“CAROL I” NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY SECURITY AND DEFENCE FACULTY

PROCEEDINGS THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “STRATEGIES XXI”

PROCEEDINGS STRATEGIC CHANGES IN SECURITY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

“CAROL I” NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY (Highly appreciated publishing house within “Military science, intelligence and public order” of Titles, Diploma and University Certificates Awards National Council)

Scientific Editors: April 09-10, 2020 Brigadier General Dorin Corneliu PLEŞCAN

Volume XVI, Part 3 Volume Colonel Professor Ion PURICEL, PhD

Colonel Professor Daniel GHIBA, PhD

ISSN 2668-1994 Colonel Professor Lucian Dragoş POPESCU, PhD ISSN-L 2668-1994 Colonel Professor Ioana ENACHE,VOLUMUL PhD Lieutenant-Colonel Professor Tudorel LEHACI, I PhD Volume XVI, 5 948490 380361 40002 Part 3

Volume XVI, Part 3

Scientific Editors: Brigadier General Dorin Corneliu PLEȘCAN Colonel Professor Ion PURICEL, PhD Colonel Professor Daniel GHIBA, PhD Colonel Professor Lucian Dragoș POPESCU, PhD Colonel Professor Ioana ENACHE, PhD Lieutenant-Colonel Professor Tudorel LEHACI, PhD

April 09 - 10, 2020 , INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE STRATEGIES XXI „Carol I” National Defence University Bucharest, Romania, April 09 - 10, 2020

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Associate Professor Iulian CHIFU, PhD, (NDU) Brigadier General Dorin Corneliu PLEȘCAN (Rector of NDU) Associate Professor Florian BICHIR, PhD, (NDU) Colonel Professor Valentin DRAGOMIRESCU, PhD (NDU) Professor Constanţa Nicoleta BODEA, PhD (Academy of Economic Colonel Professor Daniel DUMITRU, PhD (NDU) Studies, Bucharest, Romania) Colonel Professor Ion PURICEL, PhD (NDU) Colonel (ret.) Professor Dănuț Mircea CHIRIAC, PhD (Hyperion Colonel Professor Daniel GHIBA, PhD (NDU) University, Bucharest, Romania) Colonel Professor Lucian POPESCU, PhD Carol-Teodor PETERFI, University of Tartu, Estonia Colonel Professor Ioana ENACHE, PhD (NDU) Colonel Sergiu PLOP (Military Academy of Armed Forces “Alexandru Colonel Associate Professor Marius Victor ROŞCA, PhD cel Bun”, Chişinău, Moldova) Colonel Professor Tudorel LEHACI, PhD (NDU) Lecturer Codrin-Dumitru MUNTEANU, PhD, (NDU) Colonel Professor Dorel BUŞE, PhD Colonel (ret.) Professor Eng. Toma PLEŞANU, PhD (Land Forces Professor Maciej MARSZALEK, PhD (War Studies University, Poland) Academy “Nicolae Bălcescu”, Sibiu, Romania) Lieutenant Colonel Associate Professor Andrzej SOBOŃ, PhD (War Colonel (ret.) Professor Ion ROCEANU, PhD (NDU) Studies University, Poland) Colonel Associate Professor Cosmin Florian OLARIU, PhD (NDU) Magistrate Lieutenant General Professor Erich CSITKOVITS, PhD Lieutenant Colonel Lecturer Cristian ICHIMESCU, PhD (NDU) (National Defence Academy, ) Associate Professor Alexandru LUCINESCU, PhD (NDU) Major-General Grudi Ivanov ANGELOV, (National Defence College Associate Professor Mirela IONIŢĂ, PhD (NDU) “G. S. RAKOVSKI”, Sofia, Bulgaria) Scientific Researcher II Mihai Ștefan DINU, PhD (NDU) Brigadier General Professor Eng. Bohuslav PŘIKRYL, PhD (University ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: of Defence, Czech Republic) CHAIRMEN: Brigadier General (ret.) Professor Eng. Rudolf URBAN, PhD (University Brigadier General Dorin Corneliu PLEȘCAN of Defence, Czech Republic) Colonel Professor Ion PURICEL, PhD Professor Zdenek ZEMANEK, CSc, PhD (Czech Republic) Colonel Professor Daniel GHIBA, PhD General Associate Professor Boguslaw PACEK, PhD (Poland) Colonel Professor Lucian POPESCU, PhD Navy Captain (ret.) Associate Professor Piotr GAWLICZEK, PhD Colonel Professor Ioana ENACHE, PhD (Poland) Colonel Professor Tudorel LEHACI, PhD Colonel Professor Tadeusz SZCZUREK, PhD (Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland) MEMBERS: Brigadier General Associate Professor Dipl. Eng. Boris ĎURKECH, Colonel Professor Daniel DUMITRU, PhD PhD (Armed Forces Academy of GMRS, Slovakia) Colonel Professor Valentin DRAGOMIRESCU, PhD Major General Professor Vuruna MLADEN, PhD (Military Academy, Colonel Professor Dorel BUŞE, PhD ) Colonel Professor Dănuţ TURCU, PhD Brigadier General Professor Slaven ZDILAR, PhD (“Petar Zrinski” Colonel Professor Filofteia REPEZ, PhD Defence Academy, Croatia) Colonel Professor Mirela PUŞCAŞU, PhD Colonel Professor Mojca PEŠEC, PhD (Slovenia) Associate Professor Alexandru LUCINESCU, PhD Brigadier General Professor Meelis KIILI, PhD (Estonia) Captain Lecturer Ioan MITREA, PhD Professor Augustin MEAHER, PhD (Estonia) Associate Professor Mihaiela BUŞE, PhD Professor András PATYI, PhD (National University of Public Service, Lecturer Geta MITREA, PhD Hungary) Colonel Professor Dorin EPARU, PhD Colonel Gabor BOLDIZSAR, PhD (National University of Public Service, Lieutenant Colonel Lecturer Dan PETRESCU, PhD Hungary) Major Associate Professor Ciprian IGNAT, PhD Colonel Professor Laszlo KOVACS, PhD (National University of Public Colonel Mădălina-Daniela GHIBA, PhD Service, Hungary) Associate Professor Daniela COMAN, PhD Colonel-general (ret.) Professor Zoltan SZENES, PhD (National Associate Professor Polixenia OLAR, PhD University of Public Service, Hungary) Colonel Professor Ion CĂLIN, PhD Colonel Professor Christophe MIDAN, PhD () Colonel Dan COLESNIUC, PhD (DITC) Professor Larry WATTS, PhD (USA) Major Associate Professor Adi MUSTAŢĂ, PhD Professor Radu MIHALCEA, PhD (USA) Professor Luiza COSTEA, PhD Professor Adrian CURAJ, PhD (UEFISCDI, Bucharest, Romania) Associate Professor Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR, PhD Brigadier General Professor Eng. Ghiţă BÂRSAN, PhD (Land Forces Associate Professor Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU, PhD Academy “Nicolae Bălcescu”, Sibiu, Romania) Associate Professor Elena ȘUȘNEA, PhD Police Chief-Superintendent Professor Veronica STOICA, PhD (Police Lecturer Tania STOIAN, PhD Academy, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Bucharest, Romania) Lecturer Veronica PĂSTAE, PhD Police Chief-Superintendent Professor Cătălin ANDRUȘ, PhD (National Assisstant Professor Ecaterina MAȚOI, PhD Colege for Home Affairs, Bucharest, Romania) Colonel Gheorghe STOIU, PhD Professor Adrian-Liviu IVAN, PhD (National Intelligence Academy, Student Diandra ILUȚAN-PODĂREANU “Mihai Viteazul”, Bucharest, Romania) General (ret.) Professor Teodor FRUNZETI, PhD (Titu Maiorescu Conference Administrators: University, Bucharest, Romania) Colonel Associate Professor Cosmin Florian OLARIU, PhD Lieutenant Colonel Lecturer Cristian ICHIMESCU, PhD Desktop publishing: Liliana ILIE Cover designer: Andreea Elena GÎRTONEA

ISSN 2668-1994 (print); ISSN 2668-2001 (online) ISSN-L 2668-1994

FOREWORD’

The papers reunited in the present volume have been submitted to The Sixteenth International Scientific Conference “Strategies XXI – Strategic Changes in Security and International Relations”, planned to be hosted by National Defence University “Carol I” in Bucharest, Romania, 09-10 April 2020. Throughout the last year, the transformations in international relationships, the security challenges and crises emerging in almost all areas around the world, have demonstrated that predictability is still an illusion. The recent events in the entire world, not only in the Eastern and Southern regions of Europe have proven that detailed analyses are needed in order to reveal the impact of those challenges on strategic relationships. Increasing the importance of artificial intelligence, the nonproliferation policy, the spread of terrorist acts, the tense transatlantic relation, the Syrian crises and the Turkish actions, the tensions in the eastern part of Europe as well as in the proximity of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea areas, and last but not the list, the global scale COVID-19 Pandemy, are just a few of the security challenges that the states from the region and also the international and regional organizations are dealing with. All this spectrum of threats, especially its synergic effect, influences dramatically the entire human existence and is playing a substantial role in reshaping both global, regional and national security policies and strategies; that is why there are many questions regarding the way the international community should respond to these kinds of threats. Already formulated questions: „Should credibility of conventional deterrence and collective defence be rebuilt in the light of Russian new policy and its subsequent hybrid strategy?, or Crisis management operations should be the key to the future type of operations, and in that case should EU and NATO efforts improve their capabilities in that direction?” remains, and new others just rise from now on: Considering the current global scale Covid-19 Pandemy, is it the national or regional crisis management the proper, efficient and effective answer, or should be a global approach the correct answer for such challenge we are facing now and we will face, surely, in the next couple of years?” In the future it is certain that the societies will be even more interconnected than they are today, continuing, either to benefit from globalization, either to loose due to no understanding its trends. The interaction between great powers, the less economically developed states, and non-state actors will achieve new dimensions, cyber attacks and sponsoring the terrorism will be new ways of exerting influence. Yet today terrorism, asymmetric and hybrid threats, health and environmental challenges, economic volatility, climate changes and energy insecurity endanger our people and the entire globe. The center of gravity of global economic power is continuing to shift between Euro-Atlantic Region and Asia-Pacific Region, resulting a change in the balance of power and an increasingly inter- polar world. While the US is likely to remain the world leading military power, its military advantage is likely to be diminished and challenged increasingly by China and the Russian Federation. The BREXIT heavily contributed to the complexity of the situation. Hybrid activity is the enabler of repositioning on the global chess table. Rising powers, such as Brazil and India, will take a strategic interest beyond their own regions in pursuit of resources. As the security of a nation should be the first duty of the state institutions, we should get deeply involved in finding solutions for promoting a sustainable peace and a more secure world, in using national capabilities to build prosperity and to use all the regional and international instruments of power to prevent conflicts and, when necessary, to engage the various spectrum of challenges in a comprehensive approach. The new security challenges, supported by the overlapping processes such as globalization and fragmentation, combined with new concepts, forms and means of struggle for power and resources are added to the classic types of threats, risks and vulnerabilities generating crises. As nowadays situation proves, in case of inadequate answers, these new types of crises may evolve into a much shorter time, without geographical limitations, in all confrontation spaces and environments and can quickly reach the stage of a total war, the highest manifestation of crises, a phase after which, most likely, all of us will have lost.

3 The attempts to redefine the security environment have revealed the major factors that can influence the future of peace and security and at the same time they may be the cause of future violent conflicts. An inventory of possible characteristics of these factors highlights the change of their nature as well as their multiple forms of propagation. Due to the diverse, complex, interconnected, unpredictable and multidirectional character of the new threats, it becomes increasingly difficult to adopt and apply measures for crisis and conflict management. In addition to the above, as the topics are becoming more consistent and gaining ground, more and more academic debates are taking place in the international relations and security areas, emerging both at the theoretical and practical level. This year’s Conference itself provides – as its organizing committee has stated – a forum for discussion on topics related to the security and international relations, military phenomena and related subject matters. Taking into consideration that only a comprehensive international scientific effort won’t prevent a conflict, but without it we cannot find the proper solutions, the mission of the International Conferences Strategies XXI is to facilitate communication between the international multidisciplinary teams. The main areas of interest proposed for the submission of the papers cover the following sections: • Theoretical Aspects of Security and International Relations • Processes and Phenomena of Globalization • Defence Studies • Military History, Geopolitics and Geostrategy • Crisis Management and Conflict Prevention • NATO and EU Policies and Strategies • Humanitarian International Law • Information Systems, Intelligence, and Cyber Security • Public and Intercultural Communication and Social Security • Defence Resource Management • Education Sciences. The conference attracted over 97 papers but, in the end, after a very careful evaluation, only 73 (75,2%) papers were accepted. Considering 26 evaluators for the 11 up mentioned sections, there were 24 (24,8%) rejected papers, 16 (16,5%) papers accepted with amendments, and 57 (58,7%) papers accepted as such. Finally, we would like to thank to all participants who shared their expertise with colleagues for this volume. We also hope that the papers included in this volume will give new ideas to the readers in their quest for solving various problems. The publisher is honored to inform the authors and readers that the previous Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “Strategies XXI – Strategic Changes in Security and International Relations” are indexed in the ProQuest Central database. The conference would not have been possible without the joint effort of the organizing committee (Security and Defence Faculty / “Carol I” National Defence University) and the evaluating board, to whom we are deeply grateful.

Brigadier General Dorin Corneliu PLEȘCAN, Commandant (Rector), “Carol I” National Defence University Professor Daniel GHIBA, PhD, Vice-Dean for Scientific Research, Security and Defence Faculty, Associate Professor Cosmin OLARIU, PhD and Lecturer Cristian ICHIMESCU, PhD, Conference Administrators, Chairs of International Scientific Conference “Strategies XXI”, 2020 “Carol I” National Defence University, Romania

4

C O N T E N T S

FOREWORD’ ...... 3

FAKE NEWS AND PROPAGANDA. THE MISINFORMATION AS AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON...... 9 Alin PREDA

STRATCOM, NATO'S RESPONSE TO THE INFORMATION WARFARE ...... 19 Alin PREDA

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN NATIONAL SECURITY DOCUMENTS OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION ...... 28 Andreia Mariana POP

THE VECTORS OF INFLUENTIAL COMMUNICATION IN RUSSIAN FEDERATION PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ...... 36 Andreia Mariana POP

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN PROVIDING BASIC STEPS FOR LIFE SECURITY: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SOCIAL COHESION ...... 42 Olga Carmen BĂLĂNESCU

THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN TIMES OF MODERN DISINFORMATION BEST PRACTICES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 48 Dana SÎRBU

THE IMPORTANCE OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND MIGRATION REGULATIONS FOR MAINTAINING SOCIETAL SECURITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION ...... 57 Delia-Mihaela MARINESCU

MILITARY PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA AGE ...... 64 Ecaterina HLIHOR

MASS COMMUNICATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF THE SENSATIONAL ...... 72 Constantin MIREANU

EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE LEADERSHIP – COMMUNICATION BINOMIAL IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM ...... 80 Bogdan-Costin MATEI

INTUITIVE DECISION-MAKING IN THE MILITARY ...... 89 Marinel-Adi MUSTAȚĂ

PROGRAM AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT – AN INSTRUMENT FOR RATIONALIZING SUPPLY IN DEFENCE RESOURCES ...... 95 Alina-Elena IONAȘCU Toma PLEŞANU

5

STANDARDIZATION OF THE FOOD SYSTEM IN ROMANIAN ARMED FORCES ...... 104 Alina-Elena IONAȘCU Toma PLEȘANU

THE DEFENCE RESOURCES LIFE CYCLE ...... 112 Lucian Dragoș POPESCU

GOOD ORGANIZATION – A CORNERSTONE COMPETENCE OF A GOOD MANAGER ...... 117 Mirela PUŞCAŞU Luiza-Maria COSTEA

THE NEED OF TRAINING IN THE CONTEXT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE ...... 122 Mirela PUŞCAŞU Luiza-Maria COSTEA

ASSESSING LIFE-LONG LEARNING PROGRAMS ...... 129 Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR

M-LEARNING – THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE OF THE CENTURY ...... 134 Monica CONDRUZ-BACESCU

THE OVERWHELMING INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES ON EDUCATIONAL FIELD ...... 140 Monica CONDRUZ-BACESCU

STUDY ON THE PREPARATION OF NON-SPORTS RECRUITS FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS ...... 146 Raducu POPESCU

THE INFLUENCE OF RAP MUSIC ON THE CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM ...... 151 Vladimir MĂRUNȚELU Carmen-Liliana MĂRUNȚELU

HOW CAN THE TEACHER SHAPE ATTITUDES? – A TAXONOMY OF THE AFFECTIVE FIELD ...... 157 Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU

INDEX OF AUTHORS ...... 165

6

Filofteia REPEZ, PhD Polixenia OLAR, PhD

7

8

FAKE NEWS AND PROPAGANDA. THE MISINFORMATION AS AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON

Alin PREDA Lieutenant colonel, Head of Office, Directorate for Information and Public Relations, Ministry of National Defence PhD Student, "Carol I" National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: Using asymmetric and indirect approaches, the focus is switched nowadays on enemy’s population rather than on its military forces. Psychological operations use propaganda and psychological tactics, which consists of ‘mind games’ aiming to intimidate, confuse, provoke anger, fear, doubt, hostility etc. Russia managed to annex a territory „with the desire of its inhabitants”, without firing a gun, and demonstrated the great impact of propaganda: ninty percent of Ukrainians living in Crimea voted to join Russia.. Keywords: propaganda; fake news; informational war;Russia; Ukraine.

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth”. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Introductory aspects The concept of target audience appeared in the First World War, when the first mass influence actions were planned and they were attributed to propaganda at that time. In order to achieve the expected effect, the messages had to be differentiated according to civilian or military recipients from one nation or another. 1 But propaganda did not appear in the First World War, but much earlier. French researcher Jacgues Ellul appreciates that all revolutionary movements have sparked agitation propaganda, starting from Spartacus's uprising2. By this kind of agitating propaganda meant a protest made for a change, trying to inoculate the masses with some slogans or simple slogans to be taken and repeated by them. Later, Lenin and Stalin succeeded in mobilizing millions of people through the agitation propaganda that they made to fight against the enemies of Russia. 3 Propaganda was not only used in riots and armed conflicts. Pope Gregory XV created, in 1622, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith4, which used propaganda to persuade as many people and political leaders as possible to join Faith and Christianity. This type of propaganda has been called white propaganda5. Another type of propaganda used is the concept of atrocity propaganda, usually associated with terrorist actions to show the attempt to influence a certain audience through an intensely publicized atrocity. It consists of systematically bringing accusations of atrocities. This type of propaganda seen as black propaganda was used in the First World War by the

1 Cătalin Hente, Propaganda and its relatives, Editura Militară, București, 2015, p.15. 2 Jacques Ellul, Propagandas, , Edittions Economica, 1990, p.85. 3 Eugen Denize, The Comunist Propaganda in Romania (1948-1953), Editura Cetatea de Scaun, Târgovişte, 2009, p.54. 4 Philip M. Taylor, Munition of the Mind, a history of Propaganda from the anciend World to the Present Day, Manchester University Press, 1995, p.111. 5 Ibidem, p.115.

9

British propaganda service against the Germans. They were depicted as beasts, savage and merciless, who raped women and made explosives out of the body of dead soldiers6. None of the charges proved true after the war. Moreover, they favored the German propaganda led by Hitler in World War II, when the Allies, especially the US Government, avoided the association with the term propaganda and set up two organizations that exclude the term, using words such as information and strategy: Office of War Information (OWI) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS). OWI deployed white propaganda missions, informing the foreign and domestic public that the US government was trying to influence them and persuade them to support their efforts to win the war by using a good-natured narrative that overcomes evil and using any media. The OSS dealt with black propaganda7, using undercover information to destroy and demonize the enemy in a covert operation covered with false sources, fabrications and lies8. Unfortunately, after the war the real atrocities committed by the Nazis, but also by the Japanese, came to light, but to a lesser extent. They provoked a strong emotional shock to public opinion after the war9, as the documented photographs taken in the Vietnam War showing the atrocities committed by the Americans and the American allies made a major contribution to intensifying the protests against the war .10 On the other hand, the charges of atrocities were the basis of the legitimacy of the interventions of the multinational forces in the early 1990s, as is the case of the atrocities committed by the Iraqi army in Kuveit, presented by Hill Knowlton11, or the demonization of Serbs in Serbia and Bosnia who committed Nazi barbarians, in the retaliation of Croats and Bosnian Muslims in civil wars in the former RSF Yugoslavia, from 1991-1995, presented by Ruder Finn, employed as a private provider of public relations services for the benefit of the governments of Zagreb and Sarajevo12, between 1992-1993. This type of propaganda has been one of the most effective forms since the Middle Ages because it uses the primary instincts of self-defence in Maslow's Pyramid theory, used in behavior change. Ever since World War I, propaganda became a lethal weapon with extremely low costs and high efficiency in destabilizing the adversary and meeting its own goals, but it is associated with a tool for disseminating distorted, manipulative, misleading and irrational information13. Continuing to distance itself from the use of the term propaganda, the US government is entering the Vietnam War with a new method of communication to conduct psychological influence operations, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the summer of 1965: "We must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the final victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who live there."14 The President's message was put into practice by Major General Ed Lansdale by organizing a group of musicians who sang and created music during the campaign in the hope that they would thus gain the Vietnamese population by making them no longer see them as invaders.

6 Ibidem, p.180. 7 Ibidem, p. 226. 8 Cătalin Hente, op.cit., p.15. 9 Ibidem. 10 Philip M. Taylor, Munition of the Mind, a history of Propaganda from the anciend World to the Present Day, Manchester University Press, 1995, p. 273. 11 Cătalin Hente, 150 years of mediatic wars. The army and the press in war, Editura Nemira, 2010, p.145. 12 Ibidem, p.147. 13 Young Joon Lim, Theorizing Strategic Communication in Parsimony from the U.S. government Perspective, Published by the Hungarian Communication Studies Association, 2015, p.2. 14 Ibidem.

10

Although the Vietnam War was a resounding failure for Americans, the winning minds and hearts were passed on and considered an important part of military operations, being used in 2003 and Iraq with a more sophisticated operational program called PSYOPS or psychological operations. "The plan was to send public messages to the insurgents and the citizens that as long as they did not attack the American soldiers, the insurgents would be free and the citizens rewarded." 15 The dissemination of messages was done through PSYOPS devices, such as leaflets, radio and television programs and, more modernly, mobile phone messages16. Basically, it is the stage when the term psychological operations replaces the propaganda one. At the same time, we can consider this stage as the beginning of the implementation of the concept of strategic communication during operations, which has already been used since 9/11, 2001, in the US public space. The theaters of operations changed the paradigm of the classical war, adding a category of target audience, respectively the local population, not directly involved in conflict but with links and interests in both combat camps. The contemporary operational environment dominated by technological developments that increased the speed of information flow has created new challenges, both in terms of the decision-making process within the coalition and in terms of interaction with the population in the areas of operations. Faced with the need to adapt to the demands of this environment, NATO Alliance has identified the possibility of using strategic communication to gain the support of this target audience/category. The 2009 NATO Summit in Strasbourg debated strategic communication (StratCom) as "an integral part of efforts to achieve the political and military objectives of the Alliance"17, in the context of security threats and, in particular, to strengthen influence exercised over its audiences. One of the main reasons was given by the attempt to "get out of the inability to win the support of the Afghan population"18. StratCom was seen as the coordinated use of NATO's communication capabilities and activities - "public diplomacy, public affairs, military public affairs, information operations and psychological operations, in accordance with the circumstances, in support of the Alliance's policies, operations and activities, to contribute to the fulfillment of the Alliance NATO objectives."19 From the definition, the integrative role of the strategic communication, that unites information and public relations with the public diplomacy and the informational and psychological operations, is revealed and acts as a communication process by coordinating the areas involved. In the same context, against the background of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996), the United Nations identify the need for action of civil-military cooperation teams (CIMIC), a public relations component, in order to gain the support of the civilian population, and in 1998 the CIMIC becomes a distinct ability of the information community. Now it represents, together with psychological, informational and public relations operations, one of the components integrated in the strategic communication. In 2012, the political-military nature of strategic communication was defined as playing "a central role during all phases of operations, from planning to execution and requiring coordination between all elements of the information community" 20.

15 Ibidem, p. 5. 16 Ibidem. 17 Strasbourg-Kehl NATO Summit Declaration, 4.04.2009, pct.16. 18 RAND Europe, The concept of strategic communication and its relevance for France, 2010, p.9. 19 NATO Strategic Communications Policy, PO (2009) 0141&MCM-0164-2009, 29 .09.2009, p.2. 20 NATO ACO Directive (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communications, accessed at 21.05.2012.

11

The Russian propaganda in Ukraine In the twenty-first century, actors seek to win without actually fighting a battle, the importance of psychological factor in war fighting being continously emphasized. “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” (Napoleon Bonaparte). Two modern hybrid threats are identified by NATO: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Russian Federation, both having the same goal – weakening the strategy of the Alliance. Why does the largest country in the world use hybrid warfare upon smaller countries, as Ukraine? Russia has its weakness, represented by NATO and, especially, NATO’s cooperation with EU or other international organizations. Between Russia and NATO is an asymmetric balance and the former tries to exceed it by resorting to hybrid tactics. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, after Russia, and its current population is about 46 millions. Ukraine has always been in a continous struggle in finding its identity. Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The moment Ukraine declared independence represented the collapse of the Soviet Union and Moscow lost control over all Republics. “Ukraine’s actions have had consequences well beyond its own borders or even regional politics-they in effect upset the bipolar international system […] this was critical act which caused the USSR to implode and begin what analysts have labelled as ‘the search for a new international order’ “21 Ukranians suffered from decades of Russification, a long process of political and cultural assimilation manifested in Russian language imposing and forced settlements. Therefore, Ukraine remained with a deep political, linguistic and economic division, the population being devided in two main parts: West and East. The Russian propaganda works in both ways: for Russians, to spread de idea that the enemy responsible for all the problems is the United States, and for foreigners, to make them believe that Western countries are worst than Russia. Moscow’s campaign focusses on ethnic Russians living broad, because they “need the protection of Mother Russia”. The instability in Ukraine’s domestic affairs has been the lack of a shared perspective between the ethnically Ukrainians and the Russian minority. In Ukraine, the Russian minority is the largest minority, 17 percent out of 22. Between native speakers, religion, linguistic division and political preferences is a patern, which divides Ukraine in two parts: - in East-Center, East and South: a significant majority of ethnically Russians, speaking mainly the Russian language, believing in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, aiming to strengthen the relations with Russia. - in West and Center: ethnically Ukrainians speaking the official language, believing in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kiev Patriarchate and aiming at joining the European Union and NATO. Crimea was declared the Autonomous Republic of Crimea after 1991. In exchange of writting off its debt for oil, in 1997, Ukraine signed two friendship treaties, allowing Russia to base its fleet in Crimea. In 2010, Ukraine extended the residence of the Russian fleet in peninsula aiming to get a discount for gas. In 2014, it was held a disputed voluntary referendum on Crimea joining Russia. Even if it was declared illegal by the Ukrainian government and American and European authorities, Russia took control over the peninsula after winning the referentum with ninty percent of votes. This was possible because of the well-planned propaganda. Oligarchs made that possible because they own the private television channels and they use them for business interest and political goals. Television is the main information

21 Radin A., & Reach, C. (2017), Russian Views of the International Order, Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.

12

medium in Ukraine, 88 percent of Ukrainians watching tv to stay informed. The economic crisis made media depended on the financial support of rich people. In Ukraine, the first five media groups (Inter Media Group, 1+1 Media, Channel Ukraine Media Group, StarLight Media, Channel 5) are owned by important politicians, Parliament’s members, businessmen and oligarchs etc. Also, the top four radio groups belong to the richest men in Ukraine. (Tavr Radio Group, Ukrainian Media Holding, Business Radio and TRK Lux). Provinding people with free and up to date information, the online media has grown fast, while the newspaper suffers from lack of imvestments, slow distribution and high cost of paper, imported from Russia or Poland. Newspapers are read only by 12.5 percent of Ukrainians, because of the economic crisis. Therefore, the online versions have more succes and one may not undermine the power of social media. In November 2013, the words wrote by a journalist, Mustafa Nayyem, on Facebook started the protests in Kiev: “I’m going to the Maidan, Who’s coming with me?”. Social media is the perfect place for propaganda, because there is no limit in spreading fake news, fake photos and manipulated videos. Hundreds of RT (formerly called Russia Today) films and propagandists video are uploaded on YouTube from hidden Russian accounts. Twitter is full of trolls, which manage many accounts and tweet fifty times a day. Nowadays, Ukrainian media market is faded by Russian television channels, radio and newspaper, loosing credibility and support. It has big difficulties in establishing and separating itself from the Russian influence, the main challenge being the presence of the Russian language in many movies, online media, newspaper and radio content. Beside this, Ukrainian media confrotes with lack of transparency, political control, blackmail, legislation changes, discriminate sanctions and other manipulation methods. In 2016, the governement banned many Russian TV series and 15 TV channels from broadcasting in Ukraine and this decision was interpreted as „undemocratic” by the Russian speaking population. More than this, they believe that the Russian language should become the second official language in their country. How did Moscow obtain such a strong impact on Ukrainian population? First of all, the Russian propaganda is distributed through a large number of channels and has high volume. The most important news provider is RT which has a huge budget and broadcasts in many languages. Also, Sputnik News is an essential news provider having centers in many countries. Both of them have been frequently accused of propagandist content, misinformation and disinformation. The Russian propaganda is spread by thousands of ”trolls” which control fake accounts on many social networks in order to attack counter- Russia news. Also, the Russian propaganda is quick and repetitive. It responds to event rapidly, aiming to be the first to disseminate on an emerging event and repeats the same message until it is accepted as correct. Furthermore, the Russian propaganda alterates pieces of information: pays actors to play as victims, creates fake scenes, share fake sources, use edited photos and videos. Guided by the idea that ”there have to be images for something to become real”, Moscow does not ignore the importance of photographs and use them to achieve a desirable impact on people perception and create specific emotions, attitudes and behaviors. To create confusion they also use altered images including: “manipulating images; staging events to be photographed or filmed; changing captions so an image appears to be something other than it really is; focusing on certain things and not others and creating photomontages”.22

22 S. Macdonald, Propaganda and Information warfare in the Twenty- First Century: Altered images and deception operations, Contemporary Security Studies. Routledge. 2007.

