agree with the Secretary General that we need to further develop our Public Diplomacy efforts - especially in Afghanistan. Let me [like the Secretary General] add that the same is also valid for other current as well as for future operations. Failure to develop and improve is not an option!

We need to do better Public Diplomacy in places like Afghanistan. But Public Diplomacy is of course not a miracle drug. It is an element in the comprehensive approach that of course also contains questions of necessary civil and military assets.

The topic of communication – “Public Diplomacy” is of course not new. NATO and member states have learned a number of lessons in the Balkans in the nineties and now also in Afghanistan. Everybody – and also politicians – feel every day the growing importance of the media, as well as the challenges coming from the home audiences and local populations in mission areas.

Today the Public Diplomacy efforts are necessary to get a grip on – also and increasingly so in matters of crisis management. I will return to that in a minute.

We – the politicians - sometimes learn the hard way that mistakes are recordable and can be transmitted very quickly no matter where you are.

[A couple of years ago I – as I am also an officer of the reserve - found it natural to carry a side-arm during a visit to Afghanistan, where we drove from Kabul to Bagram airbase. Obviously, a journalist took a picture of me and put it on the front page of his paper in no-time.

It was not my best hour as minister and I had to explain myself! To those on the front seats here: Don’t worry – I am not armed…today.]

Nowadays there is a twenty-four-hour newscycle. The internet never sleeps and new ways of communication like You-tube is the order of the day.

The other side of these new conditions is of course our possibilities to be pro-active which it also provides.

It is my belief that we should constantly seek new ways to be proactive and reactive. We can always do better – and more than anything that goes for our ways of handling Public Diplomacy in terms of military engagements.

In today’s world our enemies might seem very simple and crude. But in handling the media and public the enemy rarely lacks capabilities and has no moral difficulties in lying and in other ways misinforming. They master modern communication in a fully professional manner.

We – NATO – need to find an answer to this challenge. In handling the “dark side” of globalization like international terrorism - let’s take fully advantage of the good sides of globalization!

We cannot and will not play by the same rules as the extremists. For us there can be no compromise in terms of our credibility.

We must be credible!

That is why this seminar is not about spinning or propaganda but about raising awareness and explaining the results and goals of NATO’s missions.

It is about how we can better explain the whole story – the balanced story – on what we are doing and by that managing expectations.

That goes for managing expectations of home audiences, the local populations and our international partners in the mission areas. It is very clear that NATO can not transform Afghanistan alone or in a very short time. We are in for a long-term effort and together with both Afghans and other international organisations.

For instance, it surprises me that our successes are sometimes quickly forgotten: In Kosovo, the KFOR-presence is a huge stabilising factor. In Afghanistan:

. there has been free and fair elections, . BNP has grown by hundred forty percent, the amount of children in schools has increased by a factor of five – nearly forty percent are girls, . nearly 5 million refugees have returned.

NATO has played a leading role in bringing about these changes!

I must also confess that I do not understand why the Taleban crimes in Afghanistan does not get more coverage. Last time I visited Afghanistan, I went to see victims who had been brutally mistreated by the Taleban’s.

That experience reminded me of the basic character of our mission in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sometimes, it seems, these obvious facts are forgotten.

We owe it to our men and women in uniform to transmit even better the value of their work and the many good things that happen in mission areas. The international presence makes a difference.

I would therefore encourage you – in your talks here at the seminar – to analyse, if our PD-machinery is efficient . Does NATO - and nations - have the right capabilities and planning process to take on the task of efficient Public Diplomacy? And if not, what can we do about it?

I also expect you to analyse how better to communicate with the local population and other international actors in mission areas – be it in the Balkans or in Afghanistan. How can we improve and how can we get inspiration from other international organisations such as the EU of UN?

I expect concrete conclusions to come out of this seminar. By this we should supplement the already good thoughts and previous work NATO’s International Staff has done on this issue.

I promise you that Denmark and my-self will carry the issue forward in coming meetings in NATO.

Let’s do better – together!

Thank you for listening and all the best for a productive seminar.