Copyright: All content in this book has been collected as documentation in the project KStalksEU, a public diplomacy initiative supported by FCO UK, Kosovo MFA and Norwegian MFA, implemented by British Council Kosovo Title: This Is How We Do Soft Power: A Practical Guidebook in Public And Digital Diplomacy Of A Small Republic © All Rights 2014: British Council Kosovo & Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Kosovo For Publisher: Petrit Selimi, MFA Kosovo Editors: Arjeta Emra, Petrit Selimi, Gent Salihu Design: Zero Pozitive Publicis Front Cover: Image of an art piece by Turner-prize nominee Nathan Coley, installed in Kosovo on the occassion of the End of Supervised Independence. The art performance was enabled through the public diplomacy programme of Kosovo Foreign Ministry, financed by the Norwegian Embassy in Kosovo. © Nathan Coley ISBN: 0-240-80588-7 Printed in the Republic of Kosovo Republika e Kosovës Republika Kosova-Republic of Kosovo Qeveria e Kosovës-Vlada Kosova-Government of Kosova MINISTRIA E PUNEVE TE JASHTME MINISTRASTVO INOSTRANIH POSLOV MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS I was late to join the social media, having opened a Facebook page only in 2013. Yet I always had a special respect for the power of the New Media, having led the first guerrilla war in the era of the Internet. The Kosovo war and liberation made an enormous impact in the global audience and the sights and sounds of the unfolding tragedy of Kosovo—especially in 1999, the dreadful “ethnic cleansing” became synonymous with my country’s name. Classical diplomacy failed in the beginning to stop the conflict. Dictator Milosevic would not yield to diplomatic pressure by the US, EU, or even Russia. Not only was self-determination out of the question, but a systematic campaign to “solve once and for all” the Kosovo question was transforming an apartheid-like system to a more vicious repeat of Srebrenica genocide. It was not so long time ago, but many people forget that there was quite a debate in the world about the NATO intervention to save Kosovars. Hashim Thaçi Deputy Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kosovo II From hippie communes, to serious leftist thinkers, to the far-right anti-Muslim groups, to sometimes just worried citizens of Europe or America who had sons and daughters in NATO uniforms, intervening militarily to stop and reverse Milosevic policies was an objectionable policy in many circles. This was the time when you could see that far more diverse response to the crisis was needed then the original conferencing. Actions of NATO had to be justified with frequent press conferences, and NATO spokesman Jamie Shea became a figure of angelic proportions for giving courage to the refugees. Internet pages were being set-up to connect families disbursed in massive refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia. NGOs became a fundamental segment in the conflict landscape, either through humanitarian assistance or through long term democratization efforts. Kosovo’s birth as a free republic is thus rooted in the principle tenets of public diplomacy as foreign audiences had to become involved in a dialogue so they could be influenced in supporting intervention on behalf of a fatigued people that had neither oil nor territory to boast. Fifteen years have passed since that year that changed our destiny as a people. We owe a lot as a society to the global engagement by the great coalition of governments, development agencies, security organizations, freedom of speech NGO’s and many others. People like President Vaclav Havel declared Kosovo to be a landmark moment in history when the rights of a people – the Kosovars – have unequivocally come first. From Christopher Hitchens to President Clinton, strong arguments were built to support the Kosovo cause, while Sweden was even speaking of how “the collective conscience of mankind demands action.” Later on, an Independent Commission set up by the Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan recommended that Kosovo be granted conditional independence already in the year 2000, a conclusion endorsed by President Nelson Mandela who wrote the foreword to the findings. III This being said, a different task awaits Kosovo in the middle of the second decade of the 21st century. We are not anymore a subject of public diplomacy efforts but rather a state that needs to explain the reason of its existence to the sceptical part of the world, we must entice interest and investments from businesses, and we must engage and cooperate with allies so we can become a member of the Euro-Atlantic family of nations. I am very proud of the young women and men, Kosovo’s first generation of digital diplomats as well as cultural and civic pioneers that have helped improve our country’s image and engage more creatively with the world. This type of engagement has supported the formal process of recognition, but it has also increased interaction with global audiences, demonstrating