13

An effective propaganda requires research and information gathering about the target audience. Feedback is very important because it provides an evaluation of the effect of the propaganda and helps improving it to make it more effective.

The strategic communication in Ukraine, in the context of its relations with NATO Ukraine began its dialogue and cooperation with NATO in 1991 when it joined the Atlantic Cooperation Council, and later in 1994, the Partnership for Peace. In 1997, the relations between Ukraine and NATO went to the next level by signing a new agreement laying the foundations of the NATO-Ukrainian Commission (NUC), the decision-making body responsible for developing the NATO-Ukraine relationship and for directing cooperation activities. Also, within the NUC a forum for consultation between the Allies and Ukraine is set up, focusing on security issues of common interest. The Declaration of 2009 completes the mandate of the NUC and creates the necessary framework to support the implementation of the reforms that Ukraine had to do to join NATO. According to it, the defence sector has priority in the reformation, vital for the development of democracy in Ukraine. By allowing the state to develop its ability to defend itself, the defence reform would increase credibility and increase the degree of national security and security. After 2014, in response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, NATO strengthened its support in developing the capabilities and strengthening the country's defence capabilities. NATO allies today condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea and destabilization of the Black Sea area. In 2016, following the Warsaw Summit, NATO support for Ukraine was written in a document in the form of a Comprehensive Assistance Package (CAP), one of the main objectives mentioned being to build strategic communication in Ukraine. In June 2017, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the law that brings back to the fore the accession as a full member in NATO and on June 4, 2019, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the NATO Headquarters to discuss the security situation in the area and strengthen its country's position to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

The structure of strategic communication in the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Prior to 2014, the strategic communication was not officially adopted by the Ukrainian military. In general, public relations were poorly represented in the Ukrainian army. There were no CIMIC structures and everything worked according to a model inherited from the Russian military structures, oriented towards internal communication. Starting with 2014, the term strategic communication was introduced in the defence area, the public diplomacy was strengthened, and the public relations were supported to start the development process from the brigade level to the defence staff. Several structures have been formed: press officers for anti-terrorist operations, press officers to communicate with the general public, psychological operations groups (PSYOPS), CIMIC. Also, all public relations structures and CIMIC have increased in number of personnel in all categories of forces and public relations officers are actively involved in informing the general public about the activity of the Russian armed forces. In 2015, the ArmyFM radio station was launched to support the efforts to communicate and combat the fake news launched by Moscow, with the aim of presenting information about the military, as well as the population living in the Donbas and Crimea areas, and the studio. TV of the Ukrainian army began to broadcast on national television programs. In 2017, the Communication Monitoring and Coordination Office was formed in order to supervise and lead the strategic communication part within the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the following documents were adopted: Strategic communication, Instructions

14

for implementing strategic communication, Strategic communication in the military sphere. Terms and definitions, PSYOPS Doctrine. For the past 15 years, Ukraine has benefited from the support and advice of NATO, the EU as well as some member countries of the alliance and specialized organizations in the field of strategic communication. The most important of these is "StratCom Ukraine"23, a public organization that contributes to the reform of public communication and supports public authorities in implementing communication projects having over 40 partnerships with strategic communication structures of NATO, EU, as well as allied countries and partners with tradition in communication. The main objectives proposed are the development of a governmental model of strategic communication, the creation of a strategic communication center at a military school in Ukraine, but the most important remains the education of the future military. Against this background, the beginning of 2019 was marked by a reform in this area, all the media and public information structures being included under one umbrella and a new agency: the Information Agency. It is estimated that, at this time, the structures of this kind in the Ukrainian army comprise 400 people. But efforts must continue, because in Ukraine "cyber attacks can have as great an impact as any attacks on any other structure. These types of attacks have generated fear, uncertainty, but also doubts about the economic, cultural and national security of the state concerned." 24 In our opinion, in order to counteract Russian propaganda, Ukraine must continue to develop its strategic communication capabilities, to train its military personnel directly involved in this conflict, as well as to conduct consistent education campaigns on the risks they are exposed to. At the same time, Ukraine must implement at the government level the strategic communication in order to be able to defend its national security and to have the support of the population for the implementation of measures that strengthen the role and the prerogatives of the state.

Strategic communication, the answer to Russia’s offensive in the intelligence warfare In recent years, in the context of the Russian-Ucrainian conflict and of the security environment challenges, people abuse the use of the term strategic communication, associated with the terms of intelligence warfare, cyberwarfare or hybrid warfare. Most often, these terms are used as synonyms and from a sematic point of view people put an equal sign between them. Conflicts in Libya, Syria and Ucraine have proved that social media is used on a wide scale to coordonate actions, to collect intelligence and, most importantly, to influence the beliefs and attitudes of the target audience, even to mobilise their actions.25 It is noteworthy that the modern warfare is conducted online, in a totally different manner than classical warfare. Also, the US presidential elections(2016), Brexit(2016), the Austrian and French elections(2017), the resignation of the Austrian vice-chancellor Strache who was involved in the Ibiza scandal following some compromising records that included discussions with a potential Russian investor about several government contracts, even the protests of the famous "Yellow Vests" (2019), share the suspicion of involvement of the Russian Federation through the famous "troll farms" in Moscow.

23 http://stratcomua.org/en, accessed at 05.11.2019. 24 Elina Lange-Ionatamishvili și Sanda Svetoka, Strategic Communication and social media in the Russia – Ukraine conflict, Centrul de Excelență NATO, Riga, http://www.stratcomcoe.org/strategic-communications-and- social-media-russia-ukraine-conflict, p.6. 25 A. Teodorescu, The Hybrid Warfare – a challenge for the intelligence, in Infosfera, nr 3/2015. Online: https://www.mapn.ro/publicatii/2015/infosfera/3.pdf, accessed at 25.02.2019.

15

The European and American public opinion asks at the beginning of 2020 if Moscow will influence the result of the upcoming US presidential elections. Will Trump get a second term as president at the White House? Therefore, the role of strategic communication becomes more and more important. In addition, we should mention the large-scale political scandal from the beginning of 2018, when information emerged that Cambridge Analytica centralized personal data of the Facebook profiles of millions of users, which they would have used for political advertising purposes. These purposes will surely be identified in the near future in the aforementioned election campaigns. These purposes have already generated a defence reaction from the European Union, by the emergence, on May 25, 2018, of the legislative framework in the field of personal data protection at the European Union level, which includes two normative acts: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, of general applicability and Directive (EU) 2016/680, regarding the protection of personal data within specific activities conducted by law enforcement authorities. The current security environment is a complex one, characterized by unforeseeable threats which impose a coherent approach that is adapted to misinformation. Strategic communication represents without a doubt the best instrument in preventing and even counteracting current and future challenges to national security. Starting from the conceptual approach of strategic communication, the way in which NATO and the EU report to it, as well as the way in which other allied states build their defence strategies related to strategic communication, we identify the need to implement strategic communication in Romania. The NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence was established in 2015 in Riga, Latvia. Its creation is closely linked to the 2014 Crimeea and Eastern Ucraine issues. Basically, it was one of the ways to respond not towards the conflict per se, but towards the type of conflict, which imposed moving the center of gravity towards information campaigns and tranforming the conflict in an informational one. The statement of the states that participated at the Wales Summit strengthens the idea of strategic communication enhancement and makes this genuine weapon available for military commanders which gives them the operational capacity to act using all the intelligence capabilities jointly. International cooperation is essential in this complex security context. Although, at a statement level, implementing strategic communication was a necessity for the Alliance in 2014, the reality of recent years shows a slow evolving process: Substantial investment in the strategic communication subdivisions by members and partners is required.26 Strategic communication at the level of the European Union came in the form of the Action Plan on Strategic Communication, presented in 2015 by the European Commission, and focused on the following directions: “efficient communication and promoting of EU policies in relation to the Eastern Neighborhood; strengthening the media area in the Eastern Neighborhood and in the member states, including support for press freedom and strengthening of independent media; improving the EU's ability to predict, address and respond to misinformation activities carried out by external actors.”27 In 2016, in response to the great impact of hostile propaganda against the European Union and the Member States, it is decided to establish a strategic communication structure within the External Action Service of the European Union, with clearly established staff and budgetary resources, in order to combat misinformation and propaganda.

26 https://www.mae.ro/sites/default/files/file/2014/pdf/2014.09.06_declaratie_summit.pdf, accessed at 20.09.2019. 27 http://archive.eap-csf.eu/assets/files/Action%20PLan.pdf, accessed at 20.02.2019.

16

However, the resources allocated in this direction by the Russian Federation are much higher than the resources used so far by NATO and the European Union.

Final considerations Propaganda is a tool used to spread certain information for political interests, developed after clearly defined goals. Using asymmetric and indirect approaches, the focus is switched nowadays on enemy’s population rather than on its military forces. Psychological operations use propaganda and psychological tactics, which consists of ‘mind games’ aiming to intimidate, confuse, provoking anger, fear, doubt, hostility, etc. Russia managed to annex a territory ”with the desire of its inhabitants”, without firing a gun, and demonstrated the great impact of propaganda: ninty percent of Ukrainians living in Crimea voted to join Russia. Ukraine is deeply divided in two parts regarding language and ethnicity and Russia fully exploited this weakness for defence itself and shape the public perception. The media system in Ukraine is corrupted and insufficiently developed, being unable to react in a proper manner at the strong Russian propaganda. In a recent interview, talking about the Russian Federation's action in the information war, the political adviser of the US Embassy in Bucharest stated that "Moscow has the ability to target certain countries with certain propaganda messages".28 Considering these, it is necessary to define a concept, respectively the elaboration of a defence strategy that will have the objective of implementing the strategic communication process. „Strategic communication implies the existence of a cause-effect relationship between the communication activities and the fulfillment of the organization's objectives. This means that the communication programs contribute to the accomplishment of the strategic activities of the organization in a quantifiable way.”29 The prevention of concerted information attacks implies the creation of capabilities able to react, analyze and measure their impact, both in strength and efficiency.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Elina Lange-Ionatamishvili și Sanda Svetoka, Strategic Communication and social media in the Russia – Ukraine conflict, Centrul de Excelență NATO, Riga, http://www.stratcomcoe.org/strategic-communications-and-social-media-russia- ukraine-conflict. 2. Young Joon Lim, Theorizing Strategic Communication in Parsimony from the U.S. government Perspective, Published by the Hungarian Communication Studies Association, 2015, p.2. 3. Macdonald, S., Propaganda and Information warfare in the Twenty- First Century: Altered images and deception operations, Contemporary Security Studies. Routledge, 2007. 4. Snegovaya, M., Putin's Information Warfare in Ukraine: Soviet Origins of Russia's Hybird Warfare. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of War, 2015. 5. NATO ACO Directive (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communications. 6. Cătalin Hente, The propaganda and its relatives, Editura Militara, București, 2015.

28 Russia – Romania: Propaganda messages, https://www.dcnews.ro/romania-rusia-tinta-strategie-diplomat-sua- suntem-foarte-preocupati-mesaje-de-propaganda_638989.html accessed at 27.02.2019. 29 R. L. Potter, The Ten-Step Strategic Communication Plan, 1999 Yearbook of Global Communication, Madrid, , October, 1998, p. 14.

17

7. Philip M. Taylor, Munition of the Mind, a history of Propaganda from the anciend World to the Present Day, Manchester University Press, 1995. 8. Cătalin Hente, 150 years of mediatic wars. The army and the press in war, Editura Nemira, 2010. 9. New Cold War: Ukraine and Beyond (2009) From Russification to Ukrainisation: A survey of language politics in Ukraine [Online]. Available from: https://www.newcoldwar.org/from-russification-to-ukrainisation-a-survey-of- language-politics-in-ukraine/.Potter, L. R., The Ten-Step Strategic Communication Plan, 1999 Yearbook of Global Communication, Madrid, Spain, October, 1998. 10. Radin, A., & Reach, C. (2017). Russian Views of the International Order. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. 11. RadioLiberty (2015) One Professional Russian Troll Tells All [Online]. Available from: https://www.rferl.org/a/how-to-guide-russian-trolling-trolls/26919999.html. 12. STRATCOM from 13. file:///C:/Users/asus/Downloads/russian_information_campaign_public_12012016 fin. 14. Teodorescu, A, The Hybrid Warfare – a challenge for the intelligence, in Infosfera nr. 3/2015.

18

STRATCOM, NATO'S RESPONSE TO THE INFORMATION WARFARE

Alin PREDA Lieutenant colonel, Head of Office, Directorate for Information and Public Relations, Ministry of National Defence PhD Student, "Carol I" National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: The accelerated technological evolution of the last years has natural consequences in changing the strategies and methods of war, becoming part of the modern combat systems. The information war has become, in the last years, the most evolved form of the conflict due to the low costs, the small losses and the maximum efficiency, and this was possible, first of all, due to the web 2.0 development. The information war in the virtual space, or the cyber war, is one of the main threats to national security. As a natural consequence from a contextual point of view, strategic communication is a topic, in recent years, on the agenda of NATO summits, in the speeches of the most important political and military leaders of the world, as well as in the concerns of researchers and communication specialists who work for renowned think-thankers in Europe or the USA. What do we communicate? How do we communicate? What is meant to? There are three questions of great interest in this context. Why does NATO propose strategic communication when it is in a crisis situation? What is StratCom? What does strategic communication mean for StratCom? These are the topics that this article aims to address. Keywords: StratCom; strategic communication; informational war; NATO.

„I met the enemy and He is us”.1

Introductory aspects

For the coalition forces, the contemporary operational environment combined with technological developments and the speed of information flow have created new challenges, both in terms of the decision-making process within the coalition and in terms of interaction with the population in the areas of operations. Faced with the need to adapt their strategies to the demands of the contemporary operational environment, the Alliance has identified the possibility of using strategic communication. Since the Strasbourg Summit in 2009, NATO has considered strategic communication as "an integral part of efforts to achieve the Alliance's political and military objectives"2 in the context of security threats and, in particular, to strengthen the influence exercised over the Alliance’s audiences. One of the main reasons was given by the attempt to "get out of the inability to win the support of the Afghan population"3. Strategic communication was seen as "the coordinated and appropriate use of NATO's communication capabilities and activities – public diplomacy, public affairs, military public affairs, information operations and psychological operations, appropriate to the circumstances, in support of the Alliance's policies, operations and activities, to contribute to the achievement of NATO objectives."4

1 “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us”. An Analysis of NATO Strategic Communications: The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, 2003-2014, https://www.stratcomcoe.org/we-have-met-enemy-and-he- us-analysis-nato-strategic-communications-international-security-assistance, accessed at 30.02.2019. 2 Strasbourg-Kehl NATO Summit Declaration, 4.04.2009, pct.16. 3 RAND Europe, NATO's strategic communications concept and its relevance to France, 2010, p.9. 4 NATO Strategic Communications Policy, PO (2009) 0141&MCM-0164-2009, 29.09.2009, p.2.

19

NATO began developing its strategic communication concept in September 2009, faced with the need to adapt its influence strategies to the demands of the contemporary operational environment, amid the inability of NATO forces to win the support of the Afghan population. So, the concept is based on the need to strengthen its influence over the audiences in order to get the support on the actions. From the definition, the integrative role of the strategic communication that unites the fields of information and public relations with the public diplomacy and the informational and psychological operations is clear and acts as a communication process by coordinating the involved fields. Subsequently, in 2012, the political-military nature of the strategic communication: "plays a central role during all phases of operations, from planning to execution and requires coordination between all elements of the information community." 5 In 2014, at the Summit in Wales, NATO emphasized the importance of strategic communication seen as one of the tools needed to "effectively deter and respond to threats of hybrid warfare"6 and provided for a number of measures including developing the ability to counteract threats of hybrid warfare that it is not "a projectile war, it is an informational war". Otherwise, the NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication is set up in Latvia, and strategic communication becomes, at the declaratory level, one of the essential tools in countering hybrid threats. By setting up the center, great steps were taken in the doctrinal analysis and development of the strategic communication and at the same time a strong message was transmitted regarding the Alliance's firm reaction to the hybrid threats. In 2016, the Warsaw Summit strengthens the role of strategic communication in increasing the Alliance's responsiveness and mentions collaboration with the EU in the field of strategic communication by "intensifying consultations at all levels of practical cooperation during operations and capacity development"7. It is also underlined the need to perfect and equip them with the tools necessary to counter informational threats that were identified as: different types of propaganda, misinformation and manipulation of public opinion and cyber attacks. The new NATO Strategic Communication Policy is based on a common approach, on principles applied equally for kinetic and non-kinetic activities and actions, whose effects are manifested in the information environment. These are of particular importance for the communication capabilities of the Military and Public Information and Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) structures, as well as for the Information Operations (InfOps) as a function of the commander8. The implementation of the strategic communication within the Alliance implies unity of effort and unity of purpose and the basic principles, according to NATO policy, are: - all activities are based on the Alliance's values; - the activities are determined by the achievement of the objectives; - credibility and trust are essential and must be protected; - words must be aligned with actions; - the information environment must be well understood; - communication is a collective and integrated effort; - efforts are focused on achieving the desired effect; - communication is authorized to take place at all levels 9. StratCom is not the communication at the strategic level. StratCom is strategically applied communication. STRATCOM, in the NATO military context, "represents a process

5 NATO ACO Directive (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communications, 21.05.2012, p.4. 6 Wallet Summit Declaration, 5.09.2014, pct.13. 7 Warsaw Summit Communique, 5.09.2014, pct.13. 8 Ibidem, p.4. 9 MC 0628-NATO Military Policy on Strategic Communications, 19.07.2017, p.7.

20

of integrating communication capabilities and information functions with other military activities, for understanding and modeling the information environment, for supporting NATO goals and objectives.” 10 From the research conducted and from the interviews we have identified three approaches of StratCom and those will be presented in the following pages: 1. Strategic communication as a coordination process; 2. Strategic communication as a capability (function); 3. Strategic communication as process and capability (support function).

StratCom as a coordination process The current definition of StratCom highlights the function of coordinating the communication activity, mentioning "the proper coordination and use of NATO communication activities and capabilities - Public Diplomacy, Public Affairs (PA), Military Public Affairs (MPA), Information Operations (InfoOps) and psychological operations (PsyOps), as the case may be - in support of policies, alliance operations and activities and to promote NATO objectives.” 11 Analyzing the implementation mode and stages, Dr. Grzegorz Łyko mentions that it is obvious that StratCom "was designed to be a coordination process"12. From this remark, it can be concluded that NATO did not intend to create a new capacity, which would certainly have meant additional costs, but which would have given the opportunity of a different approach. In other words, one can conclude that, through StratCom, NATO has proposed a defensive approach to the information war, limiting itself to counteracting fake news, propaganda and attempts to manipulate the adversary, although theoretically it has the posibility to create a new capacity that would allow the information offensive to neutralize and destroy the adversary. At this point of the analysis, the question that arises is why NATO chose this variant and, especially, whether it took into account the offensive. One of the studies developed by the Riga Center of Excellence, Troli against Elves13, supports the hypothesis that the establishment of an offensive capability was considered by the Alliance's experts. In my opinion, two of the reasons for this decision were given by the high costs of creating the new capacity, on the one hand, and the change of the Alliance's defence and security system, on the other. Also, starting from the research of Dr. Grzegorz Łyko, who defines StratCom as a coordination process, questions can be raised about the relevance of the name that creates so much confusion in the approach. If StratCom represents a function this is strategic, if we refer to the level of document elaboration, not to the level of implementation and execution which, in the conception published by the Allied Command for Transformation, in 201014 and the policy assumed by the Allied Operational Center of command SHAPE in 201215, refers to the operational level and, at certain points, even to the tactical level.

10 MC0628 NATO Military Policy on Strategic Communications, 14.08.2017, p. 4. 11 PO (2009) 0141, NATO strategic communications policy, NATO Headquarters, , 29.09. 2009. 12 Dr. Grzegorz Łyko, Strategic communication in a changing security environment, p. 4, available on http://czasopismo.nwsp.pl/06%20G%C5%81yko%20Komunikacja%20strategiczna%201(7)%202017.pdf accessed February 14, 2020. 13 Fake news; How Lithunia’a elves take on Russian trolls, available on https://www.ft.com/content/b3701b12- 2544-11e9-b329-c7e6ceb5ffdf, accessed February 14, 2020. 14 MCM-0085-2010 The military concept revised for Strategic Communication, 11.08.2010, p.21. 15 Directive ACO (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communication ACO, 21.05.2012, p.7.

21

The publication of the US Army War College defines StartCom as "orchestrating actions, images, and words to achieve the desired effect." 16 This definition also describes a process that, according to the publication, aims to "bridge the gap between saying and doing." 17 In other words, the goal is to align words with facts, because facts speak more than words, as researcher Christopher Paul also explains. In addition, information and communication are presented as part of the strategic planning and development policy, stressing the need for their presence from the first stages of the planning process, prior to the action. Also mentioned is the way of conducting the coordination process both horizontally and vertically. On a horizontal level, at national level, the process is coordinated by the Department of Defence and government and can be extended with other international institutions. Verifically, this process is identified with the hierarchical level and the chain of command. The analysis of the definitions and the way of implementation of StratCom highlights interesting conclusions. First of all, communication in the defence system has few resources, and the creation of structures separate from the StateCom would have considerably increased the costs while the costs of a trial are incomparably lower. Communication being a function of management it is clear that the coordination structure will be subordinate to management. “The clear advantage of this solution is the recognition of the functional responsibilities, the coordination capacities and the communication functions fulfilled. In this sense, the StratCom configuration does not take over the communication in the organization, but only maximizes its effects. This is a typical situation in the NATO - SHAPE headquarters, but also in the command of the joint forces in Brunssum and Naples. This is the case for the NATO Response Force.18” Basically, according to this solution, all functional areas retain their main role in their field of activity: public relations in public relations, psychological operations in psychological operations, informational operations in informational operations, public diplomacy in public diplomacy (in the US approach that recognizes the role). One of the advantages of this solution is that it avoids duplication of structures, a proven inefficient practice, applied in the American StratCom until 2009. The main disadvantage could be the applicability of coordination in a hierarchical environment that could prove inefficient in the military system. Direction of the areas involved in strategic communication implies, first of all, the substantial increase of the resources allocated by setting up new structures that will have as attributions the taking over of part of the attributions of each structure. In this way, the duties would be doubled, as mentioned above, and the responsibilities of each of the structures would be violated. In analyzing StratCom, Christopher Paul points out that this approach could lead to problems, being misunderstood by other structures, especially in the military, where StratCom is seen more as a capability. The researcher also states that StratCom could be misinterpreted and used for activities that go beyond the information environment. Another aspect noted is the allocation of resources where strategic communication is limited to being applied as a process19.

16 DM Murphy, Strategic Communication, War College of the US Army, Information Operations Primer, Carlisle, november 2009, p.7. 17 Ibidem, p.8. 18 D Dr. Grzegorz Łyko, Strategic communication in a changing security environment, p.6, available on http://czasopismo.nwsp.pl/06%20G%C5%81yko%20Komunikacja%20strategiczna%201(7)%202017.pdf.pdf, accessed February 14, 2020. 19 Christopher Paul, Strategic communication, origins, concepts and current debate, Santa Barbara, California, 2011, p.175.

22

StratCom as a capability The defence system, especially the army, as part of this system, is a military field, hierarchically, very well structured. In this environment, the process of coordinating many structures from different areas of responsibility implies the existence of a structure responsible for each function and capacity. Generally, this structure is positioned in the central structure and is directly subordinated to its boss / commander. According to Dr. Steve Tatham, StratCom represents "a systematic, sustained and coherent series of activities, carried out through strategies, at operational and tactical levels, which allows the target audience to understand, identify efficient channels and develop and promote ideas and opinions through those channels, in order to promote and support certain types of behavior”20. This theory places StratCom at a higher level of communication activity, considering that the component forms of public relations, informational operations, psychological operations or public diplomacy cannot reach the target level of ambition. In other words, a superior form materialized in a superstructure is required, with functions pertaining to the field of component forms to be led by a leader whose level of representation exceeds the rank of adviser to the commander and is in the same hierarchical position as the commanders / chiefs of the main domains in the central structure, and the superstructure to benefit logistically and operationally from the same facilities with them. In NATO, the functions of advisor on StratCom or advisor on Public Relations are at the most important level and are directly subordinated to the command group, and the psychological and operational operations are part of the operational structure. Each function and capability have a specific role within the structure where it is located, a role that is not at all coincidental if we take into account the theory that "the main role of the army is not to communicate is to prepare for war or fight." 21 But the war of the present is the informational war, and the army has lethal weapons for its gain: informational operations and psychological operations. In addition, the commander has at his disposal advisors on public relations and StratCom issues that extend the area of competence beyond the military field. Public relations supports communication with the external and internal environment, and StartCom must coordinate activities with communication potential such as the commander's commitments, the display of forces, which fall into public relations, psychological and informational operations. In this context, the creation of a structure containing all these extremely different functions and capabilities involved a series of contradictory debates and represented a great doctrinal challenge. Obviously, there are also a number of advantages. All communication activities follow the same process consisting of analysis, planning, execution and evaluation. Apart from execution, all the other steps can be shared which leads to efficient use of resources. The communication direction model worked throughout the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) mission. In 2016, Colonel Bret Boudreau emphasized that "the StratCom structure led by a general has achieved better results than the alternative structures"22.

20 S. Tatham, Strategic Communication: A Primer, Defence Academy, Advanced Research and Evaluation Group, Special Series 28.08.2008, p. 14. 21 D Dr. Grzegorz Łyko, Strategic communication in a changing security environment, p.8, available on http://czasopismo.nwsp.pl/06%20G%C5%81yko%20Komunikacja%20strategiczna%201(7)%202017.pdf.pdf, accessed February 15, 2020. 22 B. Boudreau, I met the enemy and he is us, NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication, Riga, 2016, p. 35.

23

Strategic communication is important to avoid uncoordinated and uninspired communications that do not resonate with the local public. ISAF is used as an example for this, because it had many shortcomings. Relationships must be built at all levels of society, from politicians to the media to ordinary civilians, to send messages effectively. "You cannot lose all the battles and expect the strategic communication to win the war. STRATCOM is a good partner in ensuring victory and is an important one. Improving STRATCOM means learning about audiences and knowing how to appeal to them, among others."23

StartCom, process or capability? What do experts and practitioners say? As in every field, especially in a vague doctrinal and scientific debate, the differences between the academic environment, experts and practitioners are obvious. For a complete vision and achievement of the objectives proposed in this article I will quote the opinions of some practitioners in the StratCom field. After interviewing some of NATO's most influential practitioners in 2016 as well as the US Army and Polish Army's profile structures, Polish researcher Dr. Grzegorz Łyko states that "most definitions, most experts, practitioners and researchers cannot meet"24. But there are some common ideas in everyone's vision: a) StratCom represents the organization's ability to achieve coherence and integration in the communication effort; b) StratCom is a mentality that must be implemented throughout the organization; c) StratCom is composed of a series of processes and structures that have the role of facilitating the coordination and synchronization of the communication; d) StratCom is endowed with tools and resources for achieving a complete communication planning cycle. Also, from the interviews conducted, the author notes that in the practitioners' view a complete cycle of communication planning has four main phases:25 1. Analysis of the information environment; 2. Planning as part of the operational planning and public relations process; 3. Active communication and taking passive communication measures; 4. Evaluation of the whole process from a structural, procedural and functional point of view. Another important aspect that emerges from the interviews with practitioners is that StratCom, in peacetime, cannot be used to its full potential without a decision to use the armed forces against an opponent or even a potential adversary. Except for missions in the theaters of operations, the legislative and doctrinal restrictions play an extremely important role in terms of reaction time in the event of an informational conflict, because StratCom can not, theoretically, use all the tools of strategic communication being prohibited (or requiring special approvals) the actions of influence (psychological operations) and the actions of induction in error (informational operations) on the own population represented in this circumstance by the population of the allied and partner states. These limitations make use only of diplomacy and public information, which explains why the strategic communication concepts of the alliance mainly use topics and messages specific to information and public relations or public diplomacy activities.

23 Ibidem. 24 Dr. Grzegorz Łyko, Strategic communication in a changing security environment, p.10, available on http://czasopismo.nwsp.pl/06%20G%C5%81yko%20Komunikacja%20strategiczna%201(7)%202017.pdf.pdf, accessed February 15, 2020. 25 Ibidem.

24

In this context, in the situation of a hybrid threat it is quite difficult to define the critical moment when the armed forces can be used and what is the level of efficiency. In essence, StratCom is perceived as the key capacity of the defence system in the democratic countries to counteract the methods in the information environment used by non-democratic countries.26

Conclusions Each of the approaches, StratCom process or capability, has been experienced in the last 20 years first in the US, in response to terrorist attacks and the promotion of national interests, then by NATO to improve the results and reach the objectives of the missions in the theaters of operations. Subsequently, the strategic communication was implemented by some of the countries that are part of the Alliance, such as Great Britain, Poland. At the same time, there are countries, such as Germany, that have not implemented and developed the StratCom concept at national level, but use it at the level of military operations or Canada that is in the process of changing the concept and implementing StratCom. The conclusions emphasized that each of the approaches has advantages and disadvantages, as presented above and led to the decision that a "mixed" approach is needed to combine the two variants put into practice to use efficient strategic communication lessons learned. The first step towards this mixed approach is made in 2010 when in the National Strategic Communication Framework, elaborated by the White House the term of StratCom is defined as aligning the words with the facts and forming the public's perception through actions and programs specific to public relations, informational operations and psychological information. deliberately aimed at communicating and engaging the intended audience 27. Also, in defining the term of strategic communication, the Polish Ministry of Defence mentions, in 2014, that StratCom "intentionally includes coordinated communication activities, carried out at all levels of command and management, both from a political and military dimension,"directed both inside and outside the Ministry of National Defence, which serves to achieve the strategic objectives of the MOD, in the national sphere, allied and in coalition." 28 This definition presents StratCom, both as a capability and as a communication coordination process depending on the actual communication situation and the decision- making authority. NATO policy on strategic communication is doubled in 2017 by the tendency of grouping the structures within the StratCom component into a Communication Division based on arguments, such as the single command and the effort unit during the strategic communication actions. NATO's definition of strategic communication shows the intention of military planners to "mix" the coordination process with an ability to analyze, plan and evaluate common communication capabilities with the policy of the Military Committee for StratCom. Analyzing the strategic communication, the authors of the Report on the relevance of the strategic communication concept of the NATO Military Committee for France, RAND define the strategic communication as "a process designed to coordinate the communication with the actions (words and deeds) between the inter-ministerial actors to strengthen their strategic effect. 29"

26 Ibidem, p.10. 27 Ibidem, p.18. 28 Ibidem, p.7. 29 Report on the relevance of the Strategic communication concept of the NATO Military Committee for France RAND, 2010, p.21.

25

To achieve this, strategic communication must exploit all existing expertise, which can be found in the various information and communication departments. "The purpose of the strategic communication is to promote a favorable behavior towards the target audience and, therefore, to model the operational environment."30 The report highlights some conclusions regarding NATO's implementation of the StratCom concept: 1) To achieve the goal of the StartCom the process be fast and coherent. The speed and coherence are directly proportional to the size of the hierarchical chain (vertical collaboration) and the branches of the collaborating departments (horizontal collaboration). Effective strategic communication requires flexible network structures. Starting from this conclusion I would like to underline the major difference between NATO and Russia, regarding both the offensive capabilities of Russia versus the defensive ones of NATO, as well as the idea of consensus. NATO needs 29 approvals out of 29, in order to make a decision, which requires an extended reaction time, limited actions, generated by the conceptual approaches and limitations of the national legislation. 2) StratCom applies to both humanitarian missions and combat missions Developing in response to NATO's challenge to enlist the support of the local population, StratCom is applied in both humanitarian and combat missions. For example, the mission of the US Navy, Continuing Promise 2009, led by Comfort ship, "was designed for: distribution of medical, dental and veterinary aids", as well as engineering assistance, to the poor communities of Antigua, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Salvador , Haiti, Nicaragua and Panama to influence future generations. 31 3) StratCom command: The control problem is the key to all new concepts, whose structure and scope is still to be defined. The commander designs a narrative to be communicated in each message. 4) StratCom structure: The command structure of strategic communication is essentially made up of three levels of responsibilities. The first two levels are strategic, while the third is operational and tactical. 5) Challenging the so-called "firewall": The challenge of finding a command structure for all StratCom components. 6) Experienced staff: StratCom staff must have experience in the field for developing messages that resonate with the audience, identify the target audience, use credible communication. To summarize, the concept of strategic communication has generated ample articles, debates and analyzes that place it in close correlation with the challenges of the current information environment, dominated by the development of mass communication technologies and the large-scale use of social networks. Seen as a form of response to the information war (fake news), theorizing and institutionalizing strategic communication already generate the first practical reactions by applying the concept within NATO and the EU. The results consist primarily of the creation of the strategic communication framework concept, the establishment of policies and action directives, implemented by NATO and which could subsequently be taken over by the EU32.

30 Ibidem, p.21. 31 Ibidem, p.20. 32 Action Plan on Strategic Communication, Consiliul European, Bruxelles, 22.06.2015, p.1, available on http://archive.eap-csf.eu/assets/files/Action%20PLan.pdf, accessed February 17, 2020.

26

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Action Plan on Strategic Communication, Consiliul European, Bruxelles. 2. Boudreau, B., I met the enemy and he is us, NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication, Riga, 2016. 3. Christopher Paul, Strategic communication, origins, concepts and current debate, Santa Barbara, California, 2011. 4. Directive ACO (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communication ACO, 21.05.2012. 5. DM Murphy, Strategic Communication, War College of the US Army, Information Operations Primer, Carlisle, november 2009. 6. Grzegorz Łyko, Strategic communication in a changing security environment, Defence Minister's decision number 478 / MON 7. MC 0628-NATO Military Policy on Strategic Communications. 8. MCM-0085-2010 The military concept revised for Strategic Communication. 9. NATO Strategic Communications Policy, PO (2009) 0141&MCM-0164-2009, 29.09.2009. 10. NATO ACO Directive (AD) 95-2 Strategic Communications, 21.05.2012. 11. PO 0141, NATO strategic communications policy, NATO Headquarters, Brussels, 29.09. 2009. 12. RAND Europe, NATO's strategic communications concept and its relevance to France, 2010. 13. Report on the relevance of the strategic communication concept of the NATO Military Committee for France RAND, 2010. 14. Strasbourg-Kehl NATO Summit Declaration, 4.04.2009. 15. Tatham S., Strategic Communication: A Primer, United Kingdom Defence Academy, Advanced Research and Evaluation Group, Special Series 28.08.2008. 16. Warsaw Summit Communique, 5.09.2014. 17. Wallet Summit Declaration, 5.09.2014.

27

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN NATIONAL SECURITY DOCUMENTS OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Andreia Mariana POP Ph.D. Student E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Unlike public diplomacy of Western countries, Russian Public Diplomacy is not focused on exporting democracy. Instead, it is aiming to promote international dialogue and strategic stability among various international players. Russia has put increasing emphasis on public diplomacy and the use of „soft power” to achieve foreign policy objectives. The “Foreign Policy Concept of the State” from 2016, specifically calls for Russian academics and experts to get involved in the public diplomacy efforts of the country. This paper presents how Russia tries to influence expert communities and wider public opinion in the West. This will be presented as a framework to analyse Russian Public Diplomacy in National Security Documents: what are its goals, actors, instruments, how it is reflected in the Russian “Foreign Policy Concept”, how it is interpreted and applied in the Russian case. Keywords: Public Diplomacy, Russian Federation, soft power, strategy, security.

Public diplomacy is a relatively new term that has increased in popularity among policy makers, academics, and mass media alike since the end of the Cold War. Scholars first used the term in 1965 to label the process by which international actors seek to accomplish foreign policy goals by engaging with foreign publics. Public diplomacy is often defined as public relations or marketing carried out by a nation-state and directed at foreign audiences. Indeed, many terms and strategies common in the public relations field are applied to public diplomacy. Foremost among these is the idea of managing the brand of a product or service. In the case of public diplomacy, this product is the government and its policies, while a government’s image and reputation are called a nation brand. Public diplomacy is therefore taking an increasingly significant political role and goes beyond mere slogans and other vehicles of mass communications that have long been associated with propaganda or spin-doctoring. A successful public diplomacy campaign requires integrating a country’s key stakeholders, including government agencies, major corporations, NGOs, artists and celebrities, into a system of brand management that supports a single, long-term national strategy1. In recent years, Russia has rediscovered cultural and public diplomacy as a means to re-establish the country’s presence in the international arena and improve its image. Russian public diplomacy has found its own approach towards foreign audience disillusioned with Western practices of coercive democratization, Russia is seen by this audience as a protector of the free world and traditional family values.2 This article is concerning Russia, why and how the country organises and practices its public diplomacy efforts in the 21st century. Russia is a well-known country, with a high profile and a poor image. This situation inhibits a number of different states directed

1 Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, on http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Public_Diplomacy.pdf, p. 38, accessed February 10, 2020. 2 Anna Velikaya, The Russian Approach to Public Diplomacy and Humanitarian Cooperation, on http://risingpowersproject.com/quarterly/the-russian-approach-to-public-diplomacy-and-humanitarian- cooperation/, accessed February 15, 2020.

28

ambitions, including hampering the ability to develop its desired great power status and role. A number of stereotypes and associations make this reputation sticky, which affects its credibility as a messenger adversely.3 There has been a great deal of discussion in Russia concerning soft power and public diplomacy, how these concepts currently relate and how to develop the potential further. One of the debates has been to look at the United States and see if there is anything that can be learned and applied for Russia. This not only includes the theoretical and conceptual levels, but the creation of institutions as well (such as the idea to create a Russian equivalent of the US Information Agency). Efforts to develop Russia’s public diplomacy and ability to accumulate soft power potential rely on the use of mass communication with foreign audiences in order to explain official policy. This comes against a backdrop where Russia considers itself at a disadvantage on the international stage owing to a poor image and reputation that has been the result of lack of understanding and bad (non-objective) information in the global information space. There have been an increasing number of institutions created, which communicate and form relationships with an increasing number of people in foreign publics. Yet, the image of Russia has not improved. This has led to some stating that Russia is losing its soft power quest. An underlying reason given, is that this does not concern Russia’s cultural or intellectual heritage and reputation, but more precisely a lack of popularity in its pursued policies. Konstantin Kosachev, who served as the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, and then was appointed as head of the agency Rossotrudnichestvo (function to be explained later) gave his opinion on the function to be served by soft power. “Soft power opportunities best meet Russian foreign policy tasks at present. These tasks stem from the needs of domestic development [. . .]. They are [. . .] means to modernise the country.” Reasons for developing soft power seem to be out of instrumentalist and pragmatic considerations, rather than being ideologically based. A seeming consensus does exist on the need for Russia to engage in soft power, through effective global communications. This includes communicating what is termed as objective information about Russia. The perceived reward is that Russia shall be more successful in attaining its stated foreign policy objectives and to protect Russian interests, however, the first step being to possess a resource of soft power. In 2005, the Kremlin initiated an extensive public diplomacy campaign to improve Russia’s image abroad. The arsenal of tools ranged from traditional international broadcasting to sophisticated efforts that included lobbying, nation branding, cultural and educational exchanges, and public relations counselling services. Stemming from Foreign Policy Doctrine that focused on developing effective means of influence on public opinion abroad, early public diplomacy efforts of Russia largely focused on informational solutions to an image problem. In 2010, the Russian government introduced the Cultural Diplomacy Conception, which placed a significant emphasis on the promotion and popularization of the Russian language and culture in the world and preserving cultural heritage of Russia in the near abroad.4 This conception shifted the focus from an attempt to foster a positive image of Russia to an attempt to foster a pro-Russian identity beyond the country’s borders, in which the Russian language and culture became central

3 Yelena Osipova Russian Public Diplomacy New Russian Public Diplomacy: Conceptualization, Practice and Limitations, accessed February 15, 2020, on http://files.isanet.org/ConferenceArchive/ d8f26c6d8298478ea6920dfaf0f3aed2.pdf. p. 3. 4 Klyueva, Anna, Mikhaylova, Anna. Building the Russian World: Cultural Diplomacy of the Russian Language and Cultural Identity, on https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317852716_Building_the_Russian_World_ Cultural_Diplomacy_of_the_Russian_Language_and_Cultural_ Identity/citation/download, accessed February 15, 2020.

29

elements of Russia’s strategic cultural diplomacy efforts. The main themes of the Russian themes of Cultural Diplomacy Conception analysis were (1) the strategic motives behind the Russia’s cultural diplomacy initiatives; (2) the strategic focus on Russian Diaspora and compatriots abroad; and (3) the role of the Russian language5. The most recent foreign policy concept states – “developing, including through public diplomacy, international, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation as a means to build up dialogue among civilisations, to achieve consensus, and to ensure understanding among peoples with a particular emphasis on inter-religious dialogue” and “greater participation of Russia’s academics and experts in the dialogue with foreign specialists on global politics and international security as one of the areas of public diplomacy development”6 While culture as an axis of propaganda has long been an essential component of the Soviet information efforts, the practice of cultural and public diplomacy in its modern understanding, closely associated with soft power (non-coercive power of attraction) and integrated within foreign policy, came to Russia only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union7 As borrowed concepts from the Western scholarship, public and cultural diplomacy are not customary terms within Russian political thought.8 The term public diplomacy in Russian has several approximated translations. Often, public diplomacy is translated as obshchestvennaya diplomatiya [public’s diplomacy], publichnaya diplomatiya [public diplomacy], or narodnaya diplomatiya [people’s diplomacy]. These terms have varying connotations and significant semantic differences, yet they are often used interchangeably.9 The September 2000 Doctrine of Information Security paved the way for the development of international broadcasting and media outlets, which were intended to stem the flow of negative and non-objective information about Russia in the global information space. These assets perform the broader function of news management through creating and disseminating news from the Russian government’s point of view. There are various mass media assets that use a communicational approach to public diplomacy, which is a one to many models of communication that was the hallmark of the Cold War era. A very brief selection of media outlets shall be given below to illustrate this category of communication. The creation of the English language (and later Arabic and Spanish) on Russia Today (http://rt.com/, has been rebranded as RT) was intended to fill one of the gaps identified in the Doctrine of Information Security, the state’s capability to directly broadcast to an international audience. RT also has a presence on social media – Twitter, Facebook and You Tube. The TV channel was launched in 2005, and now boasts having coverage on some five

5 Klyueva, Anna, Mikhaylova, Anna. Building the Russian World: Cultural Diplomacy of the Russian Language and Cultural Identity, on https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317852716_Building_the_Russian_ World_Cultural_Diplomacy_of_the_Russian_Language_and_Cultural_Identity/citation/download, accessed February 15, 2020. 6 Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID), 2016, 1 December, Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, Approved by President of the Russian Federation V.Putin on 30 November 2016,Document no.2232- 01-12-2016. accessed February 15, 2020, on www.mid.ru/en/foreignpolicy/official_documents/-/asset publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/ content/id/2542248. 7 Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, on http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Public_Diplomacy.pdf, pp.28-29, accessed February 10, 2020. 8 Cultural Diplomacy Dictionary, p.22, on http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/culturaldiplomacynews/content/ pdf/Cultural_Diplomacy_Dictionary.pdf, accessed February 10, 2020. 9 Building the Russian World: Cultural Diplomacy of the Russian Language and Cultural Identity, on https://www.academia.edu/35339969/Building_the_Russian_World_Cultural_ Diplomacy_of_the_Russian_ Language_and_Cultural_Identity, accessed February 15, 2020.

30

continents and over 100 countries. Their promotion/differentiation is the ability to “show you how any story can be another story altogether.”10 In 2008, the Russian Centre for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation a governmental successor of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, was transformed into the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo).11 In July 2012, President Putin defined soft power as being “all about promoting one’s interests and policies through persuasion and creating a positive perception of one’s country, based not just on its material achievements but also its spiritual and intellectual heritage.”12 This is in-line with an earlier observation made by Georgy Filimonov from People’s Friendship University (Moscow). He made strong connections between the accumulation of soft power and an effective and a functional system of public diplomacy.13 The 2013 Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation14 (here after “the Concept”) states the priorities, goals and objectives. This new concept was precipitated by changing events and dynamics in the international arena. After listing what are seen as various actual and emerging global problems, the document then sets out to describe Russia’s priorities and role in addressing those problems.15 The highlighted problems are illustrated under various rubrics – Emergence of a New World Order, Rule of Law in International Relations, Strengthening International Security, International Cooperation in the Sphere of Economy and Environment, International Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights and Information Support for Foreign Policy Activities. In point 103 of the Concept, there is even mention of the possibility of public–private partnership in helping to realise the stated goals and objectives. If these goals and objectives in the Concept are to be realised, then Russia requires a good reputation and brand in order to be credible and effective. This is likely to be a long-term project given the current state of perception and the international image of Russia.

Russia’s Message to the World The Russian Federation differs greatly from any of its predecessors in terms of its political system, state borders and geopolitical surroundings in its immediate neighbourhood. In June 2000, President Putin approved the Russian Foreign Policy Concept. A significant point of this document was that no matter how deep the internal changes a country makes, its foreign policy never starts from a clean slate. It is influenced and bears a measure of continuity based upon the geopolitics, history and culture of the country concerned16. In March 2013, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov wrote in an article that “the main task of the international activity of Russia is to create favourable external conditions for

10 Greg Simons, Taking the new public diplomacy online: Russia and China, on https://www.academia.edu/11522224/Taking_the_new_public_diplomacy_online_Russia_and_China, accessed February 15, 2020. 11 About Rossotrudnichestvo, on http://rs.gov.ru/en/about, accessed February 15, 2020. 12 Simons Gregory, Nation Branding and Russian Foreign Policy, on https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nation- branding-and-russian-foreign-policy-1, accessed February 15, 2020. 13 Giulio Gallarotti, Soft Power: What it is, Why it’s Important, and the Conditions Under Which it Can Be Effectively Used, on https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241737188_Soft_power_What_it_is_ why_it's_important_and_the_conditions_for_its_effective_use, accessed February 15, 2020. 14 Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, on https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_ policy/official_documents/-/asset_publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/content/id/ 122186, accessed February 15, 2020. 15 Ibidem. 16 Dimitri Trenin, 20 Years of Vladimir Putin: How Russian Foreign Policy Has Changed, on https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/27/20-years-of-vladimir-putin-how-russian-foreign-policy-has- changed-a67043. accessed February 15, 2020.

31

the rise of its economy, its transfer to innovative rails, increasing living standards of people.”17 In mid-February 2013, President Putin unveiled the new concept to members of the Security Council at a meeting hosted in the Kremlin. During his address to members of the Security Council, Putin remarked that: “Russia will continue to pursue an active and constructive line in international affairs. Its weight and influence in the world will increase. [. . .] The basic principles of Russian foreign policy remain the same. [. . .] That means, above all, openness, predictability, pragmatism, and the pursuit of national interests without any confrontations in accordance with the role of the United Nations and the rule of international law. [. . .] The concept focuses on modern foreign policy tools, including economic diplomacy, elements of so-called soft power, and careful integration into the global informational space.”18 There are a number of points that emerge from Putin’s address, the desire for Russia to be more active on the world stage, to be more engaged in the global information space, the active pursuit and accumulation of soft power, to peacefully pursue Russia’s national interests within the existing international institutional and legal framework.

Institutional Setting and Means of Communication for Russian Public Diplomacy A number of articles in Russian language have been appearing on the issue of soft power and public diplomacy. In December 2012 the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy met and discussed the issue of shaping Russia’s image. They identified four components to choose from what was at their disposal to influence that image – ideas, images, money and weapons. Conclusions that were reached included: the changes in image were not going to happen automatically; purposeful and focussed work was required; and the fact that creativity is an essential element in the process. The way forward, in order to improve the image, was seen through the ability of combining the best of Russian history and culture. To sustain the public diplomacy in Russia, in June 2007 President Putin signed a decree establishing the Russkiy Mir Foundation, for the purpose of “promoting the Russian language, as Russia's national heritage and a significant aspect of Russian and world culture, and supporting Russian language teaching programs abroad.”19 The Russkiy Mir Foundation is a project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Science. The purpose and activities of the Russkiy Mir Foundation are consonant with the larger idea of building the Russkiy Mir or community. The word mir in Russian is polysemic and can be translated as peace, world, and community. Fostering the Russkiy Mir community or communities of Russian speakers is one of the essential strategic goals of Russian humanitarian cooperation initiatives. While the Russkiy Mir Foundation is dedicated to spreading awareness of Russian values and traditions to non-Russians, its main focus is preserving the Russian language through reaching out to Russians living outside of

17 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Policy Philosophy, published in the magazine “International Affairs” of March 2013 , accessed February 15, 2020, on https://www.rusemb.org.uk/article/211. 18 Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, on https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/ official_documents/-/asset_publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/content/id/122186, accessed February 15, 2020. 19 Russkiy Mir Foundation on https://fundit.fr/en/institutions/russkiy-mir-foundation. accessed February 10, 2020.

32

Russia and creating a sense of community among them, particularly those in the former Soviet Republics20. By sustaining these cultural initiatives, the foundation strives to affect the formation of favourable public opinion about Russia through the spread of knowledge about Russia and popularization of the history and philosophy of Russkiy Mir, which are its spiritual and cultural foundations. As such, the Russkiy Mir Foundation resembles many other cultural diplomacy institutions such as the British Councils or the Confucius Institute. Yet, the active support of the Russian community abroad also promotes Russia’s geopolitical goals, especially in the post-Soviet space where the Foundation is most active.21 Another major institution that serves Russian`s public diplomacy is the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Foundation (http://gorchakovfund.ru/), which has information on its website in Russian only, sets out its mission and purpose. It provides “an integrated support for domestic civil society institutions. Together we can achieve the synergy, actively working on a common goal: the creation of the world public, the correct presentation of Russia and our national cultural values.”22 It appears as though the primary role for this organisation is to perform an organising and coordinating body for other NGOs working in the sphere of international relations. There are currently some 5000 officially registered NGOs involved in foreign policy, of which 859 possess an international status. Part of the given mission statement includes “[. . .] the Foundation’s mission is to promote the development of public diplomacy, as well as to facilitate the creation of a favourable for Russia, social, political and business environment abroad.”23 The two above mentioned organisations are intended to create an interactive dialogue with different foreign target groups, and to form a relationship with them in order to be able to influence opinions and perceptions concerning Russia. This suggests that New Public Diplomacy is becoming the preferred method, which is facilitated with the relationship marketing approach. The Gorchakov Foundation does run a number of special programmes, such as the Baltic Dialogue (for Russian speaking youth from the Baltic States) and the Caucasus Dialogue. With regard to the later programme, the Caucasus Dialogue, it focuses upon the subject of historical accounts of the 19th Century Caucasian War (especially pertaining to the plight of the Circassian ethnic group). This is intended to act as informational support for the successful hosting of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.24 This is a very narrow purpose, but an important one as the hosting of these games can potentially accumulate soft power for the Russian Federation. Both organisations (RIAC and the Gorchakov Foundation) are located within the structure of the Foreign Ministry, and the Russian International Affairs Council is also associated with the Ministry of Education. The funding of these organisations comes from the state budget.

20 Anna Klyueva, Anna Mikhaylova, Building the Russian World: Cultural Diplomacy of the Russian Language and Cultural Identity, on https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317852716_Building_the_Russian_ World_Cultural_Diplomacy_of_the_Russian_Language_and_Cultural_Identity. accessed February 10, 2020. 21 Edward Lucas, Peter Pomeranzev, Winning the Information War, on https://cepa.ecms.pl/files/?id_plik=2706, accessed February 10, 2020. 22 Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Foundation, on https://gorchakovfund.ru/en/about/, accessed February 10, 2020. 23 Ibidem. 24 Ibidem.

33

Conclusions There are a number of current challenges facing Russian public diplomacy and consequently attempts to project a more positive image of Russia abroad. Russia still has a number of image problems, which is currently working on trying to resolve in rehabilitating its old and unwanted stereotypes and prejudices. The quest for being liked is proving to be difficult in spite of a lot of time, money and effort being spent on various programmes. There is seemingly little payback for this effort so far. Indeed, the term “soft power” was largely absent from official Russian foreign policy discourse. The 2013 Concept outlines the way in which Russia should react to changes occurring in the international relations environment, seen through meeting the challenges of a series of enumerated threats. Russia seeks to project itself as a positive force in international relations, and that it can contribute constructively to processes and events. The communicational approach relies on International Broadcasting assets to use the outdated method of passive one-way mass communication. Given the vast array of competing assets from other countries this is unlikely to prove to be very effective as the target audience can choose what and when they want to view/listen, and in fact if they want to. Relational approaches are gaining momentum, where the target audience is actively engaged in a joint value process. The use of NGOs and agencies (such as Rossotrudnichestvo) seek to build a relationship with their target publics through cultural and educational exchanges or humanitarian assistance. The network approach utilises modern information communication technologies and web-based social networks to reach out to and engage foreign publics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. *** Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID), Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, www.mid.ru/en/foreignpolicy/official_documents/-/asset publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/content/id/2542248. 2. *** Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/official_documents/- /asset_publisher/CptICkB6BZ29/content/id/122186. 3. Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Foundation https://gorchakov fund.ru/en/about/. 4. Dimitri Trenin, 20 Years of Vladimir Putin: How Russian Foreign Policy Has Changed, on https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/27/20-years-of-vladimir- putin-how-russian-foreign-policy-has-changed-a67043 5. Edward Lucas, Peter Pomeranzev, Winning the Information War https://cepa.ecms.pl/files/?id_plik=2706. 6. Giulio Gallarotti, Soft Power: What it is, Why it’s Important, and the Conditions Under Which it Can Be Effectively Used, https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/241737188_Soft_power_What_it_is_why_it's_important_and_the_ conditions_for_its_effective_use. 7. Greg Simons, Taking the new public diplomacy online: Russia and China, https://www.academia.edu/11522224/Taking_the_new_public_diplomacy_online_ Russia_and_China. 8. Gregory, Simons ,Nation Branding and Russian Foreign Policy https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nation-branding-and-russian-foreign-policy-1.

34

9. Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Pu blic_Diplomacy.pdf. 10. Klyueva, Anna, Mikhaylova, Anna. Building the Russian World: Cultural Diplomacy of the Russian Language and Cultural Identity, https://www. researchgate.net/publication/317852716_Building_the_Russian_World_Cultural_D iplomacy_of_the_Russian_Language_and_Cultural_Identity/citation/download. 12. Melissen, Jan The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Pu blic_Diplomacy.pdf. 13. Osipova, Yelena Russian Public Diplomacy New Russian Public Diplomacy: Conceptualization, Practice and Limitations, http://files.isanet.org/Conference Archive/d8f26c6d8298478ea6920dfaf0f3aed2.pdf. 14. Rossotrudnichestvo Foundation, http://rs.gov.ru/en/about. Sergey Lavrov “Russia’s Foreign Policy Philosophy” https://www.rusemb. org.uk/article/211.

35

THE VECTORS OF INFLUENTIAL COMMUNICATION IN RUSSIAN FEDERATION PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Andreia Mariana POP Ph.D. Student E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The main goal of public diplomacy is communication, the mechanisms include promoting dialogue between governments and people, widening international people-to-people contacts both with allied and adversarial countries, maintaining nation branding campaigns, strengthening governmental agencies that fit with the objectives of cultural diplomacy, advancing international broadcasting, and many more. Russia’s public diplomacy is no exception and its strategies are based on promoting national interests on the international stage. This paper work underlines the basic principles of communication and structural elements of Russian public diplomacy and highlights its distinct features as well as commonalities with other countries. Russia is communicating with the rest of the world by promoting a state narrative about its foreign policy, creating an image of the country, and explaining its worldview. Looking beyond public diplomacy, an understanding of the methods, practices and structure of the whole spectrum of Russian public diplomacy is required to further contrast and compare it with the full range of public diplomacy practices used by others. Keywords: communication, strategy, public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, cultural diplomacy.

Russian System of Communication on Public Diplomacy In the decades after the Cold War, Russia has struggled to give voice to its post-Soviet status within the international community. As part of his new realism approach, President Vladimir Putin aimed to redefine Russia as a global leader through various international public diplomacy efforts. Some observers describe Russia’s public diplomacy strategy as twofold. Russia has taken advantage of technology and available media in ways that would have been inconceivable during the Cold War. Its tools and channels now include the Internet, social media, and the evolving landscape of professional and amateur journalism and media outlets.1 Russian system of communication on public diplomacy has high numbers of channels and messages and a shameless willingness to disseminate partial truths or outright fictions. It is also rapid, continuous, and repetitive, and it lacks commitment to consistency.2 Several of these features run directly counter to the conventional wisdom on effective influence and communication from government or defence sources, which traditionally emphasize the importance of truth, credibility, and the avoidance of contradiction.3 Russian public diplomacy products are produced in incredibly large volumes and are broadcast or otherwise distributed via a large number of channels. These products comprise text, video, audio, and still imagery products via the Internet, social media, satellite television,

1 Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, accessed February 10, 2020, on http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Public_Diplomacy.pdf, p. 29. 2 Paul Christopher, Miriam Matthews, The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It on https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html. p. 8, accessed February 10, 2020. 3 Paul Christopher, Miriam Matthews, An insight into the Russian propaganda model and solutions to it, on http://mena-studies.org/an-insight-into-the-russian-propaganda-model-and-solutions-to-it/, pp.11-14, accessed February 10, 2020.

36

and traditional radio and television broadcasting.4 The producers and disseminators include a substantial force of paid Internet “trolls” who also often attack or undermine views or information that runs counter to Russian themes, doing so through online chat rooms, discussion forums, and comments sections on news and other websites. To achieve success in disseminating propaganda, a variety of sources must be used: Multiple sources are more persuasive than a single source, especially if those sources contain different arguments that point to the same conclusion; Receiving the same or similar message from multiple sources is more persuasive; People assume that information from multiple sources is likely to be based on different perspectives and is thus worth greater consideration.5 In online forums, comments attacking a proponent’s expertise or trustworthiness diminish credibility and decrease the likelihood that readers will take action based on what they have read. The experimental psychology literature suggests that, all other things being equal, messages received in greater volume and from more sources will be more persuasive.6 Quantity does indeed have a quality of its own. High volume can deliver other benefits that are relevant for the Russian public diplomacy. First, high volume can consume the attention and other available bandwidth of potential audiences, drowning out competing messages. Second, high volume can overwhelm competing messages in a flood of disagreement. Third, multiple channels increase the chances that target audiences are exposed to the message. Fourth, receiving a message via multiple modes and from multiple sources increases the message’s perceived credibility, especially if a disseminating source is one with which an audience member identifies.7

Russian Public Diplomacy Products Features Russian strategy of communication is continuous and very responsive to events. Russian representants do not need to wait to check facts or verify claims; they just disseminate an interpretation of emergent events that appears to best favour their themes and objectives. This allows them to be remarkably responsive and nimble, often broadcasting the first “news” of events (and, with similar frequency, the first news of non-events, or things that have not actually happened)8. They will also repeat and recycle disinformation. The experimental psychology literature tells us that first impressions are very resilient: An individual is more likely to accept the first information received on a topic and then favour this information when faced with conflicting messages9. Furthermore, repetition leads to familiarity, and familiarity leads to acceptance: - repeated exposure to a statement has been shown to increase its acceptance as true;

4 Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, p.35, on http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Public_Diplomacy.pdf, accessed February 10, 2020. 5 2018 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting, p.17, on https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2018-ACPD.pdf, accessed February 10, 2020. 6 Jonathan Stray, Defence Against the Dark Arts: Networked Propaganda and Counter-Propaganda, on https://medium.com/tow-center/defence-against-the-dark-arts-networked-propaganda-and-counter- propaganda-deb7145aa76a, accessed February 10, 2020. 7 Paul Christopher, Miriam Matthews, The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It, on https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html, accessed February 10, 2020. 8 Paul Christopher, Miriam Matthews, Defending against Russian Propaganda, on https://sk.sagepub.com/books/the-sage-handbook-of-propaganda/i2587.xml, accessed February 10, 2020 9 Hans Hoeken, Jos Hornikx & Yvette Linders, The Importance and Use of Normative Criteria to Manipulate Argument Quality, Journal of Advertising, on https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ full/10.1080/00913367.2019.1663317, accessed February 15, 2020.