that Kosovo has grown and is more than old war images that still echo in the global media. Because Kosovo has in the past been subject to intense hostile propaganda, which at the time it was unable to counter, prejudices remain in certain circles hostile to its aspirations to be a normal, democratic society integrated into Europe. In this context, our work in cultural, public, and digital diplomacy to present the reality of how far we have come—and without pretending that we do not have more progress that we need to make—is immensely important. A coalition of the Kosovo Foreign Ministry, British Council, and civil society organizations has done an outstanding job in promoting Kosovo. I congratulate Ambassador Ian Cliff of the UK, Arjeta Emra of the British Council, and Petrit Selimi of the Kosovo MFA for a very successful partnership that has become a model of cooperation between classical diplomacy and new digital diplomacy. IV Petrit Selimi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo Arjeta Emra Director of British Council Kosovo We are in the business of increasing the global footprint of Kosovo’s voice A Conversation with Deputy Foreign Minister Petrit Selimi and British Council Director Arjeta Emra Two of Kosovo’s foremost experts on public diplomacy, the Director of the British Council in Kosovo Arjeta Emra and Kosovo’s Deputy Foreign Minister Petrit Selimi reflected on a joint public diplomacy project—KSTalksEU (“Kosovo Talks EU”)—which they lead. This collaborative effort of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo and the globally known British charity, in partnership with the UK Embassy in Kosovo and other donors, launched initiatives that included a wide array of stakeholders, including civil society organizations and cultural activists. KSTalksEU became a vehicle for public diplomacy outreach of the fledgling nation. How does a 6-year-old country, recognized by more than half of UN members, engage with the world that vaguely remembers “Kosovo” from the former Yugoslav wars of 1990’s? V Could you briefly tell us about KSTalksEU Project? What is the aim of this long partnership between Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry, UK’s FCO and the British Council? Arjeta Emra: KSTalksEU can best be described as an umbrella project that seeks to employ cultural and public diplomacy to engage with publics of the countries that have not recognized Kosovo yet. By organizing visits, exhibitions, events we have focused on making Kosovo more known in Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Cyprus. We believe that by promoting Kosovo and its ties with these 5 EU countries that have not recognized Kosovo yet, we support Kosovo’s overall progress in its EU integration path, while encouraging establishing bilateral ties between Kosovo and all EU countries. Petrit Selimi: This project was formulated by the British Council to start with, and received support in matching funds by both Kosovo Foreign Ministry as well as the British FCO, later also joined by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. It’s been going now for over 3 years and has played an amazing role in advancing Kosovo’s diplomatic cause, not only from strictly political point of view, but also in terms of promotion of tourism, investments, and cultural exchanges. In the immediate years after the Declaration of Independence in 2008, Kosovo focused on the process of bilateral recognitions and the focal point was interaction with countries within the margins of UN meetings in New York. We researched and took a strategic decision to also reach out to the publics of non-recognizing countries, to support easier decision-making by these governments. In the meantime, this public diplomacy project grew and expanded to cover several “black holes” in Kosovo’s communication with outside world. There are a number of prejudices and even malicious propaganda against Kosovo and its to build a successful, secular republic entrenched in EU and NATO. Hence we expanded portfolio of activities to several pillars: Exchanges with the “EU Five”, Digital Diplomacy, Interfaith Kosovo Initiative, cultural diplomacy and Advocacy Fund. The aim was to increase the global footprint of Kosovo’s voice. VI You have worked under challenging circumstances. Kosovo is not anymore in the front pages of global newspapers and the country still suffers an image problem related to past but also present challenges of transition. How can you change that? A. Emra: It’s true that Kosovo is not a top diplomatic priority, but that’s why it’s important we work on other channels of communication. Parliaments, political parties, artists, civic activists, journalists are all important stakeholders when building good relationships between countries and societies. By focusing on organizing exchanges and projects with non-traditional actors, we increased the overall visibility of Kosovo in these countries, sometimes from a virtual zero level of interaction.