37

- the “illusory truth effect” is well documented, whereby people rate statements as more truthful, valid, and believable when they have encountered those statements previously than when they are new statements; - when people are less interested in a topic, they are more likely to accept familiarity brought about by repetition as an indicator that the information (repeated to the point of familiarity) is correct; - when processing information, consumers may save time and energy by using a frequency heuristic, that is, favouring information they have heard more frequently; - even with preposterous stories and urban legends, those who have heard them multiple times are more likely to believe that they are true; - if an individual is already familiar with an argument or claim (has seen it before, for example), they process it less carefully, often failing to discriminate weak arguments from strong arguments. Experimental research in psychology suggests that the features of the contemporary Russian communication model in public diplomacy has the potential to be highly effective.10 Even those features that run counter to conventional wisdom on effective influence (e.g., the importance of veracity and consistency) receive some support in the literature. If the Russian approach on public diplomacy is effective, then what can be done about it? The first step is to recognize that this is a nontrivial challenge. Indeed, the very factors that make the firehose of falsehood effective also make it quite difficult to counter11: for example, the high volume and multitude of channels for Russian propaganda offer proportionately limited yield if one channel is taken off the air (or offline) or if a single misleading. The persuasive benefits that Russian representance gain from presenting the first version of events (which then must be dislodged by true accounts at much greater effort) could be removed if the true accounts were instead presented first. There are a number of organizations working together in order to influence public opinion. These organizations are summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Vectors of Communication in Russian Public Diplomacy

10 Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, on http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Public_Diplomacy.pdf, pp 35-38, accessed February 10, 2020. 11 Paul Christopher, Miriam Matthews, The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It, on https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html, accessed February 10, 2020.

38

The RIA Novosti agency is the official news organ of the Russian government. It created a subsidiary TV Novosti to operate “autonomously” apart from the government. The word “novosti” in Russian means “news”. TV Novosti then created Russia Today (RT) as another autonomous organization. Russia Today has a multi-layered structure. RIA Novosti (http://en.rian.ru/) a government owned news agency operates in some 45 countries in some 14 different languages.12 It positions itself as an objective source of information, “the main criteria of RIA Novosti’s information services were the combination of promptness, objectiveness, authenticity and its own opinion regardless of the political situation.” This media outlet delivers its news product in a format that is more easily recognised by foreign audiences, and does allow for some commentary on the news items that are posted on its website. By using the medium of the internet, RIA Novosti is able to send out uniform messages to a large potential audience.13 The radio station Voice of Russia’s (VOR) ) predecessor (Radio Moscow) began broadcasting in 1922. Radio Moscow was renamed in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The radio station broadcasts to 160 countries around the world in 38 different languages. VOR claims to have some 109 million listeners in those 160 countries14. In terms of mission statement, VOR states that it is to “acquaint the international community with the life of Russia, its point of view on events in the world, and to enhance the positive image of Russia in the world, effective dialogue with compatriots abroad to promote the popularisation of Russian culture and the Russian language.” Both of these media outlets have a virtual (internet and social media) as well as a physical presence. A third approach to public diplomacy is to create and use a network. It allows for building relationships and for individual interaction. What is being referred to as digital diplomacy (the term innovative diplomacy is used by the Foreign Ministry), involves the use of information and communication technologies to influence public opinion. Currently the Russian Foreign Ministry has some 70 official accounts on Twitter.15 Brian Fung, editor of The Atlantic, stated that “digital diplomacy is good for at least two not widely publicised purposes: gathering intelligence from open sources and influencing public opinion in foreign countries to set the scene for future diplomatic clashes.” The intelligence assessment is that these organizations are not independent of the Russian government; that they follow the Kremlin “line”, and this is confirmed with quotes from the head of Russia Today. Russia Today changed its name to “RT” because it was felt it would appeal to a larger audience. RT is the most frequently viewed foreign news channel in the United Kingdom. RT operates in the United States a commercial news entity as a stand- alone news organization. This organization then hires westerners to act as reporters. This is the multi-layered structure. Sputnik News - named after the world’s first satellite to orbit the earth, the technology that launched the “space race”, Sputnik News seems to have the same structure. The report is not clear if it is sponsored by TV Novosti or RIA Novosti or through some other mechanism. Nevertheless, Sputnik news operates in a way similar to RT. There is also a Sputnik Radio

12 Comments on “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”, on https://cyberarmscontrolblog.com/2017/01/08/comments-on-assessing-russian-activities-and-intentions-in- recent-us-elections/ accessed February 15, 2020. 13 Greg Simons, Russian public diplomacy in the 21st century: Structure, means and message, on https://www.academia.edu/6573604/Russian_public_diplomacy_in_the_21st_century_Structure_means_and_me ssage, accessed February 15, 2020. 14 Mark Winek, Radio as a Tool of the State: Radio Moscow and the Early Cold War, on https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=chr, accessed February 15, 2020. 15 Olubukola Adesina, Foreign policy in an era of digital diplomacy. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), on https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1297175, accessed February 15, 2020.

39

network. The important point is that both channels broadcast the opinions of the Kremlin. News, therefore, is not journalism in the common sense of the news as theoretically found in the United States or Europe, but instead is viewed as being an instrument of state power. These Russian entities operate somewhat like the Chinese XinHua, or the Voice of America, or France 24, or Radio France International (FRI), or the BBC, or Deutsche Welle. All of these are government sponsored news outlets. Internet Research Agency is an organization that is said to deploy armies of Internet Trolls. In Russia, these are called “Web Brigades”. Trolls are persons who use assumed names to monitor news media websites as well as social media for the purpose of expressing opinions that follow the party line. For example, if it is decided that Hillary Clinton is not a favourite of Russia, then the trolls operate to insert negative Hillary comments in as many news outlets around the world as possible. Anyone who participates in online discussions through major news media web sites is familiar with this army of commentators, but we must mention Russia is not the only country doing this. RT and Sputnik are the Russian version of similar government-supported news channels found elsewhere. They have been effective in getting their message across. In terms of the US election, it is not known how many Americans read Sputnik (probably not very many), or how many watch RT (compared to other media, probably not very many). Therefore, it is difficult to know if there was any substantial effect on the election. The Internet trolls may have had an effect, and may have been used to pump up and disseminate fake news, but no one seems to have measured this. After all, it is not possible definitively to identify the trolls.16

Conclusions As it was presented above the main goal of public diplomacy is communication, while the mechanisms include promoting dialogue between governments and people, widening international people-to-people contacts both with allied and adversarial countries, maintaining nation branding campaigns, strengthening governmental agencies that fit with the objectives of cultural diplomacy, advancing international broadcasting, and many more. The vectors of communication of Russian Federation in public diplomacy are diverse, fast, multifunctional and continuous. The Internet (especially the social media) no doubt has transformed the international community today. It has become an unquestionable channel for diplomatic communication and has altered the practice of diplomacy. Public diplomacy brings with it both opportunities and challenges. Through public diplomacy, Russia is communicating with the rest of the world by promoting a state narrative about its foreign policy, underlying intentions, creating an image of the country, and explaining its worldview. Russian public diplomacy is perceived to be one of the most controversial tools of Russian foreign policy. Through social media and international broadcasting (RT, RIA Novosti, etc.), Russia has proven capable of impacting world politics by exploiting provocative information. Since implementing public diplomacy, Russia has successfully identified target audiences for effective informational campaigns. The communicational approach has been inexistent for some time, seeing its Hay Day during the Cold War. It is diminished in its effectiveness, yet it is unlikely to completely disappear from the public diplomacy scene. Relational and network approaches to public diplomacy seem to gain much more attraction and popularity. Their proactive and interactive properties make them potentially more effective in influencing target publics.

16 Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution, on https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf, accessed February 15, 2020.

40

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. 2018 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2018-ACPD.pdf 2. Adesina Olubukola, Foreign policy in an era of digital diplomacy. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1297175. 3. Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution, https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf. 4. Christopher Paul, Matthews Miriam, Defending against Russian Propaganda, https://sk.sagepub.com/books/the-sage-handbook-of-propaganda/i2587.xml . 5. Christopher Paul, Matthews Miriam, The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html. 6. Comments on “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” https://cyberarmscontrolblog.com/2017/01/08/comments-on-assessing-russian- activities-and-intentions-in-recent-us-elections/. 7. Hoeken Hans, Hornikx Jos, Linders Yvette, The Importance and Use of Normative Criteria to Manipulate Argument Quality, Journal of Advertising, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00913367.2019.1663317. 8. Melissen, Jan The New Public Diplomacy Soft Power in International Relations, http://culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/soft_power/The_New_Pu blic_Diplomacy.pdf. 9. Simons Greg, Russian public diplomacy in the 21st century: Structure, means and message,https://www.academia.edu/6573604/Russian_public_ diplomacy_in_the_21st_century_Structure_means_and_message. 10. Stray, Jonathan Defence Against the Dark Arts: Networked Propaganda and Counter-Propaganda, https://medium.com/tow-center/defence-against-the-dark- arts-networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda-deb7145aa76a. 11. Winek Mark, Radio as a Tool of the State: Radio Moscow and the Early Cold War https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=chr

41

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN PROVIDING BASIC STEPS FOR LIFE SECURITY: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SOCIAL COHESION

Olga Carmen BĂLĂNESCU Lecturer, The University of Bucharest, The Faculty of Communication and PR [email protected]

Abstract: The present paper approaches one major issue nowadays, the concern regarding strategic changes in security and international relations: the necessary mechanisms of providing environment protection and social cohesion, which turn out to be essential living conditions. There are numerous concerns for all the members of our society: climate changes, global warming, soil, water and air pollution, food crises on the globe, which represent aspects of our everyday life security. By correlating the methods belonging to both quantitative and qualitative research, we could obtain: exact data (distributing the questionnaire, namely the quantitative research), and personal attitudes (applying the qualitative research). The present article is made up of five parts: introduction, methodology, literature review, case study and conclusions, accompanied by limitations and recommendations. The article is meant to point out the most significant communication strategies necessary for building social cohesion. Keywords: environment protection, social cohesion, life security, social campaigns, trainers.

Introduction At first sight, one might be astonished by the dichotomic relationship between life sciences (among which agriculture, biology, bio-economy) and communication sciences. Their common point is the human being, the active and dynamic subject of all the activities in connection with the above mentioned disciplines. Regardless of the domain, man communicates with his fellows to improve his daily living conditions, and develop his personality. A scientist is expected to be able to communicate the results of his research as well as common people should be able to express their feelings, ideas, needs. They should all be able to express their communicative intention1. Man, as a social being, plays a triple role: he is the adjuster, the producer and the consumer at the same time. We shall focus our attention upon the adjusting function which helps him control both what he produces and also what he consumes. The adjusting function can be accomplished through public opinion, which emerges from media information.

Methodology In the present study, we have used methods belonging to both the quantitative and qualitative research, according to the set objective. When we intended to obtain exact and objective information (such as the insurance of consumer protection and food security) we used the objective methods of quantitative research. Thus we used a questionnaire for a pre- determined number of respondents (50 persons), different in terms of age, sex, profession, schooling and instruction. We selected an equal number of representatives for every category. The respondents were asked to answer the questions and we have evaluated their answers on a scale from 1 to 10. The respondents received the questionnaire in crowded public places (squares, markets, supermarkets, underground stations) both before and after the

1 Horea Mihai, Bădău, Tehnici de comunicare în social media, Editura Polirom, Collegium, Relații publice și publicitate, Iași, 2011.

42

dissemination of the information to be given to the public. It is requested that this method should be applied both before and after informing the consumers in order to notice the efficiency of the procedure. Here are the questions of our questionnaire: 1. What does the environment represent for you? 2.Do you trust the food you consume? 3. As a consumer, do you think you are protected by anyone? 4.Which are your consumer rights? 5. How do you spend your spare time? 6. Can communication sciences improve the quality of your life? 7. How would you define “the quality of life”? 8. Do you think you need more knowledge in order to understand this concept? 9. How can the environment be protected? 10. Do you think “social cohesion” could improve the quality of your life? 11. Which do you think is the most efficient way of achieving better results regarding environment protection and social cohesion: the news programs, shows, kids channels, extra-curricular school activities or social campaign? 12. Can TV cartoons educate kids to protect the environment? 13. Can extra- curricular school activities educate the young generation in the spirit of environment protection? We have also used methods from qualitative research: the case study. We have analyzed the ways mentioned above in point of their impact upon different types of public. We have also chosen a representative social campaign focused on environmental protection and analyzed it in terms of its efficiency: the structure of the message (both at visual and discourse levels), the persuasive strategies used by the advertiser. The qualitative research helped us emphasize the real function of our aim: offering information to the consumers regarding the necessity of protecting the environment and building a strong social cohesion.

Literature review This information can be offered in the following ways: - flyers distributed in crowded public places; - highly visible street banners; - news bulletins; - commentaries performed during certain events (harvest time, a picnic in the forest, natural disasters, like earthquakes, fires, etc.) The first two methods belong to social campaigns which can be considered the moral barometer of any society, as commercial campaigns can be viewed as the financial barometer of the respective social community2. We suggest that a social campaign should be launched in order to offer consumers the necessary information about green eco-education and environmental protection. This campaign should be based on the theory of minimal involvement 3. According to this theory, the receiver of the message is not interested in getting any new information. Yet the emitter will send it to him, in spite of his lack of interest. Moreover, the emitter (the advertiser) will make his receiver (the consumer) accept his message due to the above mentioned theory. The message will be frequently repeated until the receiver memorizes it. Thus, even if the ordinary consumer does not need any information regarding the green eco-education, he will finally receive it through the AIDA PRINCIPLE (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action): information will enter his mind without his will.4 There are lots of concern issues for our society: climate changes, global warming, pollution, food crises. By correlating the methods belonging to quantitative and qualitative research, we looked for results such as exact data (quantitative research), and personal attitudes (qualitative research).

2 Jen Green, Advertising, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011. 3 Shirley Biagi, Media Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, Boston, USA, 2013. 4 Gilles Ferreol; Noel Flageul, Metode și tehnici de exprimare scrisă și orală, Editura Polirom, Iași, 2007.

43

Results Public opinion stems from news reports, running commentaries, extra-curricular school activities and social campaigns for environmental protection. The news programs are a proof of the most important function media should play within our society: the educative function.5 In TV news we find a certain discourse register and a certain semiotic context (which set every TV channel distinct).6 The news reports should also contain events from agriculture, medicine, biology, namely information meant to emphasize the importance of biodiversity nowadays. The language of these messages should be accessible so as the public could understand it. The referential function of the language is thus developed.7 Anyway, the metalinguistic function is also present as the sender will explain the specialized terms for the whole public to understand the message.8 We have noticed that news reports are mostly watched by people over 45 years old. The running commentaries The visual element of the discourse has a stronger impact upon the public by comparison with the textual one. This is why the images that accompany any commentary will impress the public more than words. The AIDA principle is thus activated. The running commentaries will introduce the event: in the orchard of a farmer, during harvesting, in the middle of a green eco-farm, or during a disastrous fire, like the latest one in Australia. A friendly relationship between the consumer and the referential subject is thus created, which enables the message to have a stronger impact upon the public. The impact of Internet news is to be considered, too. Thus, people all around the world decided on the 20th of January, this year, to pray for the victims in Australia (both people and animals) and to help them. It worked: many countries offered to send humanitarian help to Australia. This is the way consumers will feel closer to nature, directly involved in the natural process of production. Both structural components will equally be developed: the affective and the informational one (see question 11 in our questionnaire).

Table 1: Education of Public Opinion

Means 18-25 years old 25-35 years old 35-45 years old Over 45 News program 2% 8% 20% 70% Running 20% 25% 25% 30% commentaries

Kids Channels The dissemination of information regarding environmental protection should start by targeting the youngest members of our social community: the children. The young will be more receptive when receiving information on the channels they regularly watch. They will not feel under compulsion to adopt a new attitude regarding environmental protection. All our subjects have declared that they can watch a child directly, either because it is their son/daughter, or because there is a child in their family (nephew, niece, grandson, grand- daughter, cousin, etc). All of our subjects were in favour of changing violent cartoons with educational ones. After investigating the market, specialists have drawn the conclusion that

5 Horea, Mihai, Bădău, Tehnici de comunicare în social media, Editura Polirom, Collegium, Relații publice și publicitate, Iași, 2011. 6 Andrews, Brad, How to Land a Top-Paying Advertising, Marketing, Promotions and Sales Managers Job, Emero Pty Ltd Publishing House, California, USA, 2009. 7 Horea, Mihai, Bădău, op.cit.. 8 Ibidem.

44

kids channels could be used as a perfect media for implementing brands: children will start asking questions about that specific product, which will make grown ups interested in it.9 Extra-curricular School Activities Many actions which involve a high care for the environment may be introduced in the extra-curricular school activities: children can be taught how to grow plants and take care of them, the importance of nature in our everyday lives, how to protect plants against different insects. It is also necessary that the young generation should develop computer skills as the Internet is a fast and convenient means of information. Youngsters are eager to find out new aspects of the issues they are interested in and the Internet may offer the clues they need. Yet, they should expand their knowledge through books and specialized magazines. In understanding the necessity of protecting the environment, they will take serious steps in monitoring the quality of their own lives. The following indicators of life quality are to be presented and explained to youngsters: the importance of man`s health and food security; the importance of observing human rights; the importance of defending animals’ right to life; the importance of food security. Thus the education of the young generation in the spirit of ensuring the quality of life could be differently achieved depending on the age of the public. Questions 12 and 13 made the respondents answer according to their age. We have been impressed to see that our young respondents (18 – 25 years old) are very close to nature and consider that a trip to the country side or to the mountains can contribute to achieving a green eco-education, unlike the adults (over 45 years old) who considered that a discussion with a scientist may help the young generation come closer to nature. Table 2: The extra-curricular school activities Type of activity 18-25 years old 25-35 years old 35-45 years old Over 45 Trips to the 63% 17% 15% 5% country-side Trips to the 73% 20% 5% 2% mountains Visiting natural 6% 17% 19% 58% museums Discussions 2% 11% 15% 18% (with specialists, scientists)

Social campaigns for Environmental Protection We have decided to address social campaigns at the end because we have considered them to be the most important in educating public opinion. Social campaigns can be viewed as the barometer of the moral quality of life within a social community. The target of such campaigns is the entire society, by comparison with commercial campaigns and political campaigns which appeal to specific public categories. In 2010, The National Administration ”Apele Române” launched an interesting social campaign for educating the public to protect the environment. The campaign had the following slogan: ”Let us keep the waters clean”. They use a direct verbal message giving advice to their public - the whole civil society. Moreover, they included themselves in the same category (”us”) and created the impression that both the sender and consumer share the

9 Merry Baskin; Judie Lannon, A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King, Edit.Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2013.

45

same value: a healthy life. 10 A social campaign usually has a formal register as the issue at stake is a problem of great interest for the whole society. 11 A social campaign may be focused on aspects such as: domestic violence, drugs, regular medical exams, natural disasters, traffic accidents, etc., being meant to correct these negative aspects of life or to find ways of solving them by fund raising. Thus, the message of a social campaign is generally meant to impress the public. Our chosen campaign is an unusual one. And we have selected it on purpose. It has a joyful register, the social actor plays the role of a close friend of the consumer since a piece of advice is more easily taken when it comes in friendly terms.12 The advertiser has an ironical register. They want to penalize the negative attitudes of throwing litter during picnics. But the heckling is friendly, as the advertiser wants the consumer to correct his actions willingly. The message is written13 as in a biology atlas, pretending to describe a new animal species. Here is the text: MeDOZA is a metal and unuseful animal which lives in the shallow waters around barbecue areas. Unlike all the known animal species, it does not have any natural enemies, populating 7140 square km of Romanian waters. If you see it just fish it, and throw it away into a garbage can. The text is based on a lexical innovation: the advertiser has created a new word (medoza) as a combination of the two already existing Romanian words: meduza, doza. The technique reminds us of the well-known British word smog which is a combination of smoke and fog. Taking into consideration the recent dramatic events in Australia, we consider that a new campaign to educate the public is necessary. Its main objective should be to present the necessity of preserving the green eco capital of our country: soil, nature and water. Policymakers should take action against irrational deforestation that endangers the health of humans and wildlife, which can cause large fires. Affecting the life of wild animals causes disturbance of the eco-system, which will sooner or later affect human life. On the other hand, ordinary people should be aware of the dangers they face when, for the sake of fun in the middle of nature, they have a barbecue in the woods. The sparks may rise high into the sky and the fire cannot be extinguished immediately. The situation could get out of control and a beautifully planned day may turn into a drama. Correlating these data, local city councils should responsibly arrange grill sites in the forest. We have wonderful landscapes, but we have not seen such places except those in Predeal, on the famous royal promenade, Poliștoaca. Opinion makers In preparing efficient opinion makers, a special attention should be given to communication sciences, cultural anthropology, and complexity science. Although complexity science is more than 25 years old, it is not well-known yet. A possible cause is that it requires from those who approach this field (Complexity) a serious change of perspective over "real life", namely a "holistic" (global, contextual, integrated) approach. This new perspective is different from the "reductionist" one, which is specific to the current paradigm nowadays. In other words, the poor dissemination of this new science is due not only to the novelty of the information itself, namely: fractal geometry, chaos theory, synergy, or genetic algorithms, etc., but also due to the perspective from which issues must be viewed: integrated. Man could now build a confortable life on the basis of scientific knowledge regarding the Universe. The opinion makers must take into consideration the principles of bio-ethics. Moreover, civil society should be informed about the indicators of life quality: living

10 Olga Bălănescu, Reclama românească, Editura Ariadna , Bucureşti, 2010. 11 Miriam,Sorrentino, Creative Advertising , Lawrence King Publishing, Boston, USA, 2014. 12 Ibidem. 13 Ferreol, Gilles, Flageul, Noel, Metode și tehnici de exprimare scrisă și orală, Editura Polirom, Iași, 2007.

46

standards, health, life security, the degree of social interaction, observing human rights, man- made environment vs. natural environment.

Conclusions and limitations Our study presents only several aspects involved in the interaction between communication sciences and biodiversity sciences in ensuring the quality of life. More details should be available about the areas necessary for training an opinion-maker (complexity science, communication science) or about the territorial capital of a community. We can only hope that our research could become a starting point for further investigation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Andrews, Brad, How to Land a Top-Paying Advertising, M arketing, Promotions and Sales Managers Job, Emero Pty Ltd Publishing House, California, USA, 2009. 2. Bădău, Horea Mihai, Tehnici de comunicare în social media, Editura Polirom, Collegium, Relații publice și publicitate, Iași, 2011. 3. Bălănescu, Olga, Reclama românească, Editura Ariadna, Bucureşti, 2010. 4. Baskin, Merry, Lannon, Judie, A Master Class in Brand Planning: The Timeless Works of Stephen King, Edit.Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2013. 5. Biagi, Shirley, Media Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, Boston, USA, 2013. 6. Elad, Joel, Dunay, Paul, Krueger, Richard, Facebook Advertising For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons Ltd Publishing House, Boston, USA, 2010. 7. Ferreol, Gilles, Flageul, Noel, Metode și tehnici de exprimare scrisă și orală, Editura Polirom, Iași, 2007. 8. Green, Jen, Advertising, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011. 9. Information Today, Inc.Staff, Information Today Inc, AV Market Place, R.R.Brwker Company, 2010. 10. Sorrentino, Miriam, Creative Advertising , Lawrence King Publishing, Boston, USA, 2014.

47

THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN TIMES OF MODERN DISINFORMATION BEST PRACTICES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Dana SÎRBU Ph.D Student, “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy [email protected]

Abstract: Disinformation is a threat to liberal democracy because it undermines citizens' confidence in electoral processes, contributing largely to deepening social cleavages by spreading distorted data and information. Given the recent events in the European and Western space, as well as the various accusations made to the Russian Federation for involvement in the internal affairs of the states, we consider it necessary to initiate and amplify the measures to counteract these activities. Thus, the premise from which this article starts is that the effects and impact of disinformation on a state can be counteracted and minimized by intensifying the strategic communication activity carried out by the authorized institutions of the state, while strengthening their reputation and legitimacy. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the counter measures that have been suggested in the literature, and to extract the best practices and recommendations for the strategic communication’s level. Also, the article highlights the role of communicators and how they may respond to this type of threat. Keywords: disinformation, strategic communication, government.

Introduction Strategic communication is the ability to use verbal, non-verbal and paraverbal language in a communicative mechanism aimed both at making the message rationally understood, and at making it feel emotionally, as sometimes also happens in the context of political communication. On the other side, disinformation is defined by the European Commission as ”a series of verifiable or misleading information that is created, presented and disseminated in order to gain economic gain or to deliberately mislead the public and which may cause public harm. Disinformation does not include error reporting, satire and parody, or partisan news and comments clearly identified as such”1. The purpose of disinformation is to distract and divide, to plant the seeds of doubt by distorting and falsifying facts, creating confusion among people and weakening their confidence in institutions and in established political processes. The constant, fast dissemination flow in the information environment, enabled by current technological advances and media sharing techniques, requires a quick reaction, active processes and capacities to preserve and improve the credibility and authority of the governments around the world. The communication capacity of today considerably increase the impact and tempo of change in external and domestic public opinion and the succeeding influence on activities of the Governments. Adversaries are not limited in this context, unencumbered by classic processes, and unconcerned about mandatory legal, moral or ethical constraints under which the democratic states perform. Authoritarian regimes have successfully used the information sphere to move forward their objectives and undermine the credibility of democratic institutions. In this context, in order to address such challenges associated with the information environment, an entire body of literature regarding strategic communication has emerged. The

1 European Commission, Communication on Tackling Online Disinformation, available at https://eur- lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52018DC0236, accesed February 26, 2020.

48

definition of strategic communication refers to ”efforts to understand and engage key audiences to create, strengthen, or preserve conditions favorable for the advancement of interests, policies, and objectives through the use of coordinated programs, plans, themes, messages, and products synchronized with the actions of all instruments of national power”2. Moreover, and more accurately, effective strategic communication needs synchronization of essential themes, images, messages and actions combined with other strategic activities. Recently, strategic communication is seen as priority of any government. This derives from the assumption that influence is the fundamental goal of communication of the government and its agencies. In 2006, Quadrennial Defence Review identified strategic communication as one of five specific “areas of particular emphasis” elementary to the departments of defence capacity to address a hostile environment “characterized by uncertainty and surprise.” Also, in the same publication, the authors highlighted the importance of strategic communication by affirming that departments of defence “must instill communication assessments and processes into its culture”3. A strategic communication plan needs to be complemented by some elements related to messaging activities. The construction of the message needs to include special attention for resonance with the audience, but the way in which message is delivered to the public can also significantly deform, obstruct, or facilitate reception by the key-audience. Selection of the appropriate way to deliver the message can be quite complex and must consider message essence, desired audience impact, opposition and other factors. Timing of the message is essential for many reasons, including synergy with other messages or events, perceptiveness of the audience, impulse, audience motivation and expectations, and also stimulus reaction patterns. Factors that determine the timing window seldom contain audience social or cultural expectations, motivation, the understanding of personal impact and timing of other important messages. Time of message delivery can straightly affect how the public decides to take action. A perpetual repetition of a specific message can be perceived by the audience over time as a background noise.

Recommendations for Public Authorities Developing and improving government strategic communications it is a must taking in consideration the threats posed by 21st century disinformation activities. For instance, in the U.S, there are discussions regarding the reconstruction of the U.S. Information Agency, an organization abandoned after the end of the Cold War. A bill promoted by Senators Rob Portman and Chris Murphy calls for the construction of an interagency “Center for Information Analysis and Response,” a smaller and more flexible response4. The organization could analyze disinformation activities; create an agenda for the integration of critical data into national strategy; advance, plan and harmonize a response across different government frames that would expose disinformation, and pro-actively advance fact-based narratives.5 Also, public authorities should take into consideration several practices like: Creating, building and promoting a good relation with the public sector when there is no crisis; Using an appropriate language and form of communication that invites to peaceful dialogue and debate, to build trust; Paying specific attention to public agenda to see is being discussed and

2 Department of Defence, Strategic Communication, Joint Integrating Concept, October 2009, p. B-10, available at https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/Doctrine/concepts/jic_strategiccommunications.pdf?ver=2017-12- 28-162005-353, accessed in February 26, 2020. 3 Quadrennial Defence Review Report, available at https://archive.defence.gov/pubs/pdfs/QDR20060203.pdf, pp. 91-92. 4 For more information, see http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/3/portman-murphy- introduce-bill-to-counter-foreigngovernment-propaganda, last accesed February 26, 2020. 5 For more information, see https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2692/text for more information on the “Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016” bill, last accesed February 26, 2020.

49

to discover potential crises; Quickly respond to questions and remove inappropriate news or comments; Focusing on several channels to communicate important events. People's media and communication habits are constantly changing, but the changes that are happening right now are faster and more pervasive than ever before. People's media usage has changed significantly over the past fifteen years and is more divided into different platforms. As the studies shows, traditional TV, radio and newspaper reading have declined since 2000, while Internet use has increased dramatically over the same period. The development in the media field has led to the concept of new media or social media and above all the Internet has a lot of new channels and platforms added. The boundaries between different types of media have become clearer and the interaction between them increasingly important. For example, something that has been shared many times on Facebook can be multiplicated by many thousands of people in social media. The actual context of communication represents a challenge for authorities and other social actors. The development of technology and the rapid changes of the media market has fundamentally affected the conditions for media reporting the various types of crises. The "live" monitoring increases reporting speed and is an essential part of the online publication that characterizes media reporting on crises. Whenever a dramatic event occurs, direct reporting is usually the rule, regardless the subject. New technology has also enabled people to access fast reporting regardless of where they are. This development can involve both opportunities and threats. Live reporting can be crucial for many people in an emergency, but expectations of immediate publication can also increase the risk of mistakes because of difficulties in quickly verifying data. On the other hand, slower reporting can contribute to erroneous information and rumor spreading in other channels, for example in social media. Authorities can help create an accurate picture of the crisis by providing the media with continuous updates, even though the authorities do not have all details of the events. The modern crisis of communication from an authority perspective places great demands on the balance between the importance of being available and conveying as much relevant information as possible about what has happened, and, on the other hand, being restrained with information that makes a reliable crisis communication more difficult in the longer term. Of course, it is not only the media that is affected by the development of media technology, but also the authorities and citizens. All actors can communicate in real time in different channels, which in the same way creates both opportunities and problems. Collecting messages and coordinated communication within - or between - authorities is a strength in a crisis situation and can make crisis management more effective. At the same time, the speed and presence in different channels demands greater resources and the risk of conflicting messages is likely to increase under time pressure and with more publishing channels. A similar argument can be made regarding the use of mass media by people. Widespread connectivity and mobile use make it easier to reach people. But the wide range of media also makes it less likely that everyone is reached by the same message at the same time. In the digital media environment, in practice, everyone also acts as both producers and consumers of information, which further complicates an overall picture of a crisis of communication. However, effective communication is not impossible in the digitized society. The prerequisites for achieving success for authorities are to a significant extent about doing the right things even before the crisis. It is important to be on digital media platforms and build trusting relationships with the public at an early stage. What is often forgotten, more or less subconsciously, is that such a strategic presence in social media requires considerable resources in the form of knowledgeable staff. The right expertise must be found, both in the current subject area and in the current media platforms. Too often, communication in social media is left to the youngest and less experienced employees in an authority's

50

communications department. They are often the most used to these media, but at the same time less experienced when it comes to communicate the right message at the right time. However, all successful strategic communication does not depend on the actions of the authorities, but also on the ability to adapt the efforts to the behavior of the media users. Of course, it is crucial that the channels are really used where most people are. The new media has the largest audience and is very important in crises. They also enjoy the highest public confidence, especially in comparison to social media, but also in relation to the government's own websites. At the same time, the public's media habits are gradually changing and those planning the communication process must relate to the fact that social media channels already have a very strong position among younger age groups, and that the position of these media is likely to become even more important in the future. A successful communication in the future is not so much about a single solution that suits everyone, but about the ability to coordinate the communicative efforts effectively and combine different media channels in the best way. Rapid media development and fragmented media use remain two major challenges for specialists of crisis communicators. It requires innovation and flexibility, an active interaction between authorities, news media and social media in order to consolidate confidence in social institutions even under great stress and disruption. Strategic communication is of enormous importance in supporting the implementation of national strategies, in protecting, restoring, maintaining and achieving permanent national goals and interests, finding an efficient method in counteracting asymmetrical conflicts and hybrid wars. Thus, strategic communication is seen as an integral part of the state's efforts to achieve its political, economic, social, security and defence objectives. Strategic communication becomes confusing when perceived as a simple effort to achieve social or marketing communication.

The objectives, purpose and key components of STRATCOM Strategic communication can be labeled with different functions, both with reference to the mechanism for coordinating the communication actions of the government and to the communication activities. The authors of the report prepared by the NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communication ”Hybrid threats: the perspective of strategic communication” suggest that the notion of StratCom can be treated as a common mentality, but also as a process and capabilities.6 A similar definition is often used by specialists in the field and reflected in a 2011 Chatham House report, in which strategic communications are described as finding ”a systematic series of sustained and coherent activities, conducted at the strategic, operational and tactical levels, that allow the target audience to understand and identify efficient channels for promoting and understanding certain types of behavior ”.7 If we start from the definition of strategic communication in the field of Defence described in the specialized literature, in which we talk about the basis of the broad concept of strategic communication and its fixation within the purposes, modes and means, by: promoting the national interests (goals) by using the means of communication in the field of Defence (means) and infusion of human perceptions and behaviors (modes), then the basic characteristics of StratCom will focus on: a. Promoting national interests; b. Ensure that all words, images and actions send a message; c. Influence human perceptions and behaviors.

6 Hybrid Threats: A Strategic Communications Perspective NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom COE), available at https://www.stratcomcoe.org/hybrid-threats-strategic- communications-perspective, accesed February 27, 2020. 7 Strategic Communications and National Strategy Paul Cornish, Julian Lindley-French and Claire Yorke A Chatham House Report September 2011.

51

At national level, StratCom has two goals and values. On the one hand, to strengthen the nation through the inspired, sustainable and strategic common idea, as a platform for long- term strategy and national strategic objectives. Likewise, cooperation and cohesion in achieving strategic goals at the governmental and societal levels can be strengthened. Strategic communication can contribute to the success of public policy actions and strategies, i.e.: ensuring that the actions of the policies/projects are realistic, appropriate to the security and information environment, cultural, social and political conditions, efficient perceptions through awareness and understanding between the members/partners of the strategies/ programs and their beneficiaries. StratCom's key components are: leaders' commitments; communication strategy (transmission of messages); actions of the organizations involved in the implementation of the strategy (agents of the strategy); official diplomacy (government to government); public diplomacy (society to society); military diplomacy; international partnerships of security services; the public affairs of the Government and of the ministries; media operations; inter- departmental communications, etc. A successful strategic communication includes a vision, certain principles, but also objectives. Transparent and effective communication with citizens, social, economic and institutional partners of governments should be an essential part of any strategic communication plan. At the same time, the strategic communication must identify and develop a coherent message, specialized on each of the competences concerned (internal and external), disseminated to the public in an appropriate time. Externally, the objectives of the communication strategy in case of disinformation should include: Improving the public image of some institutions; Ensuring transparency by publishing and transmitting messages or information of public interest in a timely manner; Increased confidence in public opinion in the activity of public institutions. Internally, goals should refer to: Developing a solid constitutional culture; Increasing the degree of collaboration between the employees of public institutions; Dissemination among the public sector of the information on the public agenda related to the activity of the institutions, as well as with regard to the special events strongly publicized both in the online environment and on TV.

Specific objectives of the efficient communication strategy a) External communication - to inform the general public correctly and constantly about the role, significance and expected or obtained results; - to create and maintain a high degree of trust among the general public and potential beneficiaries in the transparency and fairness of the management process of the institutions' activity; - to communicate, using a terminology accessible to all, the procedures by which data and information can be requested regarding the events on the public agenda; - to constantly and correctly inform all target groups in cases of disinformation. b) Internal communication - to create and continuously improve the mechanism of coordination of communication activities; - to support a better understanding of the activities of the institutions and of the knowledge at individual level; - to create an effective internal information system common to all institutional departments.

52

Target groups for communication activities Actors involved - individuals, organizations and authorities involved in combating and countering disinformation or on which influence operations have an impact. • representatives of the business environment; • representatives of the academia and university environment; • central and local public authorities; • project promoters; • representatives of civil society; • groups affected or targeted by disinformation activities; • politicians. The large public: the population; leaders and influencers. Potential beneficiaries: public administration; business environment; non- governmental organizations (NGOs); academia / public sector. Internal audience: employees from the other institutions involved New Media and Traditional Media: Audio-visual (TV, radio, Internet); Written (at national, regional, local level).

Communication channels Direct communication will be done by organizing public information events to which representatives of central and local authorities and non-governmental organizations, representatives of the media, will be invited. The purpose of these events is to present to the participants essential information about the central role and activities of the government. Electronic communication aims to rapidly inform all those interested in information on institutional projects and topics on the public agenda. In this regard, we will recommend updating the websites of public institutions. Press releases to inform the general public will be issued at the beginning or at the end of the projects and activities related to each institution. Also, in certain situations, when major changes occur in the activities, press conferences will be organized to inform the public about these changes. The communication strategy is the one that gives a clear direction to the institutions and allows the communication specialists to have control over the messages they transmit. Each institution wishing to strengthen its reputation and manage the emerging image crises as well as the disinformation cases should consider a long-term strategy for strengthening citizens' confidence in democratic processes. In order to create an effective communication strategy, communication specialists must consider its purpose, objectives, action plan and measure the degree of success. 1. Purpose - one of the most important aspects that the communication specialist must consider is what the public institution wants to achieve in the long term with the help of strategy and strategic communication. These should be established over a long period of time, ideally for the next 3-5 years. Depending on the reputation of the institution, its vision, values and mission, a strategy with specific planned objectives can be built and efficient communication channels can be chosen. The entire communication strategy must be coordinated with the general strategy of the respective government. This will have a clear direction of action. Without having rules to guide, the risk to the institution will be enormous. It will not be able to develop its own image and the message will be inconsistent. Most governments do not have a general communication strategy that corresponds to their values and mission. The main goals of the governments should be to increase society's confidence in the values of democracy, as well as to strengthen the cohesion between the members of a community, respecting public opinion and, where appropriate, changing the behavior of the audience.

53

2. Objectives - are the concrete actions that must be taken to achieve the institution's purpose and strategy. Governments must always set clear goals whose impact they can measure. 3. Initiatives - each objective must be correlated with a concrete and specific activity through which it can be achieved. Communicators need to be creative and choose the tools, tactics and campaigns through which the message will be delivered most effectively. Each action must be planned and coordinated. An action plan will help the communicators to ensure that each activity has been completed on time and all objectives have been achieved. 4. Evaluation - the periodic strategy review and the permanent measurement of the impact that the government actions have had. In this way, government leaders want what they need to adapt and modify, which are the deficient aspects, the efficient channels and the key stakeholders. Measuring the impact of campaigns will also help in internal organization. With the help of the obtained data it will be possible to adjust the elements related to the management of the strategic aspects, but also the financial part allocated to the communication activity and to obtain the credibility.

The principles of the Strategic Communication The principles regarding communication activities refers to: Transparency; Constance; Flexibility; Neutrality and informational objectivity; Public responsibility. ” Strategic communication implies the existence of a cause-effect relationship between the communication activities and the fulfillment of the organization's objectives. This means that the communication programs contribute to the accomplishment of the strategic activities of the organization in a quantifiable manner.”8 Moreover, the integrated nature of strategic communication enhances the ability of the internal actors of the organization to participate in meeting its objectives. The objectives of the communication, which are part of the strategic communication program are attempts to modify or develop the audience's knowledge level, the way in which it is discussed and its behavior. Further, the objectives of the communication can be interpreted as communicative activities necessary for the organization to express the needs of both internal and external agents. The most important problem in this case, however, is the form it can take strategic communication and its starting point. Combining the analysis of the message and the audience will allow to choose the channel and psychology appropriate to the communication process. The number of communication channels available today is almost unlimited. However, when choosing the channel, the different capacities of information transmission through it must be known and understood. The ability of a communication channel is influenced by its ability to transmit different meanings at the same time, to facilitate the feedback, and to focus the information individually, for each agent.9 Other elements such as time, proximity and confidentiality should be taken into account when choosing the message transmission channel. Another important decision that needs to be taken when transmitting the message concerns the psychology to be adopted. The best approach, direct or indirect, should be determined by combining the purpose of message transmission and audience analysis. Direct psychology involves presenting the main idea followed by explanations, while through psychology indirect explanations are presented, followed by the main idea. In the Western organizational culture, direct psychology is practiced.

8 Potter, L. R., The Ten-Step Strategic Communication Plan, 1999 Yearbook of Global Communication, Madrid, Spain, October, 1998, p. 14. 9 Daft, R.L., Understanding Management, The Dryden Press, New York. 1995, p. 74.

54

In this context, communication is considered a primary institutional obligation of public administrations, since it is a fundamental and irreplaceable resource, which guarantees the efficiency, efficiency and transparency of public administrations. Good government communication practices are indissolubly associated with good governance, in other words, the introduction of good communication practices will inevitably influence government policies, for greater transparency and greater public involvement in the development of government policies. When done well, the contribution of communication to the provision of government policies is significant. For these reasons, the ability of a government to communicate with its citizens has major implications on the credibility of its activity. Strengthening the Government's communication capacity essentially refers to strengthening the capacity of civil servants to engage in open dialogue with citizens. The well-organized and qualified government communication apparatus has several roles, each of which is essential for the evolution of efficient, responsive and responsible governance10. These roles are: explanatory: to explain the government policies and the actions of the government; awareness raising: to raise awareness of the rights, benefits and obligations of citizens; persuading: to persuade citizens to act in accordance with policies agreed in defined circumstances; advice: to advise the government on the reactions of citizens and the media regarding government policies and activities. An important aspect of the Government's communication capacity lies in promoting reform initiatives through permanent communication with the general public in order to keep it up to date with the intentions pursued and the outcome of the actions taken. Successful reforms are considered to be those that typically have strong support from key stakeholders and are understood by the general public. In this sense, in order to support a consistent and coherent process of reform, at the level of public administration, there is a need for a functional and stable mechanism for communication and promotion of change. Speaking of strategic communication, in fact, we consider the strategic management of communication at the level of a state entity. Strategic approach to communication means a conscious activity of coordinating all the communication actions of a subject (person, organization, country), with a purpose oriented towards understanding the general strategies and not on inducing senses from the top down. The communication, according to the specialists, does not go only in terms of words and images. It generates development strategies and is based on objectives achieved; the actions achieved of the subject.11 Strategic communication, therefore, is one of the tools available to the state to reach its objectives, including those in the spectrum of public administration reform. In simple terms, strategic communication involves a disciplined calculation of variable objectives, methods and resources, with an acceptable margin of error, to obtain better results than those that may occur by chance or from the actions of others. This is a complex analytical action process which generally involves formulating the strategy based on the analysis of the internal and external environment, identifying the response alternatives and choosing the most appropriate response mode; application of the strategy and its evaluation. The planning and evaluation of the strategic communication is carried out in a coordinated and integrated manner, and the

10 CommGAP, The Contribution of Government Communication Capacity to Achieving Good Governance Outcomes, World Bank, available at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGOVACC/Resources/ BriefGovCommCapacity.pdf, accesed February 276, 2020. 11 Strategic communications for business environment reforms: a guide to stakeholder engagement and reform promotion, Washington: World Bank. 2007, available at http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/ 517991468156887106/pdf/424340BEEPromo10web0version1updated.pdf, accesed February 276, 2020.

55

results are measured in terms of attitudes changes or from the perspective of behavioral changes.12

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Department of Defence, Strategic Communication, Joint Integrating Concept, October 2009, p. B-10, available at https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/ Doctrine/concepts/jic_strategiccommunications.pdf?ver=2017-12-28-162005-353. 2. European Commission, Communication on Tackling Online Disinformation, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52018DC0236 3. Quadrennial Defence Review Report, available at https://archive. defence.gov/pubs/pdfs/QDR20060203.pdf, pp.91-92. 4. http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/3/portman-murphy-introduce- bill-to-counter-foreigngovernment-propaganda, last accesed February 26, 2020. 5. https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2692/text for more information on the “Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016” bill, last accesed February 26, 2020. 6. NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, Hybrid Threats: A Strategic Communications Perspective (StratCom COE), https://www.stratcomcoe.org/hybrid- threats-strategic-communications-perspective. 7. Paul Cornish, Julian Lindley-French and Claire Yorke, Strategic Communications and National Strategy A Chatham House Report September 2011. 8. Potter, L. R., The Ten-Step Strategic Communication Plan, 1999 Yearbook of Global Communication, Madrid, Spain, October, 1998, p. 14. 9. Daft, R.L., Understanding Management, The Dryden Press, New York. 1995, p. 74. 10. World Bank, CommGAP. The Contribution of Government Communication Capacity to Achieving Good Governance Outcomes. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGOVACC/Resources/BriefGovCommCapacit y.pdf. 11. World Bank, Strategic communications for business environment reforms: a guide to stakeholder engagement and reform promotion. Washington: World Bank. 2007. Available at http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/517991468156887 106/pdf/424340BEEPromo10web0version1updated.pdf.

12 Ibidem.

56

THE IMPORTANCE OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND MIGRATION REGULATIONS FOR MAINTAINING SOCIETAL SECURITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Delia-Mihaela MARINESCU Ph.D Student,“Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Lawyer [email protected]

Abstract: Ensuring equal opportunities and controlling migration are real challenges that the European Union is currently facing and which generate constant concern for international, European and national institutions, especially those involved in respecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but also those in the field of national and global security. Failure to equalize the lack of control over migration is a real risk factor that can lead to the weakening of EU structures and member states, affecting the balance and stability of society with a negative impact on societal security, directly influencing the identity of society and the cohesion of its members and constituting important germs for the emergence of violent conflicts and a threat to national security. Keywords: equal opportunities, migration, the European Union, societal security.

The guarantee of respect and the consistent application of equal opportunities is, through its direct and indirect implications throughout the society, a problem of the whole international community, which generates a sustained concern of the international, European and national institutions, especially those involved in respecting the rights, human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but also those in the field of national and global security. 1 The issue of equal opportunities is structured both on the principle of equality between men and women (gender equality) and on non-discrimination, these concepts having a continuous evolution on the legislative and jurisprudential level, determined by the acquisition of new legal valences through taking over the national legislation of the various states, which led to the regulation and interpretation of the concept of equal opportunities in the current form. The control of migration represents a real challenge that the European Union is currently facing, by its way of solving it, under all legal and organizational aspects, depending on the European stability and guaranteeing its internal security. Failure to respect the fundamental principles of human rights, their universal character being generally accepted1, directly influences the identity of the society and the cohesion of its members and are important germs for the emergence of conflicts and a threat to national security, with a direct impact on both the EU and the EU and of the Member States, under the conditions in which "the European Union is a very important component of the policies and processes of their elaboration in the Member States, not being separated from them "2. The phenomenon of limiting the equality of opportunities, which in fact leads to the emergence of discrimination, is in continuous evolution both within the national states and at the level of the European Union and represents a real risk factor that results in the weakening of the state structures and of the EU and affecting the balance and stability of society, with a

1 Titus Corlătean, Protecţia europeană şi internaţională a drepturilor omului, Editura Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, 2012, p.14. 2 Rădulescu Dragoş-Lucian, Organizaţii regionale şi politici de cooperare, Editura Pro Universitaria, Bucuresti, 2013, p. 56.

57

negative impact on societal security contributing to the creation of social inequalities, by reference to categories of marginalized, isolated or disadvantaged people3. 2 There is an extremely rapid evolution of this field, in the sense of extending the forms of manifestation of the non-observance of equal opportunities, which initially focused on aspects concerning the individual situations of individuals, and subsequently began to extend to important categories of population, often from different states, mainly after 1990, several states adhering to EU values. In these conditions, it was imperative to accelerate the theoretical and legislative initiatives to address the problems related to the promotion and defence of equal opportunities as the freedom of movement in the European space made an impressive number of citizens to go to work in the states more economically developed in the Union and even emigrating from their countries of origin. Thus, if we refer to the statistical data4, with reference to the strongest economies in the EU, it is found at the level of 2018 that: in Germany 13,748,800 (16.6% of the population) citizens are foreigners out of which 5,951,200 (7, 2% of the population) are born in another EU member state and 7,794,600 (9.4%) are born in other non-EU states; in Spain 6,198,800 (13.3% of the population) citizens are foreigners out of which 1,925 .400 (4.1%) are born in another EU member state and 4,273,400 (9.2%) are born in other non-EU states; in France 8,177,300 (13.3% of the population) citizens are foreigners out of which 2,142,300 (3.2%) are born in another EU member state and 6,035,000 (9%) are born in other non-EU states ; in 6,175,300 (10.2% of the population) citizens are foreigners out of which 1,832,500 (3%) are born in another EU Member State and 4,342,900 (9.2%) are born in other non-EU states ; in 1,916,300 (16.8% of the population) citizens are foreigners out of which 886,600 (7.8%) are born in another EU Member State and 1,029,700 (9%) are born in other non-EU states. The most significant percentages of foreign persons in the territory of some EU countries are the high living standards such as: Ireland -16.8% of population, Luxembourg - 46.5%, Holland -12.9%, Malta 17.5%, Austria -19.2% or Sweden - 18.5%. To the same extent, international migration, especially the illegal one, regardless of its causes and nature, also affects the European Union, which is in a permanent search for solutions to ensure border control and security, as well as to manage a robust system and consistent with the asylum in accordance with international agreements and treaties, so that it can ensure an area of freedom, security and justice. 345 Even at EU level, there are some tendencies to hinder the equality of opportunities regarding the allocation of common resources (for example through the EU budget), mainly to the developed states, which leads to the slowing of the economic development and the emergence of some in the other states. Serious disturbances both on the labor market and in the social plane which can affect the stability and security of society, but also nationally, migration, abandonment of families or family members. Equal opportunities and the elimination of sexual discrimination represent a fundamental human right5 and a basic value of the European Union, stipulated in Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the

3 Muscalu Loredana Manuela, Discriminarea în relațiile de muncă, Editura Hamangiu, București, 2015, p.2. 4 Foreign-born population by country of birth, 1 January 2018 .png, disponibil on-line pe siteul https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Foreign- born_population_by_country_of_birth,_1_January_2018_.png, accesat la data de 10.02.2020. 5 Paul Craig, Grainne de Burca, Dreptul Uniunii Europene. Comentarii, jurisprudenţă şi doctrină. Ediţia a IV-a, Editura Hamangiu,Bucureşti, 2009, p. 1132. 6 JO (2012/C 326/01, din 26 octombrie 2012, a Tratatul privind Functionarea Uniunii Europene (Versiunea consolidată). Text la https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/RO/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT&from=ro, accesat la data de 10.02.2020. 7 Timothy J. Webster, Ambivalence and Activism: Employment Discrimination in China, Yale Law School, 01.08.2010, disponibil on-lie pe siteul la https://www.uwcentre.ac.cn/haut/wp-content/uploads/2015/ 03/Diversity-in-China-Ambivalence-and-Activism_-Employment-Discrimination-in-China.pdf, accesat la data de 11.02.2020.

58

European Union6, which is based on the full and effective participation of each person in the economic and social life, regardless of gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. Initially appreciated as an attitude of collective ignorance on the part of some governments7, the regulation of discrimination and later of equal opportunities were a permanent concern of the entire international community, regarding the definition, extension of the scope, guarantee and implementation, as an important component of the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with direct implications on the social security. In today's globalized and integrated society, the permanent knowledge of the security environment and the anticipation of negative developments are of particular importance for the state security. Unsanctioned facts regarding the violation of the principle of equal opportunities, according to the norms of international law, can lead to a sometimes serious disturbance of the social balance, threatening and destroying the social cohesion, constituting a risk factor and to the national security. In developed countries with strong national minorities and with increased migration, in general coming from the third world, the forms of violation of equal opportunities are manifesting with a greater intensity, especially in the field of education, work, health and religion. Even if some of these are initially manifested at the individual level, they are subsequently amplified at the level of entire communities and create a state of increased dissatisfaction. In fact, asymmetrical war between society and the state results, which clearly leads to the weakening of state structures, even in the states with developed democracy, but also to the insecurity of their citizens. The complex and global phenomenon of migration represents a normal process of functioning and evolution of contemporary European society. Due to the mobility of the population generated by natural, economic, social, political, health factors (major epidemics), a significant complex impact is created on both the place of departure and the arrival point, generating at first instance demographic imbalances, with multiple consequences on all areas of life. socio-economic, political, religious or cultural. Several types of migration are distinguished according to a multitude of criteria, the most known being those related to: territorial or administrative aspect, such as internal migration that takes place within the same country or international, which implies the crossing of the border of a state; by duration, which may be permanent or temporary migration; according to the underlying reasons: voluntary migration for work or for economic reasons or forced migration due to natural calamities, political, religious or war persecution; by means of migration: legal or illegal; according to the number of persons involved: individual migration for personal or collective purpose; by purpose: economic migration to obtain greater profits, tourist migration for the purpose of obtaining the transit visa followed by the illegal stay in the visited countries, family migration for family reunification or humanitarian migration for saving of life and obtaining personal security; after benefits: voluntary spontaneous circular migration which is a temporary migration with repetitive character outside the borders (in both directions) and the managed circular migration which represents the migration contractually regulated by the country of origin, the country of destination or, through bilateral agreements. Migration brings both benefits and costs. With the help of migrants, the developed states solve their own socio-economic, technical-scientific, demographic or military problems, but at the same time, they ensure the facilitation of economic integration and the intercultural dialogue at global and regional level, generating transfers of flows. money to less developed countries, knowledge and technology transfers are facilitated to the countries of origin of the migrants, after their repatriation, families are reunited and, what I consider to be extremely important, the migrants secure their personal security, retiring from the regions in which

59

armed, ethical, religious conflicts or natural cataclysms take place, and the famine and the brutal violation of human rights and freedoms are normal. The importance of the phenomenon of migration analyzed also from the perspective of free access to a job in another country should not be neglected, in order to clearly delineate the situation of forced labor through the trafficking of human beings, which is most often reported to workers who are illegally in the host state. It can be appreciated that the importance of analyzing forced labor is related to its relation to the migration phenomenon, being found as a part-whole relationship. However, migration also has significant costs for the EU's area of freedom, security and justice, considered one of the priorities of the EU8 after the entry into force of the TFEU. That's why the European states make great efforts to integrate migrants, to combat and prevent illegal immigration and to control external borders. In recent years, within the EU, migration flows have increased both in terms of number and intensity. For an effective management of this phenomenon, the European Union aims to develop a common migration policy that should focus on solidarity and responsibility and take into account the needs of both EU and migrant countries. 6 European policy is built on European traditions of asylum and migration, taking into account both respect for human rights and humanitarian issues, as well as the benefits of the European Union, of migrants and their countries of origin. Migration and asylum cannot be managed independently of the realities at European level being directly influenced by the development of organized crime networks or those of trafficking in human beings, respectively the measures to prevent and combat terrorism and the need to ensure protection and promoting fundamental rights, guaranteeing the internal security of the EU. Starting with 2015 and 2016, the European Union (EU) has faced an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants, most fleeing the war and terror in Syria and other countries. The responsibility of the EU states in managing the migration problem is extremely important and current, taking into account the European statistical data9, which establish that 2.4 million immigrants entered the EU from non-EU states in 2017, and at present 22.3 million people (4.4%) of the population of 512.4 million inhabitants of the EU on January 1, 2018 are citizens from outside the EU. As long as at the borders of Europe, due to illegal migration, occur human tragedies that lead to human losses, especially in the Italian area of the Mediterranean, the European Union increases its efforts to search, save the lives of migrants at sea in agreement with all Member States The Union, on the basis of specific coherent legislation that clearly influences asylum and migration policies, borders, but also police and judicial cooperation.

8 Augustin Fuerea, Manualul Uniunii Europene- Ediţia a v-a revăzută şi adăugită după Tratatul de la Lisabona (2007/2009), Editura Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, 2012, p. 82. 9 Migration and migrant population statistics, disponibil on-lie pe siteul https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics, accesat la data de 12.02.2020. 10 Edward J. Carnell, The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, Wipf and Stock Publishers, Oregon, 2007. 11 Articolul 22: ,,Orice persoană, în calitatea sa de membru al societăţii, are dreptul la securitatea socială; ea este îndreptăţită ca prin efortul national şi colaborarea internaţională, ţinîndu-se seama de organizarea şi resursele fiecărei ţări, să obţină realizarea drepturilor economice, sociale şi culturale indispensabile pentru demnitatea sa şi libera dezvoltare a personalităţii sale.”, conform https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/rum.pdf, accesat la data de 12.02.2020. 12 Barry Buzan, Ole de Waever, Jaap, de Wilde, Securitatea - un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 2011, p.171. 13 Ole de Waever, Barry Buzan , Morten Kelstrup, Pierre Lemaitre (eds.), Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe, New York, St Martin’s Press and CEU, 1993, p. 23. 14 Barry Buzan: People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post Cold War Era, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991.

60

In fact, migration and discrimination, with reference to equal opportunities and treatment between men and women (gender equality), represent fundamental threats to the cohesion and identity of society, fundamental components of societal security. If the first references about the concept of social security, but with the name of human security, were promoted by the theologian Reihold Niebuhr10 in the 50s, a name that is also found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 to art. 2211, the theoretical, scientific foundation of the modern concept of social security was realized by the researchers from “Copenhagen School” (also called European Security School) in the mid 90's, who studied security in correlation with the implications on the life of the individual, establishing that the fields of security analysis are those political, military, economic, environmental and societal, the latter including the founding bases of the society12 respectively the ethno-national and religious basis - these being also the only founding bases of the society13, the main theoreticians of the school being Barry Buzan, Ole Waever and Jaap de Wilde. The social security (term first used by Barry Buzan14) has as main area of concern a community, not necessarily state, having in its identity the defining element and it can be defined as “the ability of a society to survive in conditions of change and possible or real threats. More specifically, it is about supporting, under acceptable conditions for evolution, linguistic, associative and religious patents and national identity and customs ”15. This extreme modern concept of the social security that has as its subject the society and not the state that can be destabilized even by its own societies through a multitude of unconventional threats that finally lead to the diminution of the social cohesion and of the identity, the social component being an important element of a hybrid conflict. The concept of social security considers the problem of essential migration as being of the highest interest, the main source of societal insecurity, because it can threaten the identity of the company by modifying its composition. The threat is real only when the immigrant communities outnumber the basic population or when the basic population changes their identity forming with the new communities different people, the horizontal competition considering that through migration there can be a change not only in the structure of the population but also at the level of the whole culture, the culture of migrants becoming the dominant culture16. Berry Buzan believes that "the danger posed by migration is mainly a matter of how the relative number of immigrants interacts with the absorption and adaptation capacities of society"17. A direct threat to the respective social security of the component related to the corporate identity, is any form of discrimination, including for combating the inequalities of opportunities and treatment between men and women, constituting the triggering elements of destabilizing actions at societal level. Strict observance of international, European and national legislation, as well as the involvement of the democratic state in defending the rights and freedoms of citizens and respecting the principle of equal opportunities, as well as addressing the most effective measures to control migration through the joint effort of the Member States is the optimal solution for maintaining of stability, social peace and national and Euro-Atlantic security. 78

15 Barry Buzan, Ole de Waever, Jaap, de Wilde, Securitatea - un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA Publishing, Cluj Napoca, p.171. 16 Iulian Chifu, Oazu Nantoi, Oleksandr, Sushko, Societal Security in the trilateral region of Romania-Ukraine- Republic of Moldova, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucuresti, 2008, p. 171. 17 Barry Buzan, Popoarele, statele și teama: Problema securitații naționale în relațiile internaționale, Chișinau, Cartier, 2000, p. 45. 18 Jacques Barou, Integration of immigrants in France: a historical perspective, Identities. Global Studies in Culture and Power, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), november 2014, volume 21, number 6, pp.642-657, disponibil on-line pe siteul https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01081685, accesat la data de 12,02.2020.

61

Conclusions

The restriction of equal opportunities and the lack of control of migration, in the conditions of incomplete immigrant integration programs18, have the effect of creating prejudicial situations for citizens and limit the use of their fundamental rights and freedoms, with a direct influence on social security. It is essential that the national laws of the Member States adapt to the European normative requirements for the imposition of a complex normative framework, which is sufficiently comprehensive to be able to sanction any violation of equal opportunities or non- observance of the legal regime of the migration phenomenon and prevent its state of insecurity at the level of society. Under the conditions of a complex security environment with rapid evolutions and significant implications on multiple levels of social, economic, political and security life, EU stability can only be achieved through joint efforts of the Member States to take and comply with unitary measures that lead to the definition in the EU of an area of freedom, security and justice, an important role being played by funding and assistance programs in the fields of education, immigration and asylum, which help to consolidate the mechanism of guaranteeing equal opportunities and the control of migration.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Barou, Jacques, Integration of immigrants in France: a historical perspective, Identities. Global Studies in Culture and Power, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), november 2014, volume 21, number 6. available at: https://halshs.archives- ouvertes.fr/halshs-01081685/document. 2. Buzan, Barry, Waever, de Ole, JAAP, de Wilde, Securitatea - un nou cadru de analiză, Editura CA Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 2011. 3. Buzan, Barry, Popoarele, statele și teama: Problema securitații naționale în relațiile internaționale, Editura Cartier, Chișinau, 2000; 4. CarnelL, Edward J., The Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr, Wipf and Stock Publishers, Oregon, 2007. 5. Chifu, Iulian, NANTOI, Oazu, Sushko, Oleksandr, Societal Security in the trilateral region of Romania-Ukraine- Republic of Moldova, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucuresti, 2008; 6. Corlaţean, Titus, Protecţia europeană şi internaţională a drepturilor omului, Editura Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, 2012. 7. Craig, Paul, De Burca, Grainne, Dreptul Uniunii Europene. Comentarii, jurisprudenţă şi doctrină. Ediţia a IV-a, Editura Hamangiu, Bucureşti, 2009. 8. FUEREA, Augustin, Manualul Uniunii Europene- Ediţia a V-a revăzută şi adăugită după Tratatul de la Lisabona (2007/2009), Editura Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, 2012; 9. Muscalu, Loredana Manuela, Discriminarea în relațiile de muncă, Editura Hamangiu, București, 2015. 10. Rădulescu, Dragoş-Lucian, Organizaţii regionale şi politci de cooperare, Editura Pro Universitaria, Bucureşti, 2013. 11. Waever, de Ole, Buzan, Barry, Kelstrup, Morten, Lemaitre, Pierre (eds.), Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe, New York, St Martin’s Press and CEU, 1993.

62

12. Webster, Timothy J., Ambivalence and Activism: Employment Discrimination in China,, Yale Law School, 01.08.2010, available at https://www.uwcentre.ac.cn/ haut/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Diversity-in-China-Ambivalence-and-Activism_- Employment-Discrimination-in-China.pdf. 13. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ 14. https://eur-lex.europa.eu 15. www.echr.coe.int 16. https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr 17. www.uwcentre.ac.cn

63

MILITARY PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA AGE

Ecaterina HLIHOR Senior Lecturer, National Defence University “CAROL I” [email protected]

Abstract: This paper is intended to explore issues of military “public diplomacy” in the social media dominated era. With the rise of social media over the last decade, the Internet has changed to allow all of us to become individual collectors and sharers of information. As a result, it has also become something else: a battlefield where information itself is weaponized. The online world is now just as indispensable to governments, militaries, activists, and spies as it is to advertisers and shoppers. And whether the goal is to win an election or a battle, or just to sell an album, everyone uses the same tactics. In the past the military’s work and diplomacy may seem to have been polar opposites, but over the last years the reality has changed and the two are closely linked. Nowadays military service is more than fighting wars and today’s military professionals are actively engaged in public diplomacy every day. Keywords: military public diplomacy, social media, information as weapon, warfare.

Introduction In the relations that naturally occurred between states in modern and contemporary history, what each time truly mattered was the way through which states understood to attain their national and strategic interests. For a long time, the military force and capacity of each state played a significant role. From this perspective, it is not at all surprising that in the second half of the XIX century Chancellor Bismarck believed that “Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided /…/ but by iron and blood.”1 The immense costs in material losses and the destruction brought to society, and especially the human tragedies provoked by the military confrontations of the first half of the XX century, made war less acceptable as an instrument of international policy. Other instruments began to be considered in order to promote the interests of states in international affairs. Thus, new instruments and means emerged, which specialists and theoreticians generically identified as soft power.2 Political leaders, especially those of great powers, observed that state interests can be attained not only through the threat and use of force, but also through other means, such as the creation of economic and financial advantages, the delivery of know- how, and through the use of instruments specific to public diplomacy3. The acceleration of the integration processes on the one side, and the resurgence of sovereignism in foreign policy thinking and practice on the other side, led to the emergence of changes in the use of soft power instruments, as it is the case of public diplomacy. According to professor Nina Gorenc, „The conditions for providing PD have changed in the Information Age. The competitive Cold War model is now less relevant and the role of public opinion is more important. Information

1 Nina Gorenc, Public Diplomacy as an Instrument of US Foreign and Security Policy, in TEORIJA IN PRAKSA let. 56, 3/2019, p. 911, disponibil online https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/docs/default-source/tip/javna- diplomacija-kot-sredstvo-ameri%C5%A1ke-zunanje-in-varnostne-politike.pdf?sfvrsn=0, accessed January 20, 2020. 2 See more, Joseph S. Nye, Puterea blîndă, trad., Daniela Oana Ioan, Institutul European, Iaşi, 2009; Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: The Origins and Political Progress of a Concept, in Palgrave Communications, Vol. 3, 2017, online http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2017.8, accessed January 20, 2020. 3 See more, Nancy Snow, Philip M. Taylor, Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, Routledge, 2009; Jan Melissen, The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, http://kimo-mp3.at.ua/_ld/0/87_en-09.pdf; Ecaterina Hlihor, Diplomaţia publică în politica internaţională, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare „Carol l”, București, 2017.

64

is power; with the development of informational technologies a large part of the world has access to power.”4 These mutations that appeared in the international environment made it possible to widen the spectrum of application of public diplomacy, but also the diversification of the instruments and resources used in order to attain the aims of a state or of another type of actor in the international arena. From this perspective, the emergence of public diplomacy in the field of defence and security and among uniformed specialists5 no longer surprises anyone.

The emergence of public diplomacy in the field of national security and defence Military power has lately become an “unorthodox” mechanism of foreign policy and it is less and less accepted by the public opinion as a means to regulate the diplomatic relations between contemporary international policy actors. Although national governments still often make recourse to hard power in order to promote their interests6, the soft means, through which they seek to influence the public opinion of a target society, have become common7. Nowadays, more and more international actors tend to replace military instruments with non- military ones, including with public diplomacy ones. Almost all the armed forces in the world contribute to various efforts of public diplomacy through the application of its basic instruments, including humanitarian assistance and post-conflict reconstruction operations, as well as international military education and training programmes. The military public diplomacy emerges after the end of the Cold War, in a time when the activity of the military diplomacy not only increased, but it also had to diversify its means and to adapt its forms of manifestation towards a public that was more and more interested by what was happening in the international arena.8 During the first years after the end of the Cold War there was an important change in the nature and goal of international military relations. Thus, once the perception on the nature of security changed, the role and tasks of the military attaché expanded as well. Moreover, the military attaché ceased to be the only military actor playing in the field of military diplomacy, as this field begins to see the involvement of non-military personnel, and their activities do not explicitly envisage the military field, but also those elements which increase trust between nations and decrease the fear of war9. Although in many situations at an official level the existence of public diplomacy in the military sphere is not directly admitted, practice shows us that the military personnel sometimes behave in the strategic field, through their activities, as if they were acting in the field of public diplomacy10.

4 Nina Gorenc, op.cit., in loc. cit., p. 914. 5 Marissa Cruz, How the U.S. Military Engages in Public Diplomacy, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, online https://www.uscpublicdiplomacy.org/printpdf/52476 accessed January 20, 2020. 6 Patrick Blannin, Defence Diplomacy in the Long War, Brill, Leiden, Boston, 2017, pp. 29-30. 7 See more, Martin Kragh & Sebastian Åsberg, Russia’s strategy for influence through public diplomacy and active measures: the Swedish case, Journal of Strategic Studies, 2017, on line http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2016.1273830; Dr Gordon Ramsay, Dr Sam Robertshaw, Weaponising news RT, Sputnik and targeted disinformation, Centre for the Study of Media, Communication & Power, King’s College London; Benjamin Pelletier, La diplomatie publique américaine en France: étude de cas, online https://gestion-des-risques-interculturels.com/risques/la-diplomatie-publique-americaine-en-france-etude-de- cas/; Matsuda Yasuhiro, An essay on China’s Military Public Diplomacy: Examination of Intentions in Foreign Strategy, on line http://www.nids.mod.go.jp/english/publication/kiyo/pdf/bulletin_e2006_2_Matsuda.pdf accessed January 20, 2020. 8 Timothy C. Shea, Transforming Military Diplomacy, in Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 38, 2005, pp. 49-52. 9 Göran Swistek, The nexus between Public Diplomacy and Military Diplomacy in Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy, MCGI Munich, GRIN Verlag, 2012, https://www.grin.com/document/230341 accessed January 20, 2020. 10 Sean E. Duggan, Redefining the Relationship: Reclaiming American Public Diplomacy from the US Military in Iraq, in Middle East Journal Vol. 66, No. 1 (Winter 2012), pp. 53-78.

65

Such a case can even be observed in one of the most important and praised democracies of the contemporary world, the United States of America. Matthew Wallin stated in one of his books that the Department of Defence has officially supported a “we don’t do public diplomacy” narrative. In support of his statement he mentions an excerpt from an official document, Reporting on Strategic Communication in 2009, in which the Defence Department stated: „DoD does not engage directly in public diplomacy, which is the purview of the State Department, but numerous DoD activities are designed specifically to support the State Department’s public diplomacy efforts and objectives, which in turn support national objectives. DoD refers to these activities as “Defence Support to Public Diplomacy” (DSPD).”11 In order to understand the way in which the military communicates with the foreing public in a society where it carries out peacekeeping or peacemaking operations, we should, according to specialists, focus on obtaining answers to questions like who does what? or if what is done? falls within the official terminology and definitions specific to public diplomacy12. The reality is that the operations and activities carried out by the military in various theatres of operations are both directly and indirectly designed to influence the public attitudes and actions of the public of that particular society in order to support the foreign policy objectives of their own country, and not of the target state. Both in Afghanistan and in Iraq the American military carried out public diplomacy activities that produced positive impressions in these countries13. Such activities that can be subscribed to the sphere of public diplomacy can also be identified in the case of the Ministry of Defence of Great Britain. A document entitled “Defence Diplomacy” published in 2000 mentions such types of activities like: “(1) arms control, non-proliferation and confidence and security building measures; (2) outreach activities and (3) other activities covering military assistance not covered under outreach14. Under these tasks the following detailed missions have been identified: (a) training courses and education programs; (b) providing personnel for training, loan services as well as civilian and military advisers; (c) visits by ships, aircrafts and other military units; (d) visits by ministers and by military and civilian personnel at all levels; (e) staff talks, conferences and seminars to improve mutual understanding; (f) exchanges of personnel and (g) exercises”14. In the case of China there is also no special preoccupation to outline and define a domain specific to public diplomacy in the defence field, although these types of activities are carried out by the military or by personnel belonging to the strategic and security sphere .15 Through its public diplomacy activities in the field of defence and security China aims to improve the image of its armed forces in the eyes of the international public opinion in general, and in certain areas of great interest in particular, such as Africa and South-East Asia, and also to create new opportunities for the sale of military equipment and technology.16 According to a number of recent studies by American military analysts, the „Military diplomacy is part of broader Chinese foreign policy efforts to create a favorable international image, develop soft power, and shape international discourse. Other objectives include

11 Matthew Wallin, Military Public Diplomacy. How the Military Influences Foreign Audiences, White Paper, February 2015, p. 2. 12 Ecaterina Hlihor, op.cit., p. 17. 13 Dipl. pol., MCGI Göran Swistek, op.cit., in loc., cit. 14 Ibidem. 15 Matsuda Yasuhiro, An essay on China’s Military Public Diplomacy: Examination of Intentions in Foreign Strategy, in loc.cit., pp. 3-5. 16 Ibidem, p. 6.

66

shaping China’s security environment, collecting intelligence, and learning from advanced militaries”17. In the situation where different activities specific to public diplomacy in the defence and security field are attributed to classical military diplomacy, it is difficult to reach a definition/concept of this new domain, although attempts were made. in this regard. Matthew Wallin notes that in the public diplomacy studies field a clear definition of public diplomacy does not exist. Therefore, he defines the military public diplomacy as: „Military communication and relationship building with foreign publics and military audiences for the purpose of achieving a foreign policy objective”18. According to Göran Swistek, the term and modern perception of Military Diplomacy could be defined as follows: “To provide forces to meet the varied activities undertaken by the Ministry of Defence to dispel hostility, build and maintain trust and assist in the development of democratically accountable armed forces, thereby making a significant contribution to conflict prevention and resolution”.19 As can be easily observed, the objectives pursued through public diplomacy activities in the military field are not far from those identified only a couple of decades ago by the famous analyst and theoretician Nicholas J. Cull. He emphasized that “Public diplomacy is not about winning hearts and minds. It is about building relationships, and you can’t win a relationship”20, and this can be achieved through activities that can be subscribed within the sphere of public diplomacy. Many of them are more recently included in the information and influencing activities concept. It is a very new concept used by the US military and it replaces the concept of information operations that existed in the previous Army manual. The information and influencing activities seem to be a mechanism of coordination and integration between various joint intelligence structure that receives the mission to integrate the designated intelligence capacities in order to synchronize themes, messages, and actions with information operations by the United State of America and segments of the world public, to influence the foreign public and to affect the capacity of the adversary or potential enemies to make decision and to protect “ours”.21 The fact that society entered a new era of information and communication strongly impacted on both the way in which public diplomacy is conducted, and also its consequences in general, and those of public diplomacy in the field of security in defence in particular.

Military Public Diplomacy in the Age of Social Media The public diplomacy in the field of defence and security suffered mutations both under the influence of modernization and the changes occurring in the international sphere, and also under the impact of the new communication technologies, especially those generically called new media.22 Over only a few years, new terms emerged in specialty studies such as e-diplomacy, cyber diplomacy, digital diplomacy, and also „Innovations such as Twitter press conferences, virtual exchanges, and embassies on platforms such as Second

17 Kenneth Allen, Phillip C. Saunders, John Chen, Chinese Military Diplomacy, 2003–2016: Trends and Implications, Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs Institute for National Strategic Studies China Strategic Perspectives, No. 11, National Defence University Press Washington, D.C. July 2017, p. 1. 18 Matthew Wallin, op.cit., p. 2. 19 Dipl. pol., MCGI Göran Swistek, op.cit., in loc., cit. 20 Quoted in Matthew Wallin, op.cit., p. 32. 21 Matthew Wallin, op.cit., pp. 5-6. 22 See see more,Corneliu Bjola and Lu Jiang, Social Media and Public Diplomacy: A comparative analysis of the digital diplomacy strategies in the UE, US and Japan in China, in Corneliu Bjola and Marcus Holmes, eds., Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, Routledge, New York, 2015; Amelia Arsenault, Public Diplomacy 2.0, in Philip Seib, ed., Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting US Foreign Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009, pp. 135-153;Lina Khatib, William Dutton, Michael Thelwall, Public Diplomacy 2.0: A Case Study of the US Digital Outreach Team, in Middle East Journal, vol. 66, no. 3 (2012), pp. 453-472.

67

Life were vaunted as ushering in a new era. The need to think in terms of networks as an extension of the digital revolution was a core insight of writing on the new public diplomacy”.23 In the not too distant future those who will control the digital technologies will be more and more capable to influence mentalities, economic and political outcomes, and, of course, the public opinion. In these circumstances, the military will considerably increase some of its influencing capacities through public diplomacy means, making it possible to win the nation’s war without the use of military force. Communication platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, with tens or even hundreds of millions of users, make public diplomacy in the field of security and defence become something new and completely without precedent. The transition to Web 2.0 was accompanied by a similar change in public diplomacy, which specialists defined as the “New” Public Diplomacy or Public Diplomacy 2.024. Consequently, the traditional objectives of public diplomacy were supplemented with notions of consolidation of relationships like listening, collaboration, implicitly the collaborative formulation of the public diplomacy narratives of an actor for the target public. Michael Stohl and his colleagues insightfully summarize these challenges as follows: „In comparison with the old, the new diplomacy depends on far greater openness of communication; greater accountability of governments to their publics; greater attention to public opinion at home and abroad; and simultaneous bargaining with political factions and publics and other nations and public abroad. There are also much greater levels of media intrusion and incentives to employ the media by those engaged in the diplomatic process, whether they be diplomats, corporations, non-governmental or governmental organizations as well as private citizens and activists”.25 Maybe the most important reason for which the states and actors in the sphere of digital public diplomacy also have in mind the military field is the need to win credibility within the public opinion. From this perspective, R.S. Zaharna, one of the most famous theoreticians in the field of public diplomacy, drew attention to the fact that nowadays public diplomacy is indissolubly linked to credibility26. The same aspect is also emphasised by Joseph Nye, who defined the use of soft power instruments as a “contest of credibility”27 The new means of communication also help military specialists in the field of public diplomacy to effectively increase the credibility of their military operating in various peacekeeping theatres of operations or when military units participate in bilateral or multilateral exercises. Credibility and interaction bring about a higher degree of interoperability between militaries, ensure cultural exchanges and understanding and provide the opportunity to expand the capacities of each nation for mission accomplishment. The use of the new media in public diplomacy allows the military to build bridges of dialogue that would facilitate supplementary communication and, during crisis, to avoid confusions

23 Nicholas J. Cull, The Tightrope to Tomorrow: Reputational Security, Collective Vision and the Future of Public Diplomacy, in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy no, 14, 2019, p. 2. 24 See, Valentin Costa, Shaping Public Diplomacy through Social Media Networks in the 21st Century, in Romanian Journal of History and International Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2017, p. 139-152; Geoffrey Cowan and Amelia Arsenault, Moving From Monologue to Dialogue to Collaboration: The Three Layers of Public Diplomacy, in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), p. 12. 25 Quoted by LCdr A.J.K. Webster, The New Diplomacy: Analysis of State Public Diplomacy Strategy in The Age of Social Media, online https://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/259/290/317/305/webster.pdf accessed January 21, 2020. 26 R.S. Zaharna, Mapping out a Spectrum of Public Diplomacy Initiatives: Information and Relational Communication Frameworks, in Nancy Snow, Philip M. Taylor, eds., Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, Routledge, New York, London, 2008, pp. 86-101. 27 Joseph Nye Jr., The Paradox of American Power. Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone, University Press, Oxford, 2003, p. 68.

68

between cultures and civilizations. In order to attain such objectives it is necessary to have highly professionalised specialists in the field of military public diplomacy as well. These military specialists must possess the knowledge and ability to „engage in robust debates, however, on whether public diplomacy includes cultural diplomacy, international broadcasting, public affairs, political communication campaigns, democracy-building, and open military information operations”28. Thus, it is not at all surprising that proposals were made in the militaries of the great powers, including the US military, to train officers specialized in the field of public diplomacy29. Beyond the enthusiasm of some analysts and practitioners regarding the positive impact played by the digital revolution on public diplomacy30, we must not omit the fact that this revolution also produced negative consequences. It is true that the use of online platforms allows a rapid and efficient transmission of messages to the target audience, but it is also true that through these digital instruments an information war can be waged against a target state or non-state actor31, seriously damaging their communication network through the use „of fake news, disinformation, paid trolls and bots”32. The technologies of the future will also continue to disrupt the digital reality on numerous levels, so that the manipulative area among the public opinion will grow significantly. According to some specialists33, it is estimated that by 2025 the virtual reality will offer to the digital audiences immersive experiences that may challenge the notion of reality. In these circumstances, there is a growing possibility to influence the public opinion in the sense desired by public diplomacy, because digital content growingly resonating with the prejudices of some categories of the target public can be created. The digital instruments can analyse the content of a social platform used by public diplomacy in order to identify attitudes and types of feelings generated by various contents. Thus, according to the types of conversations conducted on various digital forums, the type of bias and its intensity in the case of the group under analysis can be identified. After the identification of the biased groups, the digital propaganda can be disseminated among the members, consolidating their bias and strengthening their political position, affecting thus the capacity of the government to negotiate an accord34. During the Crimean crisis, disinformation was used in order to promote false stories in Ukraine, in which it was claimed that Ukrainian extremists raped ethnic Russian women or set up concentration camps in Eastern Ukraine35. These types of narratives were used in an attempt to influence the public opinion against a possible accord between Ukraine and the European Union.

28 Bruce Gregory, Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication: Cultures, Firewalls, and Imported Norms, Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Conference on International Communication and Conflict, George Washington University and Georgetown University Washington, D.C., August 31, 2005, p. 8, online http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.112.7338&rep=rep1&type=pdf, accessed January 29, 2020. 29 Major Chad G. Carroll, The U.S. Army Public Diplomacy Officer: Military public affairs officers’ roles in the global information environment, Chapel Hill, 2007, online https://doi.org/10.17615/crgc-cx38, accessed January 29, 2020. 30 Nicholas J. Cull, op.cit., in loc cit., pp. 5-6. 31 Shaun Riordan, Cyberdiplomacy: Managing Security and Governance Online, Polity Press, Cambridege, 2019, p. VII. 32 Nicholas J. Cull, op.cit., in loc cit., p. 3. 33 Corneliu Bjola, Jennifer Cassidy, Ilan Manorc, Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age, in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy vol. 14, 2019, p. 91. 34 Ibidem, p. 92. 35 See Analysis of Russia’s Information Campaign Against Ukraine’ (Riga: NATO StratCom, 2015), online https://www.stratcomcoe.org/analysis-russias-information-campaign%20-against-ukraine , accessed January 12, 2020.

69

Conclusions Military Public Diplomacy changed and gradually became an instrument of crisis prevention, early warning and post-conflict reconstruction in crisis and conflict areas. The intention is to create stability and security by changing the attitudes and perceptions of the parties in conflict through public diplomacy, in the context of the growing importance of the new means of communication. This is why “this disarming of the mind” is the one currently characterising the military public diplomacy. For this reason, the main objective of the continued development of security can only be the development of partnership and the capacity for partnership. As digital technologies continue to model the context in which public diplomacy operates, it is also important to mention that, when used for the creation and implementation of public diplomacy strategies, an essential strategic advantage of the digital platforms is their capacity to discover and enhance voices that would otherwise be marginalised. The current technologies are proof to that, as it was clearly and often demonstrated by non-state actors that adopt and use digital technologies to project their voice online. Through the use of social media platforms, digital campaigns in the field of public diplomacy can be implemented in order to consolidate the interaction between specialists in the public diplomacy field and online voices, and the creation of new diplomatic relations between online actors. Until the emergence of the online platforms, this type of relations, generated through military public diplomacy, were once considered unconventional or irrelevant to the practice of public diplomacy, but are nowadays considered strategic and even highly necessary, for an effective diplomatic practice. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Allen, Kenneth, Saunders, Phillip C., Chen, John, Chinese Military Diplomacy, 2003– 2016:Trends and Implications, Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs Institute for National Strategic Studies China Strategic Perspectives, No. 11, National Defence University Press Washington, D.C. July 2017. 2. Analysis of Russia’s Information Campaign Against Ukraine’(Riga: NATO StratCom, 2015), online https://www.stratcomcoe.org/analysis-russias-information- campaign%20-against-ukraine. 3. Bjola, Corneliu, Holmes, Marcus eds., Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, Routledge, New York, 2015. 4. Bjola, Corneliu, Cassidy, Jennifer, Manorc, Ilan, Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age, in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy vol. 14, 2019. 5. Blannin, Patrick, Defence Diplomacy in the Long War, Brill, Leiden, Boston, 2017 6. Carroll, Chad G., The U.S. Army Public Diplomacy Officer: Military public affairs officers’ roles in the global information environment, Chapel Hill, 2007, online https://doi.org/10.17615/crgc-cx38. 7. Costa, Valentin, Shaping Public Diplomacy through Social Media Networks in the 21st Century, in Romanian Journal of History and International Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2017. 8. Cowan, Geoffrey, Arsenault, Amelia, Moving From Monologue to Dialogue to Collaboration: The Three Layers of Public Diplomacy, in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1). 9. Cruz, Marissa, How the U.S. Military Engages in Public Diplomacy, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, online https://www.uscpublicdiplomacy.org/printpdf/52476. 10. Cull, Nicholas J., The Tightrope to Tomorrow: Reputational Security, Collective Vision and the Future of Public Diplomacy, in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy no, 14, 2019.

70

11. Duggan, Sean E., Redefining the Relationship: Reclaiming American Public Diplomacy from the US Military in Iraq, in Middle East Journal Vol. 66, No. 1 (Winter 2012). 12. Göran, Swistek, The nexus between Public Diplomacy and Military Diplomacy in Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy, Institute MCGI Munich, GRIN Verlag, 2012, https://www.grin.com/document/230341. 13. Gorenc, Nina, Public Diplomacy as an Instrument of US Foreign and Security Policy, in TEORIJA IN PRAKSA let. 56, 3/2019, online https://www.fdv.uni- lj.si/docs/default-source/tip/javna-diplomacija-kot-sredstvo-ameri%C5%A1ke- zunanje-in-varnostne-politike.pdf?sfvrsn=0. 14. Gregory, Bruce, Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication: Cultures, Firewalls, and Imported Norms, Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Conference on International Communication and Conflict, George Washington University and Georgetown University Washington, D.C., August 31, 2005, p. 8, online http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.112.7338&rep =rep1&type=pdf. 15. Hlihor, Ecaterina, Diplomaţia publică în politica internaţională, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare „Carol l”, București, 2017. 16. Khatib, Lina, Dutton, William, Thelwall, Michael, Public Diplomacy 2.0: A Case Study of the US Digital Outreach Team, in Middle East Journal, vol. 66, no. 3, 2012. 17. Kragh, Martin, Asberg, Sebastian, Russia’s strategy for influence through public diplomacy and active measures: the Swedish case, Journal of Strategic Studies, 2017, on line http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2016.1273830. 18. Melissen, Jan, The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, http://kimo-mp3.at.ua/_ld/0/87_en-09.pdf. 19. Nye, Joseph S. Jr., Puterea blîndă, trad., Daniela Oana Ioan, Institutul European, Iaşi, 2009. 20. Nye, Joseph S. Jr., Soft Power: The Origins and Political Progress of a Concept, in Palgrave Communications, Vol. 3, 2017, online http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1057/palcomms.2017.8. 21. Nye, Joseph S. Jr., The Paradox of American Power. Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone, University Press, Oxford, 2003. 22. Pelletier, Benjamin, La diplomatie publique américaine en France: étude de cas, online https://gestion-des-risques-interculturels.com/risques/la-diplomatie-publique- americaine-en-france-etude-de-cas/ 23. Ramsay, Gordon, Robertshaw, Sam, Weaponising news RT, Sputnik and targeted disinformation, Centre for the Study of Media, Communication & Power, King’s College London 24. Riordan, Shaun, Cyberdiplomacy: Managing Security and Governance Online, Polity Press, Cambridege, 2019. 25. Seib, Philip, ed., Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting US Foreign Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2009. 26. Snow, Nancy, Taylor, Philip M., Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, Routledge, 2009 Timothy C., Shea, Transforming Military Diplomacy, in Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 38, 2005. 27. Wallin, Matthew, Military Public Diplomacy. How the Military Influences Foreign Audiences, White Paper, February 2015. 1. Webster, A.J.K., The New Diplomacy: Analysis of State Public Diplomacy Strategy in The Age of Social Media, online https://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/ 259/290/317/305/webster.pdf. 2. Yasuhiro, Matsuda, An essay on China’s Military Public Diplomacy: Examination of Intentions in Foreign Strategy, online http://www.nids.mod.go.jp/english/ publication/kiyo/pdf/bulletin_e2006_2_Matsuda.pdf.

71

MASS COMMUNICATION AS AN INSTRUMENT OF THE SENSATIONAL

Constantin MIREANU Major, PhD Student in Communication Sciences, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Head of Multimedia Studio, MOD Media Trust [email protected]

Abstract: The unprecedented development of media technologies has led to the possibility of faster transmission of various information. This presents a multitude of advantages, the most important being that of real-time information on some relevant events for society. But another less positive phenomenon arose simultaneously: that of using it to misinform the general public for manipulative purposes or out of the desire of media actors to make higher ratings. Thus, most of the times, advertising, propaganda films, reports have come to encompass a small part of reality, well chosen, cut as credible as possible, with the purpose of intentionally transmitting certain messages that serve to increase the profit of media organizations and not to society as a whole. Therefore, this practice, in principle, deforms reality and even recreates it. In this paper I will present some aspects of this trend that has grown due to specific technologies developed for information purposes, in order to generate a better understanding of the industry of creating the "sensational" through the media. Keywords: reality, fake-news, framing, sensational, media manipulation.

With the development of media technologies, the public is witnessing an unprecedented flow of images and sounds. In people's homes and minds, televised shows of crime, violence, virtual worlds of entertainment, information, sex, politics are beginning to penetrate with increasing frequency, "rearranging their space and time, blurring the distinction between reality and media image, while producing new forms of experience and subjectivity”1. The turning point where humanity is supposed to be due to the catastrophic scenarios presented continuously in the press has been illustrated by many theorists such as Marshall McLuhan, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Wolton, Eco, Sartori, Kellner, etc. In their analyses, they speak, in a worrying tone, of the frenzy and pathology of consumption, of the seduction of industrialized entertainment, of the world of simulations in which we live, of the anesthesia of critical spirit or of the autism caused by the mechanism of the generalized communication, of the symbolic violence of media system, a "huge dragon" in whose belly we live, of the "world of shadows" that fascinates us with its continuous and dizzying unfolding on the screens, of our immersion in the "cave" of the media system, similar to that of Plato's myth, or of the involution of our cognitive abilities as we have been seduced by the power of television image and fell under the dictatorship of the show culture2. According to nationalist Marshall McLuhan, the emergence of electric current would modify the perceptual, sensory apparatus, through new means of communication, leading to an alienation of identity, to a return to the primitive taste of violence. The masses in front of television, who listen dutifully to already interpreted, analyzed, thought, even commanded in a certain way ideas are regarded by the Canadian theoretician as a return to the past, to the tribal society, where the leader is the one tyrannically taking decisions as sole authority. "Dramatic advertising produces life models" in the same way as the speech and gestures of

1 D. Kellner, Cultura media, Editura Institutul European, București, 2001, p. 29. 2 G. Georgiu, Comunicarea interculturală: Probleme, abordări, teorii, Comunicare.ro, 2010, p. 29.

72

the movie stars. The specific language of a failed child or a psychopath can thus be sent to the front line of a national advertising campaign, providing millions of teenagers with emotional strategies for the moment”3. The perception and effects of the message, according to Severin & Tankard4, are influenced by assumptions, sometimes unconscious, cultural expectations, needs, moods and attitudes. The authors analyze the influence of two 30-second spots on US military, to test whether the viewers received the messages intended by those who transmitted them. The first clip entitled "Dear Dad" suggested that the military service makes the young man mature, improves his physical and intellectual performances, as well as his character. The spot showed the army as a captivating institution, where there is adventure and stimuli for intellectual and physical evolution. The second spot entitled "Basic merits" aimed to present the basic training as means to overcome one’s physical and mental barriers, complexes, fears, etc. The videos were aimed at young people between the ages of 18 and 24. 396 subjects participated in the viewing and subsequently completed a questionnaire. The results showed that only some of the intended messages got through to the subjects. For example, 61% agreed that the actions in "Basic merits" were captivating and stimulating. However, a high percentage also received unintended messages. 39% of the participants noticed that the sergeant conducting the instruction was unrealistically presented in the advertisement. A large percentage, 66% were convinced that getting involved in the advertised activities would not help them find a good job later on. The study also shows that there were connections between the perception of the message and the characteristics of the audience. 54% of black men who responded to the study considered that the sergeant was presented realistic, while only 26% of whites and 32% of Hispanics and Asians had this opinion. Moreover, 84% of those without higher education considered that the "Dear Dad" spot was presenting military life as realistic as possible, while only 27% of those with high school education and 9% of college graduates thought the same. For the sake of the sensational, journalists do not think too much about the responsibility they should have, the effect of the words used, the exaggerations. They use words that create phantasms, cause fear, misrepresentation. "And thus, step by step, television - which is supposed to be a tool for recording and playing back reality - becomes an instrument for creating it. We are increasingly evolving into a universe in which the social world is described - prescribed by television. As days go by television becomes the arbiter of access to social and political existence”5. The new means of communication and especially their number lead to the creation of an artificial reality, which no longer even depends on the proximity, becoming a secondary reality, derived, represented. But the public refers to this reality as if it were a first, objective one. Thus confusion between the two worlds occurs. Walter Lippmann considers6 that there are three different levels through which we represent our world: through science, with the highest fidelity, through art, with less fidelity and through media, which is in fact an impression of reporting to the world, an artificial world created by media, an appearance in fact. For Lippmann, news is not reality. They disseminate and implant stereotypes. In addition, reporters cannot cover everything that happens in the world, the time for documentation being short. Most of the times the presented version of

3 M. McLuhan, Galaxia Gutenberg. Scrieri esențiale, Editura Nemira, 2015, p. 33. 4 W. J. Severin, J. W. Tankard, Perspective asupra teoriilor comunicării de masă: Originile, metodele şi utilizarea lor în mass media, Editura Polirom, București, 2004, p.34. 5 P. Bourdieu, Despre televiziune, Editura Art, București, 2007, p. 22. 6 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, Penguin Books, New York, 1946.

73

reality is the product of journalist's creation. "The journalist looks at the world through subjective lenses”7. Lippmann states that there is an objective reality beyond us and the existing images in our mind. Man cannot fully access the external environment, which is why he has to create his own, mentally. Of course he will create a simpler model. He will translate everything according to schemes, simple thinking patterns. Human mind works like a map for a traveler. This map of the environment, characteristic of each individual, is formed differently. It cannot be objective because everyone selects information according to their experiences, events, culture. Therefore, the selection is a subjective one creating in each person's mind a difference from the actual reality. "The images represent at the same time cognitive simplifications of the reality, a process during which, as we will see, a certain distortion takes place, by prioritizing some data and elements over others, by combining and evaluating them in a way that translates different sets of interests and values”8. Lippmann talks about the existence of patterns, filters that allow only a certain kind of information to pass, be analyzed, evaluated. These filters are actually made up of stereotypes and structures of stereotypes in our mind, meaning we perceive what we are ready to perceive. In most situations we do not see first and then define, but first define and then see9. The usual fact requires certain aspects regarding reality, truth, objectivity, having in essence only minimal links with them. Everywhere we have to deal with truths, live broadcasts, the shocking photography, the testimonial document etc. But what matters is the induction of the idea of reality, of authentic living. The reality is very important, so well highlighted that superimposed on the existing one it gives the viewer the impression that he is on the spot. President Roosevelt's radio talk series entitled "Fireside Chats", a title given by Harry Butcher, editor of CBS - Columbia Broadcasting System, has a good impact. The American family feels that it is in the midst of events, that it has an importance in the decision-making process. The direct effects of this series were to convince public opinion and Congress about making important decisions, such as public sympathy for the legislative initiative that allowed Britain to use the US war reserves10. It's about creating a phantasm. Mass communication, as Baudrillard says, does not offer the reality, but the vertigo of reality, and once we’re in we will enjoy, at the same time, the comfort of the distance from the place of crime, but also the joy of having virtually lived the crime live. Thus we live in the shelter of signs and unconsciously reject the real and the message content loses importance. Whether we are talking about the two thousand victims in Nigeria, the attack at the Kenyan university, Rwanda or a traffic accident, the comfortable shelter of distance on one hand and the participation in war or drama on the other, the strong involvement in association with sufficient distance, permanently fed by media scenarios, do not involve us in any way, they do not send us back to reality, but they nevertheless give us a guarantee of the reality that is sufficient for us. This selection of what we receive from outside is not just a mathematical filtering device, just a mechanism. It means much more because "a structure of stereotypes is not neutral. It is not just a way to order a confused and difficult to understand world. It is not just a way to simplify. It is the guarantee of self-respect; it is the projection of our own value on the world, of our position and rights. Stereotypes are therefore strongly charged with the

7 Alina Bârgăoanu, Tirania actualității, o introducere în istoria și teoria știrilor, Editura Tritonic, București, 2006, p. 29. 8 Paul Dobrescu, Alina Bârgăoanu, Mass media şi societatea, Comunicare.ro, 2003, p. 42. 9 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, Penguin Books, New York, 1946, p. 81. 10 Paul Dobrescu, Alina Bârgăoanu, op.cit., p. 77.

74

feelings we associate with them. They represent the fortress of our tradition and sheltered by its defence walls we continue to feel protected in our existence”11. Walter Lippmann proposes an alternative solution to media. Formation of expert teams that analyze the facts objectively and neutrally and contribute to the construction of "healthy public opinions", of realistic images about "the environment we do not know directly". With the advent of Internet, the images in our mind and our own filters are enhanced by artificial filters offered by computers according to certain algorithms that are exclusively related to our tastes and the paths we have navigated. Filters compared by Nicholas Negroponte with digital butlers, who, like a secretary who knows the director's agenda, or a butler who knows at any time what his master wants, only give the user the information that is in accordance with his profile. Thus the chances of seeing beyond our own filters are influenced by other filters, this time concrete, added by the terminal at which we operate in the network. In 1995 when Negroponte wrote The Digital Age these stewards were rather intuitive. "Imagine an electronic newspaper delivered to your home as bits. Assume it is sent to a magic screen the thickness of a sheet of paper, flexible, watertight, without cables, easy and bright. The interface solution will include years of human experience related to headers and page layouts, typographic signs, images and a variety of browsing assistance techniques. An interface of this kind, well made, will become an exceptional news medium. Poorly done it's hell. […] Most readers completely ignore entire sections of the newspaper without even taking a look at them, look fleetingly at some of the rest, and read very few articles. [...] In reality, a reader will be willing to pay more for ten pages of his favorite newspaper rather than for a hundred pages if he is certain he’ll receive the set of information he needs. That newspaper will be devoured (so to speak). The name of that newspaper? The Daily Self”12. Lippmann focuses more on science, truth, information, while his former student, John Dewey believes in the debate. Dewey believes that news even correct is not enough. It must give birth to debates, generate ideas. Only this way can public opinion generate. Dewey, in essence, blames the news, not that they cannot represent reality properly, but rather that they do not have the capacity to stimulate public conversation and dialogue. The author's reason dates from the beginning of the 19th century, when the issue of hierarchical communication was raised, from top to bottom, the possibility of reader's intervention being almost non- existent. But today things changed, there is live interaction with online newsrooms, with television stations, even with radio programs. Television urges dramatization, staging images, a certain event and at the same time exaggerates its importance, gravity, dramatic, tragic character. For the sake of the sensational show, journalists do not think too much about the responsibility they should have, the effect of the words used, the exaggerations. Words that create phantasms, cause fear, fear, misrepresentation. Journalists are interested in the unusual facts not everyday life. They try to offer extraordinary things daily. "Terrible constraint that imposed by the search of the scoop at any cost(sensational news)13”. Severin & Tankard14 consider the effects of mass communication are changing people's perceptions of reality and take for example the arguments of feminist theorists who argue, for example, that the effects of pornography extend beyond simple and isolated changes, going so far as to model social stereotypes about gender and sex.

11 Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, Penguin Books, New York, 1946, p. 96. 12 N. Negroponte, Era digitală, Editura All, București, 1999, p. 144. 13 P. Bourdieu, Despre televiziune, Editura Art, București, 2007, p. 28. 14 W. J. Severin, J. W. Tankard, Perspective asupra teoriilor comunicării de masă: Originile, metodele şi utilizarea lor în mass media, Editura Polirom, București, 2004, p. 297.

75

Usual facts cause diversion. They are the preferred substance of sensational press. Blood, sex, drama, crime have always sold well, so the need for a large audience brought them to the forefront, on the front page or in the opening of television newscasts. Much of the symbolic action exercised by television, as far as information is concerned, is to draw attention to facts of interest for everyone, constructed to be meaningful to all. They should not shock anyone, there is consensus about them, they do not divide, they are without stakes, they have no connection to something important. "Symbolic violence is exercised with the tacit complicity of those who endure it and those who exercise it, assuming that neither those who endure it nor those who exercise it are aware of it”15. According to the way it presents an event, television can create spectacular even out of a trivial fact and equally true, can intentionally leave important events in the shadow. Giovanni Sartori considers that television intentionally selects reality since from some places, usually due to geographical proximity, it broadcasts more, whereas from others, where access is difficult, it doesn’t broadcast at all. There are countries in conflict which cannot be reached. There are totalitarian regimes where it is also almost impossible to enter and film. The difficulty of access, the high transmission costs from remote areas, the risks that journalists face going to those areas that most of the times they avoid, lead to an inequality of information. Thus the half-truths, the inequality. There is also the tendency of television channels to tell half-truths. To manipulate through subjective frames, by the choice of certain perspectives, by recreating reality. Thus Sartori blames the subjective information practiced by television on account of costs involved in traveling over very long distances. If, for a newspaper, the news agencies provide enough information, the television leaves a large part of the world in shadow: “For ninety events out of a hundred we are not given anything to see based on this criterion. A criterion whose accounting force I understand, but which maximizes the incomplete and arbitrary character of the information that results. In conclusion, global television is ten to twenty times more absent, in the coverage of the world, compared to the newspaper. And if it is true that the image opens a window on the world that the description in writing cannot equal (in effect), it is just as true that the choice of the windows to be opened is reckless16. It is no less true that at the time Sartori wrote "Homo Videns" television was extremely expensive and was populated with many professionals, especially in the technical field, so it was not within reach to travel to the furthest places on the Globe. Today we are talking about the possibility of any smartphone user to film, broadcast live an event, create media content. This is why we cannot necessarily speak of a technical impossibility to reach a place due to the huge costs as much as of the uncertainty on the information received from content creators that are not employed by an institution. The society has the capacity to produce an increasing volume of information in relation to the appetite of consumers who cannot keep up. No matter how much we read we cannot discern, control the huge volume of information leading to oversaturation. "The information becomes ubiquitous and instigates a tyranny of the snapshot. We know everything about everything that happens in the four corners of the world without having time to understand and without knowing in the end what matters most: the duty to inform, the pressure of competition, the fascination for technical instruments or all three together"17. Wolton also refers to the pressure represented by wars, which, while limiting access to information allow for remarkable journalistic endeavors. The author refers to reports from conflicts in Indochina, Algeria, Vietnam, the Falklands, the Gulf and Yugoslavia, periods of

15 P. Bourdieu, Despre televiziune, Editura Art, București, 2007, p. 22. 16 G. Sartori, Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune și post-gândirea, Editura Humanitas, București, 2005, p. 2, p. 95. 17 D. Wolton, Despre comunicare, Comunicare.ro, 2012, p. 254.

76

time when there was a distortion of reality, when journalists had to deal with conflicting information and images from belligerent camps or with the illusion that everything had to be made public, with the gap between access to information and the inability to act, aspects that make Wolton wonder rhetorically: „To what extent is the right to information compatible with the constraints of war and therefore with constraints of censorship and policy? To what extent is silence or self-censorship part of the information?” 18. Information may seem from a psychological point of view a burden, "as a reality that crushes you, presses you, is uncomfortable and seems not to present the initially presented advantages19. Neo-television, as Umberto Eco called the television after the 1990s, cultivates a close relationship with the audience, dialogue, and the reflection on the spectator's problems. "The myth of the journalist's autonomy in media companies is abolished in the context of realities dominated by commercial imperatives”20. The real-time broadcasting, live broadcasts, possible due to the evolution of technology are made to the detriment of an adequate documentation, a deep reflection on the subject, on the correctness of the information transmitted. In media, especially in television, the emotion, the playfulness, the sensitivity are cultivated. Information mixes with entertainment, public life mixes with private life, always taking into account the taste of the public, probed through market research, focus groups, blogs, forums. All for a "popular journalism" which entertains and makes good rating. Public capture becomes priority. "The style is colorful, often sensationalist, the tone is populist, and the information content cultivates conflict, divergence, contradiction, disorder and abnormality”21. Usual information can thus be easily mistaken for quality information. Therefore society needs filters to select the informational wave. Specialized journalists in a particular branch is a good answer to the abundance of information. "We tend to refuse to listen to and look at messages that do not go our way, to retain only information that corresponds to our personal expectations and opinions. [...] The exposure, attention and perception of messages are subject to a complex process of filtering, which goes in the direction of consolidating our previous opinions”22. In situations of social and political crisis, reporting too quickly does nothing to resolve the crisis. Wolton believes that this sort of information transmitted live, under stress and pressure of time creates disorder in times of crises amplifying them. The journalists themselves are affected by the crisis, falling victim to their own agitation. "However as experience is not transmitted - very rarely a crisis is related by the same journalists who transmitted the previous one - the dramatization of information amplifies the dramatization of events”23. Wolton insists on the following: Live streaming is not synonymous with truth! and refers to the fact that information involves distance from the subject, documentation. The abundance of information makes it difficult to understand things. The information is produced in a continuous flow, more and more dramatically, distancing the audience from the reality and from the in-depth understanding of the event. "The new stage of evolution and self- organization of the technique corresponds to the birth of what the specialized literature calls derived secondary reality made up of zero degree reality representations”24.

18 Ibidem, p. 234. 19 Paul Dobrescu, Alina Bârgăoanu, op.cit., p. 104. 20 M. Lazăr, Noua televiziune și jurnalismul de spectacol, Polirom, București, 2008, p. 12. 21 Idem, p. 15. 22 Idem, p. 23. 23 D. Wolton, Despre comunicare, Comunicare.ro, 2012, p. 254. 24 Paul Dobrescu, Alina Bârgăoanu, op.cit., p. 102.

77

The success of broadcasting matters to any media trust that calculates its turnover according to rating. Therefore, the show is the main target and not the correct, timely information of the public. There is a small number of agency journalists who do fieldwork, gather information from the field and produce the largest amount of information subsequently disseminated worldwide. The disproportion between the number of field journalists and that of journalists who analyze and supplement the raw information collected from the field, is increasing. "Therefore the process of producing information resembles to a huge inverted pyramid”25. But it is important for televisions to ramble on a topic no matter how trivial, to rewrite reality, to always be in the minds of people with the idea of novelty, of absolute. "The common fact keeps the public's mind busy, it distracts attention from important issues. It consumes precious minutes of the viewer’s time, who otherwise has no time for the really important information. It is possible to establish a segregation, in terms of information, between, on one hand those capable of reading quality daily newspapers, and on the other hand those who have, as a single political background, only the information provided by television, which is almost nothing”26. Another cause that leads to the show rather than to a correct and timely information is the autarky of the environment in which the journalists live, as well as the temptation of conformism. Journalists, whose main purpose is to observe, to analyze society, tend to withdraw into their own world, to counterbalance the fact that they are always exposed to dangers, public pressures. "Anyway there is a significant gap between the closed nature of this environment and the fact that, day after day, it informs and creates an opening to the world”27. As for the temptation of conformism, Wolton points out that journalists are rather oriented toward synchronization with other journalists regarding the most important information. The idea that many journalists react the same way to an event gives them the certainty that they have perceived the reality correctly. "They do not realize that such a similar reaction does not necessarily suggest an objective perception of reality, but rather reflects the existence of a common professional culture. ”28. Thus for journalists it becomes more important to obtain exclusivity and spectacular disclosures to the detriment of impartial information in order to prevail in the face of competition. Sometimes, aspects of reality that matter, are silenced. The facts are easily interpreted, without solid documentation, without event distancing. By dramatizing and spectacularizing reality, the public becomes captive, enters the role, wishes to participate continuously, not to lose the essential that, in fact, delays to show up. All this and many others result in, Wolton shows, a state of deaf dissatisfaction with the public. The public no longer clearly distinguishes to what extent these practices have a duty to inform or reflect a fierce competition between the communication actors. In the same way, Ignacio Ramonet29 analyzes the desire of journalists to be sensational at any cost. Competition between television channels forces the journalists to recreate reality. To promote, to broadcast only what has to do with violence, death, entertainment of poor taste. In their pursuit of being the first many fall prey to manipulations, intoxications, inability to check sources.

Conclusion Television channels feature apocalyptic scenarios. On each channel, the news show shock and horror. Danger seems to lurk at every corner. The end seems closer all around the world after the 1990s. Chasing good ratings, the spectacular, strong feelings, sometimes with

25 D. Wolton, Despre comunicare, Comunicare.ro, 2012, p. 256. 26 P. Bourdieu, Despre televiziune, Editura Art, București, 2007, p. 25. 27 D. Wolton, op. cit., p. 258. 28 Ibidem. 29 Ignatio Ramonet, Tirania comunicării. Doina, București, 2000.

78

clearly defined interests, media creates reality, truthfully, instantly with the purpose of influencing perceptions, attitudes, behaviors. Since each individual’s reality is a construction based on complex cognitive mechanisms, understanding how this reality is formed and evolves is essential in analyzing the media effects and in deciphering the mechanisms that underlie social influence through the press, electoral campaigns, fake news etc. Broadcasting success matters to any media trust that calculates its turnover according to rating. Therefore, the show is the main target and not the correct, timely information of the public. There is a small number of agency journalists who do fieldwork, gather information from the field and produce the largest amount of information subsequently disseminated worldwide.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bârgăoanu, Alina, Tirania actualității, o introducere în istoria și teoria știrilor, Editura Tritonic, București, 2006. 2. Beciu, C. Sociologia comunicării și a spațiului public, Editura Polirom, București, 2011. 3. Bourdieu, P., Despre televiziune, Editura Art, București, 2007. 4. Dobrescu, Paul; Bârgăoanu, Alina, Mass media şi societatea, Comunicare.ro, 2003. 5. Georgiu, G., Comunicarea interculturală: Probleme, abordări, teorii, Comunicare.ro, 2010. 6. Goffman, E., Viața cotidiană ca spectacol, Editura Comunicare.ro, 2007. 7. Kellner, D., Cultura media, Editura Institutul European, București, 2001. 8. Lazăr, M., Noua televiziune și jurnalismul de spectacol, Editura Polirom, București, 2008. 9. Lippmann, Walter, Public Opinion, Penguin Books, New York, 1946. 10. Negroponte, N., Era digitală, Editura All, București, 1999. 11. Ramonet, Ignatio Tirania comunicării, Editura Doina, București, 2000. 12. Sartori, G., Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune și post-gândirea, Editura Humanitas, București, 2005. 13. Severin, W. J.; Tankard, J. W., Perspective asupra teoriilor comunicării de masă: Originile, metodele şi utilizarea lor în mass media, Editura Polirom, București, 2004. 14. Wolton, D., Despre comunicare, Comunicare.ro, 2012.

79

EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE LEADERSHIP – COMMUNICATION BINOMIAL IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

Bogdan-Costin MATEI Major, Ph. D. Student MA Student in Logistical Management, Command and Staff Faculty, ”Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected]

Abstract: The social development of contemporary society, characterized by bipolarity between globalism and traditionalism, as well as the new military realities in the third millennium, have led to the revision of all the generally accepted concepts in the national defence planning areas. The Romanian Armed Forces, as the main promoter of national security, were no exception to the overall structural modernization, a mandatory condition for an immediate and complete fulfillment of the assigned missions. Adaptating to the new extremely complex and volatile geopolitical context requires the promotion of leadership and comunication, an indispensable tandem for efficiency within the military system. So, where could we find inspiration for improving the skills of a contemporary officer? Keywords: modern warfare; military management; leadership; organizational communication.

Introduction Motto: “We are the first generation in history to be called upon to organize and manage the world, not from a position of power such as Alexander's or Caesar's or the Allies' at the end of World War II, but through a recognition of the universal responsibilities of all peoples, of the equal right to sustainable development, and of a universal duty of solidarity.” - Michel CAMDESSUS (former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund).

After millennia of continuous violence and hatred (among those who do not belong to the same tribe, nation, race, religion, social class, etc.), intellectual progress started by resorting to sense ("never make use of authority when you can resort to sense” - Voltaire). The ideas of the great Enlinghtenment sages culminated in modern times with the instauration of humanistic values and of social equality as foundations of our society. First and foremost, this profound spiritual revolution meant the transition from self-centeredness to respect for all human beings. The paradigm shift has led to unprecedented interhuman connections worldwide, materialized, initially through trade intensification and, subsequently, through cultural and technological exchanges. In the context of the growing internationalization of people's lifestyles, of overcoming geographical distances, of the free and almost instantaneous propagation of information, and, especially, given the technological boom which started during the second half of the nineteenth century, globalization emerged. Strongly promoted due to technological, political and economic reasons, it has gradually become a new and important transnational ideology, based on irreversibility and universality. Nevertheless, "globalization must be viewed as a tendency to reorder the world so as to overcome the boundaries of the old order", as a solution for integrating and assimilating modernism to guarantee the improvement of daily life.

80

Even though globalization has been accepted by a large part of the population, especially from Western Europe and North America, a number of divergences have been registered in the acceptance of the promoted values. The main reluctance is related to the deep value of individuality, the perception being that of dissolution in the great mass. As "intimacy is a basic human need, which derives from the fundamental need of survival", communities based on traditional vectors viewed globalism as an attack on their own identity, as a destruction of their very essence. Although existing in various forms from the initial stages of globalization, anti- globalization trends condensed in the early 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War - a major event which further brought the third wave of globalization, characterized by the shift of political interest from the state to the coalition of states. If for some people globalization is absolutely necessary to really move forward into the third millennium, for others it brings only suffering, despite the humanistic values of the phenomenon and the promise of a positive transition management. Nonetheless, this complex phenomenon conceals more than it shows at first sight.

Leadership and Communication Motto: ”Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating” – Simon SINEK (motivational speaker and American writer)

In the globalism-traditionalism antithesis of the contemporary world, the main characteristic of the new military realities is uncertainty, because we live in a rapidly changing world. The modern military organization and the concept of military action promoted by the organization must face this important challenge. One of the necessary conditions for success is the timely and modern functioning of the leadership-communication binomial. These two notions have always concerned scientists, which accounts for the huge number of research articles on this topic. For instance, what we now view as leadership and communication, seems to have been brought into discussion for the first time in the Socratic school of ancient Greece, when Plato theorized the two notions in "the ruler of the ideal city" and "beautiful speech". Even though some observations have passed the test of time, remaining valid after almost two and a half millennia, this does not mean that the model offered is effective today. In fact, I believe that the debate did not end, especially due to the huge changes nowadays, which led to an increasing degree of uncertainty. Now, more than ever, there is a need for visionary military leaders to offer viable solutions where there is only hesitation. The leader is that skilled member of an organization who has a great persuassive power. Although it is not a must, the manager should have some professional, decision-making, interpersonal skills in order to achieve the organization's goals. In comparison with the manager, the leader has more skills, which fall into three distinct categories: technical skills (which derive from the specific field of activity), cognitive skills (analytical or conceptual abilities) and emotional intelligence (self-awareness and people skills). Of course, there are cases in which the leader and the manager are the same person. In fact, this is the ideal situation, the most wanted within an organization, when the leader also has formal authority. Communication stems from people's social interconnectedness and refers to information that is transmitted bilaterally or multilaterally. Although communication goes back as far as the beginning of human existence, over time it has evolved to its present forms.

81

Though in some theoretical models positive communication is not necessarily viewed as a fundamental condition for leadership1, this contradicts my personal observations as a Romanian officer, summarized in the following statement: effective leadership cannot exist without effective communication, just as no effective communication can exist without effective leadership. In my opinion, these two concepts are interdependent, closely linked and mutually influential at qualitative level, forming a distinct binomial, a sine qua non condition for increasing management performance in the military organization. I think that in-depth reflections on this subject are useful, especially because Romanian military management "has acquired new strengths, generating a modern approach, as a result of creating the conditions for achieving interoperability with the Western military structures"2. Unfortunately, some leaders at tactical level are convinced that leadership performance is not influenced by communication and they do not take into consideration that their leadership style influences communication within the micro-institution. Moreover, from my professional experience, I have worked with officers who did not approach the two concepts together, being convinced that each one is distinct and independent from the other. The new geopolitical changes at the beginning of the third millennium have made Romania reconsider the available options in order to ensure national security. Due to Romania's firm commitment to the adoption of European and North Atlantic values and to full integration in these structures, the national orientation (and implicitly all subsequent courses of action) is subordinated to the objectives of the EU and NATO. In this regard, security standards, that focus on the characteristics of modern warfare, on the structural and functional endowment of the armed forces, on counteracting new military asymmetrical actions (primarily based on the deception of the opponent), must be identified and applied at national level, in accordance with the strategies of the EU and NATO, which will be used in a future armed conflict by possible enemies. In addition to simulating incapacity, as the main way of surprise, new hostile actors will be capable of attacking any objective on the world map and their efforts will focus on those that guarantee a maximum psychological impact on civilian population. In order to adapt to the current geopolitical and security context, characterized by complexity and volatility, military management is part of a deep transformation process aimed at reducing response time during crisis, at promoting effect-based operations, at designing preventive strategies and streamlining the structures according to the missions assigned. Thus, the new military legislative elements in Romania emphasize the importance of communication in management. For instance, a modern communication product in military leadership is "the common operational image (a single display with relevant information in the area of interest), adapted to requirements and based on common data and information distributed to all commanders in that area"3. Good communication among different levels of command is very important, especially in those should particular situations, when timing is a problem"4 and commanders should have the necessary skills to overcome the difficulties. In my opinion, the investigation of these two connected phenomena should be based on both theory and practice, on the lessons learnt within the economic and military organizations in Western states. In the business area, there are serious debates about the binomial leadership-communication.

1 Petre Duțu, Conducerea administrativă a armatei în situații de criză și război, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2009, p. 157. 2 Gheorghe Minculete, Elemente de management al sprijinului logistic, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2005, p. 9. 3 *** ”F.T.-2, Manualul activității de stat major a comandamentelor din Forțele Terestre”, București, 2019, article 0312, point 2, p. 23. 4 *** Ibidem, article 0614, p. 134.

82

According to theories:  the leader is that person who exerts power or great influence within social groups of various sizes5;  communication is a process of coding a message and sending it by means of a channel to a receiver in order to decode it6. Taking everything into account, communication becomes essential for efficient leadership. For instance, there are certain traits that make a true leader7:  status in the institution (charisma);  directing personal competences mainly horizontally;  multilateral profile;  a series of essential individual traits;  freely taken responsibility;  authority based on acceptance by others;  assumed tasks, which are expected by those around them;  exercising duties only during conducted activities. Therefore, good communication skills are essential individual qualities, a mandatory condition for positive leader-subordinate interaction. It military terms, communication skills mainly refer to clear, comprehensive, consistent and, above all, convincing transmission of orders, indications and tasks to the members of the organization. As "we spend 80% of our time communicating daily"8, it turns out that a large part of human learning involves sending and receiving messages. Communication is not only actively involved in the managerial act, but is also directly influenced by it, because “communication is not only about information; it also involves behaviour”9 that affect all spheres of organizational activity. Starting with the second half of the last century, the research undertaken in the field laid the foundation for the advent of a new concept: institutional communication, defined as "the interactive activity of a social entity, directed towards its complex accreditation on internal and external scale, towards legitimizing its personality by converting identity into an institutional image, in order to obtain the approval of public opinion based on the social mission of the institution”10. A military leader can initiate processes of social influence to motivate and guide the organization towards the fulfillment of the assigned missions. Given this new perspective, from my point of view, communication and leadership cannot be studied separately. In my career as an officer I promoted effective institutional communication in the managerial activity of the logistical structure under my command. I was fully aware that subordinates who were specialists in the functional areas of logistics (supply, transport, maintenance, infrastructure, healthcare, campaign services11) always had the best solutions for the various unpredictable technical problems, which inevitably appeared in the fulfillment of our missions. This made me appreciate those who were able to internalize the practical

5 Cătălin Zamfir, Lazăr Vlăsceanu, Dicționar de sociologie, Editura Babel, București, 1998, p. 328. 6 Ibidem, p. 123. 7 Constantin Moștoflei, Petre Duțu, Liderul militar în România, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2007, pp. 7-8. 8 Rebecca Shambaugh, Hillary Clinton. Secrete de leadership, Editura Curtea Veche, București, 2011, p. 131; 9 Paul Watzlawick, Janet Bavelas, Jackson Beavin, D. Don, Pragmatica comunicării umane, 1971, p. 48, apud. Constantin Marin, Comunicarea instituțională – studiu, Facultatea de Jurnalism și Științe ale Comunicării din Universitatea de Stat din Moldova, Chișinău, 1998, p. 34. 10 Constantin Marin, Comunicarea instituțională – studiu, Facultatea de Jurnalism și Științe ale Comunicării din Universitatea de Stat din Moldova, Chișinău, 1998, p. 38. 11 Gheorghe Minculete, Elemente de management al sprijinului logistic, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2005, p. 64.

83

experience they had, to persevere and subsequently adapt to my managerial style. I tried to encourage effective communication within the subunit, based on mutual trust, collective participation and active listening. Without fulfilling these desires, subordinate staff would have not felt comfortable and would have never initiated anything. Thus, connections among subordinates are stimulated by the personal actions of the leaders. This was also confirmed by the dissemination of recent scientific studies, which address assertive behaviour in managerial communication, defined as "the ability to communicate our opinions, beliefs, emotions, needs without affecting others’ rights"12. Only by using this style, is the military leader able to elicit relevant ideas from subordinates. Subsequently, by applying his own logistical decision13, he will be able to make these ideas accessible, applicable, useful and, above all, understood by those around him. Moreover, the new realities of the tactical battlefield make it essential for the commanders to adopt assertive communication in order to streamline the necessary vertical synergy. Another case of using assertive communication is for achieving horizontal synergy - the optimization of the relations among different specialized components of a subunit, as the mission may require the setting up of multifunctional teams with their own military forces, who need to integrate and cooperate in order to achieve success.

Conclusion All things taken into account, leadership requires intelligent communication, since they actually complement each other in order to achieve organizational efficiency. Excellence in management depends on the leader's ability to "think" his communication with subordinates, to use not only words, but also complex cognitive processes that build a positive atmosphere in the organization, generate affectivity and stimulate constructive feedback, focused on identifying solutions or optimizing those currently adopted. Of course, leadership is not just communication. An officer also needs integrity, fairness, charisma, perseverance, authenticity, courage, an open mind, empathy, intelligence, progressive thinking, etc. Communication must integrate harmoniously in order to outline the excellence of the personal style of management, in building the vision, identifying goals, explaining, motivating all the members, providing the necessary working tools and overcoming the difficulties that have arisen. In today's world, communication goes beyond the leadership framework, becoming an institutional value. Thus, communication improves any military structure, building a favorable image even for the public. Through communication, a military entity can show transparency and advocate for its role in the national security and defence system. In this case, leadership becomes subsequent to communication, the leadership style being a means for the communicative purpose. For that matter, these two phenomena are connected at a deep level, forming a binomial indispensable to military organizations, which ensures, as I have personally observed in many situations, not only efficiency, but also a positive perception within the society.

12 Oliviana Elena Epurescu, Aserțiunea în comunicare, The Proceedings of the International Conference ”Communication, Context, Interdisciplinarity” – Section: Communication, Public Relations and Journalism, no. 4/2016, Universitatea ”Petru Maior”, Tîrgu Mureș, 2016, p. 233. 13 Gheorghe Minculete, Management logistic – concepte, funcții, aplicații, Editura Academiei de Înalte Studii Militare, București, 2003, p. 13.

84

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. *** F.T.-2, Manualul activității de stat major a comandamentelor din Forțele Terestre, București, 2019; 2. DUȚU, Petre, Conducerea administrativă a armatei în situații de criză și război, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2009; 3. EPURESCU, Oliviana Elena, Aserțiunea în comunicare, The Proceedings of the International Conference ”Communication, Context, Interdisciplinarity”, Section: Communication, Public Relations and Journalism, nr. 4/2016, Universitatea ”Petru Maior”, Tîrgu Mureș, 2016; 4. MARIN, Constantin, Comunicarea instituțională – studiu, Facultatea de Jurnalism și Științe ale Comunicării din Universitatea de Stat din Moldova, Chișinău, 1998; 5. MINCULETE, Gheorghe, Elemente de management al sprijinului logistic, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2005; 6. MINCULETE, Gheorghe, Management logistic – concepte, funcții, aplicații, Editura Academiei de Înalte Studii Militare, București, 2003; 7. MOȘTOFLEI, Constantin; DUȚU, Petre, Liderul militar în România, Editura Universității Naționale de Apărare ”Carol I”, București, 2007; 8. SHAMBAUGH, Rebecca, Hillary Clinton. Secrete de leadership, Editura Curtea Veche, București, 2011; 9. WATZLAWICK, Paul; BAVELAS, Janet Beavin, JACKSON, Don D., Pragmatica comunicării umane, 1971; 10. ZAMFIR, Cătălin;VLĂSCEANU, Lazăr, Dicționar de sociologie, Editura Babel, București, 1998.

85

86

Adi MUSTAȚĂ, PhD Luiza COSTEA, PhD

87

88

INTUITIVE DECISION-MAKING IN THE MILITARY

Marinel-Adi MUSTAȚĂ Associate professor, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: Intuition has long been a “black box” of organizational practice. Over the last five decades a critical mass of scientific evidence has been accumulated, making possible attempts to educate intuitive decision- making. In this article I evaluate the theoretical studies and institutional documents that approach the issue of heuristics and biases in the military field and I also sketch some directions to be followed by the Romanian military system. Keywords: intuition, heuristics, biases, decision-making, military organization.

Introduction Throughout ages and cultures, intuition has been located at the level of several internal organs of the human body and even outside it. For example, we say that “I did what my heart dictated” or, in the Western business environment, an investor “goes with his gut feeling”1. Also, in some mystic traditions intuition comes from certain divine entities (e.g., angels) or requires a connection with certain “info-energetic fields” where information would be available without the need to pass it through the filter of thinking. Within the scientific horizon of information processing, the approach to intuition is much more prosaic, but probably also much closer to the idea of validity. When the leader of a team of firefighters takes out his team from a room in flames just before the floor collapses, the man does not have a coherent explanation about how he knew that his team was in danger. He explains this decision by invoking paranormal phenomena, “I simply knew and I there was no way I could have known”. The team of researchers who interviewed him insisted on learning all the details and concluded that intuition was nothing but a mismatch between previously formed patterns and the facts he was perceiving on the spot. The firefighter walked into that room with a certain pattern, one formed during years of experience, about how such a fire manifests. This type of fire should have lost intensity after the intervention with water, should have made a lot of noise and should not have produced such great heat. As the clues gleaned at the place of the fire were contrary to the pattern, the firefighter realized that something was not right and ordered his men out of the room. It was later on proved that the fire was located at the level below, a fact which explains the contradictions observed by the subject (Kahneman, Klein, 2009). One of the first major scientific attempts to study the intuitive manner of information processing was inspired by the concept of bounded rationality proposed by Herbert Simon (1956). Psychologists gradually realized the fact that human behaviour is marked by “cognitive miserliness”, in the sense that people are reluctant to spend their mental energy for low importance tasks. Alternatively, they prefer to process information in a fast and sparing manner through the use of thinking schemes that are called heuristics. Heuristics are mainly used when people do not have information, the capacity to process it, time, or when it simply is not worth it. The intuition of the firefighter in the example above could be characterized as

1 „He/she follows his gut instinct”.

89

pattern intuition, although such heuristics have not been explicitly described in the literature. Gradually, heuristics came to be identified as intuitive thinking and their positive and negative consequences began to be studied. In the military field the references to intuition are vague. It is believed that it belongs to the art of leadership and that it cannot be studied. In the current paper I present some of the efforts to study heuristics in the military field2.

1. A decade of financing by the American military The first explicit clue regarding the interest of a military organization for the problem of heuristics and biases is a research report dated August 1973 by Kahneman and Tversky and addressed to the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The research would go on to become, with slight changes, the first article systematizing the knowledge about heuristics and their associated biases, an article that was published in Science (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). We can thus say that the US military opportunely intuited the openings that the program of heuristics and biases would make possible in the field of military decision-making as well. A second research report that we were able to identify3 is dated May 1981 and was also financially supported by the ONR. In this document Kahneman and Tversky introduce a number of nuances regarding decision-making in conditions of uncertainty. They emphasize two distinct sources of uncertainty: the nature of the outer world (like flipping a coin, picking a card from a deck, the result of a football match, the behaviour of a volcano) and our personal knowledge (e.g. “I believe that Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe”, “I believe I spelled his name correctly”). In 1983, Khaneman and Tversky mention the financial support received from the ONR in an article dedicated to the conjunction error (Tversky and Kahneman, 1983), which suggests that the American Navy financed the research on heuristics and biases for a decade.

2. Disparate signals regarding the necessity for an explicit approach to heuristics and biases in military decision-making In 2007 lieutenant colonel Michael Janser writes a US Army War College graduation paper with the title Cognitive Biases in Military Decision Making4. In his opinion, the most recent discoveries in fields like psychology or behavioural economics led to an increase in decision-making performance in various industries and that time had come to adequately put this knowledge to use within the Department of Defence as well. Although biases are mentioned in general lines in some Army manuals, they are not concretely described and solutions for debiasing are not provided. In these circumstances, the applicative possibilities of decision-makers cannot be but limited. In the first part of the paper the author describes the three main heuristics and presents as classic the specialty literature: availability, representativeness and anchoring. Then he proceeds by presenting ten cognitive biases, of which the most important being the confirmation bias, loss aversion, and illusory correlation. In the second part, he describes the stages of the military decision-making process, which is of greater relevance to the aim of our paper: 1. Receiving the mission. The process begins by receiving an order from the higher echelon or by deducing a mission following a report from a commander in the field. The

2 Most of the information presented here was published by Mustata and Bogzeanu (2018) and in a Romanian version of this article (Mustata, 2019), and so the readers who wish to expand their knowledge about this topic are kindly asked to also make recourse to these references. 3 Report available at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a099503.pdf 4 “Cognitive biases in military decision-making”. Paper available at http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr- doc/pdf?AD=ADA493560

90

commander is made aware and the necessary instruments are provided (maps, intelligence reports etc). The commander issues an initial orientation, and the command issues a warning order which provides subordinated structures with an initial time frame, the necessary movements of troops and intelligence requirements. 2. Mission analysis. After receiving the initial orientation and issuing the warning order, the commander proceeds to a detailed analysis of the order by the higher echelon, of the risks implied and the mission itself. A new warning order will be issued toward the subordinated structures, and a planning guide will be issued to the command. This latter one will contain the operational concept and its constraints. 3. Development of the courses of action. It is a brainstorming process through which possible scenarios of the accomplishment of the mission are outlined, including the necessary forces and combat power. 4. Analysis of the courses of action. The feasibility and probability of success of each course of action are evaluated. 5. Comparison of the courses of action. The results of the previous stage are compared. 6. Approval of the courses of action. A decision is made regarding the optimum course of action 7. Issuing the orders of action. The orders toward the subordinated echelons are produced and distributed. The obvious problem of such a decision planning cycle is the extremely long time consumed in relation to the operational necessities. As time is often a major constraint, techniques shortening this time have been developed, such as: parallel planning, collaborative planning, the use of liaison officers in order to transmit the information as quickly as possible, an increased involvement of the commandant in order to shorten the briefing sessions, choosing a single course of action that is considered acceptable. The danger behind this strategy to shorten the decision-making cycle is to omit a number of options, which can lead to omitting a number of key factors. It is the ideal environment for the manifestation of cognitive biases, we would say. Even if there is sufficient time for the application of the standard procedure, biases can still occur and it is desirable that military decision-makers know about this thing. Another signal regarding the necessity to study the implications of the research on heuristics and cognitive biases in the military field was launched by Major Blair S. William who in 2010 published in the Military Review the article Heuristics and Biases in Military Decision Making5 (Williams, 2010). The starting point in the argumentation of the author was to observe the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of the military operational environment. If the most valuable military plans are swiftly invalidated by the extremely complicated practice of warfare6, then their continuous adaptation becomes a priority. In order to adapt these plans, commanders and their staff need a number of competences that are less cultivated in the military field, namely the capacity to improvise and the ability to reflect on their own manner of thinking in general. The doctrine of the US Army includes a clear decision-making process with which the military personnel is well familiarized and which thus becomes more reassuring. What is less obvious is that this process is based on premises such as the objective rationality of the decision-maker, the linear character of planning and the step-by-step approach to decision- making. The model imposed by the military norms is a robust one in situations where decision-makers have to manage a relatively stable operational situation, but is inadequate in situations that require an adaptation to the continuously changing realities in a theatre of operations. The answer of the military thinkers to this dysfunctionality was the concept of

5 Heuristics and biases in military decision-making. 6 In the military jargon we say that the enemy does not listen to our plans, it does not cooperate.

91

“design”, which requires the application of creative and critical thinking in understanding, visualizing, describing and solving complex and unstructured situations. To conclude, the American officer opines that the classical decision-making process can prove to be infeasible due to the fast pace, complexity and uncertainty specific to the contemporary military operational environment. Consequently, commanders may find themselves in situations where they must decide intuitively, based on experience, on the identification of patterns from the past, and on their own perceptions, emotions, and feelings. Such a situation is certainly fragile, marked by errors that can occur at every step. The institutionalization of the idea of “reflexive practice” the training of decision-makers to “think about thinking”, to experiment, to adjust or to change on the way the direction of a military action can be a process which has the potential to diminish these errors.

3. The first literature review focused on the military field In 2015 the Human Dimension Capabilities Development Task Force (HDCDTF) publishes the first literature review in the field of heuristics and biases focused on the military field7. The objectives of the paper were to describe the key concepts of the Program on Heuristics and Biases (PEB)8, to identify the best debiasing strategies, to systematize what had been achieved by the US Army until then and to suggest future courses of action and research themes. The argumentation for the institutionalization of the ideas provided by PEB is the usual one: the current military operational environment is complex and ambiguous and it requires agile and adaptive leaders. Most of the time these leaders do not have the “luxury” of time for debates and for approval from the higher echelons. In such conditions the heuristics and biases become inherent. Of great interest for our endeavour is the analysis of the statu quo in the field of the institutionalization of debiasing efforts in the American Army. It is clear that the decision- making process occupies a prominent role in military manuals, directives, and publications. According to ADP 6-0: Mission Command, the definition of an optimum decision-making process seems to integrate experience, training, and studying with the consideration for human factors. This makes a vague reference to the cognitive processes, thus to heuristics and biases. In an ensuing document (ADRP 6-09) the limits of the analytic manner of decision- making is admitted (time and information consuming) and the combination of the analytic and synthetic manners of thinking in decision-making are recommended. In another document, Army Regulation 600-10010, an attempt is made to distinguish between the information processing capacities needed by leaders at various hierarchical levels. At tactical level, it seems that leaders have to learn analytical and intuitive techniques, while at organizational level leaders have to acquire complex decision-making techniques. It is not clear what is to be understood by these types of techniques. In principle, the discussion about decision-making seems to be an extremely general one, without too many concrete guiding points that can be used by authors. Furthermore, in Army Handbook of Self- Development11, the decision-making process is not even mentioned. In relation with the education and training initiatives of the US Army there are no explicit mentions to heuristics and biases, with a single notable exception, Red Team

7 Paper available at http://usacac.army.mil/sites/default/files/publications/HDCDTF_WhitePaper_ Cognitive%20 Biases%20and%20Decision%20Making_Final_2015_01_09_0.pdf 8 The program initiated by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky for the study of heuristics and biases. 9 Available at https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/adrp6_0.pdf. This document has been superseded by ADP 6-0 / 2019. 10 Available at https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/ar600-100.pdf 11 http://www.armycounselingonline.com/army-self-development-handbook/

92

Handbook, edited by the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies (UFMCS). In this paper biases are discussed in the larger context of metacognition and critical thinking. The spearhead of research in the US Army in the field of heuristics and biases was the Army Research Institute, which appears to have funded many of Gary Klein’s projects, but this argument is unconvincing as he is one of the greatest critics of PEB. At the end of this attempt to catalogue the initiatives that have a minimum connection with the problem of heuristics and biases, the following recommendations can be made: - to organize a workshop focusing explicitly on the standard and measurable defining of a “good decision”, to develop methods and techniques to evaluate decisions and to achieve a distinction between the innate and cultivated components of the human psychic that are involved in heuristics and biases; - to introduce the curriculum developed by UFMCS on the topic of heuristics and biases12 in the School for Command Preparation; - to analyse the possibility to implement the ShadowBox method in the entire Army education and training system; this method copies experts’ methods in day-to-day decision-making (awareness of biases through analytical techniques); - to continue the research in order to identify ways to increase the capacity of the working memory in order to reduce the cognitive load; - to continue the research in the field of heuristics and biases.

4. A “timid” institutionalization A first document in which a couple of cognitive biases are mentioned (e.g. the confirmation bias) is FM 6-22 Leader Development13. This document provides a doctrinal framework for the training of leaders, the improvement of the organization, the building of teams and personal self-development. The document proposes a number of elementary debiasing strategies: to doubt or falsify the possible explanations; to pay attention to information that are not in line with your expectations; to build conceptual models, to explain the essential premises, to identify the causes of actions; to ask other of they think you are biased; seek the help of professionals (e.g. military priests, counsellors); to create a personal registry of own biases and to make efforts to reduce them; to talk about biases and to develop strategies to reduce them; to be self- reflexive. Even if the strategies are mentioned disparately in the analyzed document14, they are not explicitly connected to the empirical literature and are not even up-to-date, it is important to admit the openness and vision that supported such and endeavour. It is clear that, even at the level of the most advanced military in the world, things are at an incipient level and advance slowly. Regarding the Romanian Armed Forces, we were unable to identify any mention related to the idea of bias in the main documents used in practice (strategies, instructions, orders, manuals) and this shows us, authors, how important the current paper can be.

Conclusions Although the military organism initially was the “spearhead” in the study of heuristics and biases, later on the results of research were not assimilated in a systematic manner, not even in the US Army. The possible explanations for this would be of an objective nature, in the sense that the theoretical preoccupations were relatively new and we had to wait for the

12 We were unable to identify a page where this resource could be visualised. 13 Available at http://www.armycounselingonline.com/download/FM6_22.pdf 14 Almost unidentifiable without the command CTRL + F.

93

PEB to mature, but also the disproportionate relation between the identified errors (biases) and the solutions to counter them. Taking also into consideration a possible “organizational inertia”, which is normal up to a point, individuals’ resistance to change, but also a possible self-sufficiency, it is very probable for an initiative to “teach people how to think” to generate a reaction of rejection and skepticism. In order to limit the size of this reaction, I believe that it would be necessary to bring the following information to the military personnel: to present the information as coming from a source of great prestige (e.g. Kahneman, laureate of the Nobel prize, the British government15, the American military16), to have remarkable representatives from the military supporting this initiative (generals, admirals, officers, warrant officers, non- commissioned officers), to elaborate an accessible guide about thinking biases and the way to counter them, possibly supplemented with video lessons and a serious game.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Herbert A. Simon, Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment. Psychological Review, 129-138, 1956. 2. Kahneman, Daniel, Klein Gary, Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree, American Psychologist Vol 64(6): 515-526, 2009. 3. Mustață Marinel-Adi, Scientizarea deciziei intuitive din domeniul militar, Conferința Științifică de Toamnă a Academiei Oamenilor de Știință din România, Brașov, 2019. 4. Mustață Marinel-Adi, Bogzeanu Cristina, Programul euristicilor și biasurilor. Aplicații și implicații în domeniul militar, Editura Unversității Naționale de Apărare “Carol I”, București, 2017. 5. Tversky, Amos, Kahneman Daniel, Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment, Psychological Review Vol 90(4): 293- 315, 1983. 6. Tversky, Amos, Kahneman Daniel, Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases, Science Vol 185(4157): 1124-1131, 1974.

15 http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/about-us/ 16 Human Dimension Capabilities Development Task Force.

94

PROGRAM AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT - AN INSTRUMENT FOR RATIONALIZING SUPPLY IN DEFENCE RESOURCES

Alina-Elena IONAȘCU Officer, Application School for Logistics, “General Constantin Zaharia”, [email protected]

Toma PLEŞANU Professor, PhD, “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania, [email protected]

Abstract: Program and project management is a reform tool, offering practical support adapted to the military logisticians, in rationalizing the process of supplying forces with products, equipment, and materials, favoring the capacity to fulfill the organizational missions and the consolidation of the institutions. Given these aspects, this paper summarizes the main features of the management of programs and projects that could contribute to reducing the risk of dysfunction occurring within the functional areas of supply. The conclusions and proposals highlight the importance of transposing the supply in the program and project management to create the premises for the efficient, effective and economical use of defence resources. Keywords: rationalizing, programme, project, supply, defence resources.

Introduction: Context and Motivation The socio-economic-geopolitical environment, in which the Romanian state defines its security and defence strategies, is nowadays significantly different compared to the period before Romania's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which leads to a number of implications on the accomplishment of the constitutional powers attributed to the armed forces, where a special interest is given to the process of providing a defence resource basis in line with the new international challenges. Moreover, the accelerated pace of transformations in the field of technology and information has a strong impact on how defence resources are provided, which needs a reset on the principles of efficiency, effectiveness and economics, so that the supply - a functional area of military logistics - becomes a set of flexible stages for achieving the clearly stated objective. In this context, this article is based on the premise that the rationalization of the supply of defence resources using methods and techniques specific to the management of programs and projects has a major operational role to the capacity of the Romanian armed force to rise to the level of NATO standards, specific to mission accomplishment, in time of peace. Thus, from a theoretical point of view, a key aspect of the supply of defence resources refers to rationalizing the entire process by increasing the degree of correlation between the normative- conceptual plan and their implementation plan, including monitoring and control-evaluation, in order to achieve the objectives in complex environmental conditions. From an applicative point of view, the tools and techniques that can be used to direct the decision-making and execution factors are essential in order to ensure the need for material goods according to the regulations in force, for carrying out missions in time and in optimal conditions, and said attributes define the project management in the specialized literature. Due to these considerations, the article includes a first section that reviews the theoretical bases established in the specialized literature, both in the program and project management and in supplying defence resources. Subsequently, we analyze the significance

95

of rationalizing the supply of resources for defence and the need to use the project management as a tool to meet this objective. Finally, we present our conclusions and future research directions. Therefore, the article aims to highlight that rationalizing the supply of defence resources using project management represents an opportunity to meet the requirements for logistical support of the Romanian Armed Forces at the level of NATO standards, considering the changes occurred in the current international environment.

1. Program and project management: conceptual considerations The interconnection between the management of the succession of the stages of transformation of the Romanian armed forces from the 21st century and the project management in the military procurement processes for the decentralized supply is determined by the capacity of the integrated system of standards-procedures-programs and specific categories to adapt to the demands of the international environment in constant change, reflected by the degree of satisfaction of the beneficiaries and the level of meeting the organizational objectives at national and international level. An important step in the logic of carrying out scientific works, the determination of the theoretical framework of the problem under analysis is the basis for this approach. For this, from the beginning, it is worth stating that management is a relatively new concept, which was developed especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, when management theories were first founded. Although, having studied the specialized literature, we found many definitions meant to clarify the concept of project management, we will review below those that have resonance for the proposed research topic. Thus, referring to management, economist Pușcașu Mirela argues that this implies, on one hand, to create the system and process that will allow for identifying, assessing, allocating, managing, using, reproducing, recycling and recreating the necessary resources and, on the other hand, to create and model dynamic interconnection architectures in the efficient management and ingenious qualitative work1. Regarding the project management defined through a field of application2, its definition aims, among others, to: the proper management of the public entity, institution or organization, the useful involvement of human resources in the specific work processes and the achievement of the organizational objective declared through joint physical and intellectual effort. In the same vein, according to the PMBOK Guide3, project management is a process formed of two elements: the decision within the planning process, when the predefined tasks, ready for execution are served to the persons in charge and the decision in the execution processes, when corrections are prescribed for efficiently carrying out the activities. With regard to the management of military programs, complexity is of the essence, due both to the standards, procedures and causal link between the centralization of actions, the revision of orders and the implementation of projects, respectively the main purpose of meeting the needs of the armed forces, which have, in turn, different organizational objectives. Considering these aspects, the management of programs and projects represents an instrument consisting of a set of methods and techniques whose role is to orient the decision- making and execution factors towards the systematic fulfillment of the tasks, within a

1 Pușcașu Mirela, Apărarea Națională și managementul resurselor pentru apărare (”National Defence and Defence Ressources Management”), Bucharest, ”Carol I” National Defence University, 2009, p. 103. 2 Lauri Koskela, The underlying theory of project management is obsolete, Publisher: University of Salford, Manchester, 2002, p. 3. 3 Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 2017.

96

timeframe, with costs and quality constraints, in the activity environment and in the life cycle of the organizational objective.

2. Rationalizing the supply of resources for defence: significance Currently, the security of a state requires the correct alignment of the activities of supply with resources for defence to the economic and strategic defence objectives. In this case, the rationalization of the supply must be analyzed from the perspective of a systematic process, based on the military logistics professionals’ knowing and applying a unitary set of normative regulations transposed into conceptual mechanisms, adapted to the available inputs and the institutional outputs pursued. Analyzing the specialized literature of the 20th century4, where the supply is defined as an activity comprising all the technical and organizational measures adopted for the procurement and planned distribution to consumers of the products necessary for equipment, providing the necessary items for personnel’ living requirements, operation of the technical means of combat, machines, aggregates, etc. In a different approach, the Supply Management Institute (ISM) raises the concept of supply management defined as a succession of activities, including "identifying, acquiring, accessing, positioning and managing the resources that an organization needs in order to reach its strategic objectives”5. Considering the necessity of the correlation between the economic resources and the defence resources, the supply includes all the activities carried out to support the armed forces with the resources necessary to carry out the organizational missions, according to the needs determined, the demand submission time, the offer identification, the application of the specific procurement procedures, according to the regulations in force, and the conditions of reception, management, storage, distribution, respectively declassification or removal, as the final stage of the system/ material goods life cycle management. In this sense, the defence resources include all the material, financial and human sources that can be exploited within the state defence system, which expresses its possibilities of meeting the strategic objectives in this field. Thus, the main objectives6 of the supply is to achieve, manage and exchange stocks which have a vital function7, to interrupt and harmonize the process of permanent provision with the resources necessary for the forces, in order to fulfill the operating conditions, during peace, siege or war. Based on the research and understanding of the specialized literature studied8, according to which the rationalization of supply ensures a key workflow for organizing chains of integrated logistic support, we rely our argument regarding the need to apply this approach in the national military system, starting from the principle of effectiveness, efficiency and economics. By applying the principle of efficiency in the provision of resources for defence, the aim is to fulfill the organizational objective of each beneficiary structure, in particular, and of the defence system of the Romanian state.

4 Lexicon Militar (“Military Lexicon”), Military Publisher, Bucharest, 1980, p.68. 5 Biederman D., The Customer Is King, Again, Journal of Commerce, May 10, 2010: Apud. Wisner J. D., Keah- Choon T., Keong Leong G., Principles of Supply Chain Management - a Balanced Approach, Cengage Learning Publisher, 2011, p. 8. 6 Tănase I-F., Curs de conducere logistică (1) („A Course of Logistics Management”), Bucharest, ”Carol I” National Defence University, 2010, p.38. 7 Pînzariu S., Managementul constituirii, depozitării și preschimbării stocurilor de luptă în armata României („Management of Creation, Storage and Exchange of Fight Stocks in the Romanian Army”), Bucharest, ”Carol I” National Defence University, 2015, p. 10. 8 Talluri S., De Campos H., Supplier Rationalization: A Sourcing Decision Model, published in The Jurnal of Decision Sciences Institute, Volume 44, Number 1, 2013, p. 58.

97

By integrating the principle of efficiency in the provision of defence resources we refer to those methods (based on policies, techniques, procedures, technologies, etc.) that, if adopted and applied, reduce uncertainty and / or variability both in any particular stage, as well as within the "set of stages" within the supply strategies. The results of applying these methods would have the effect of directing the supply to the "efficient border" of the commercial area - cost - availability, which implies the best possible use of these existing resources, within the limits of designing the current system and the procurement practice from the economic operators or provision from their own sources, by using existing technology9. The principle of economicity is applied in case of supply through purchases made at the lowest market cost. By corroborating the previous explanations with the project management - understood as a complex of methods and techniques used for supplying different types of resources necessary to generate and regenerate the forces, means and actions required for the continuous optimization of the national, European and international security environment for implementation of the concepts of security and defence10, we need to detail the interconnected activities11 within the process of rationalizing the supply with resources for defence.

3. Rationalizing the supply of defence resources by using MPP Researcher GW Dickson states in his paper, “An analysis of vendor selection systems and decisions”12, that "the supply strategies encompass a multitude of objectives and should not be limited to the paradigmatic myopic lens of price", an idea that is valid for provision of resources for defence, based on the methods and techniques of project management. Given the decrease of human and financial resources of the National Defence Ministry, the specialists13 argue on the acute needs of rationalizing the supply of resources for defence, in relation to the size of the inputs - to highlight how objectives are achieved, and identified with the system outputs, subject to its constant structure14, based on project management, flexibility and adaptability to changes in the global socio-economic-political and military environment and of professionalization of the forces remaining in the system according to NATO standards. In fact, the supply rationalization is not a new topic of research, and economist Deming has been pleading since 1980 about the negative implications on the quality and costs of maintaining a large offer basis for a supplier's needs15. In this sense, it is understood that a rationalization of the supply of defence resources, from the point of view of the suppliers, implies a rigorous system of selection, being a means for better supporting the strategic objectives. Since 1991, the development of software for mathematical data processing and statistical sourcing models has led to the creation of four procurement models: mathematical programming methods, cost-based methods, multi-criteria decision methods and methods

9 G.H. Parlier, Transforming US Army Supply Chains: An Analytical Architecture for Management Innovation, 2010, p. 14. 10 D. Badea, Constantinescu M., Mănescu G., Defence resources management – an introductory course, AFT Publisher, Sibiu, 2017, p. 11. 11 ISO 9000 visited on https://www.iso.org on January 12, 2020. 12 G. W. Dickson, (1966). An analysis of vendor selection systems and decisions, Journal of Purchasing, 2(1), 5–17. 13 New Strategy Center, România nu poate fi un actor regional relevant fără o armată modernă și o industrie de securitate puternică (“Romania cannot be a relevant regional actor without a modern army and a strong security industry”), Bucharest, 2016, pp.6-8. 14 Badea, D., Bârsan Gh., Stanic, M., Coman, M., Modelarea și simularea activităților și acțiunilor militare (“Modeling and simulating military activities and actions”), AFT PUblisher, Sibiu, 2014, p. 12. 15 Deming, W. E. (1981). Improvement of quality and productivity through action by management. National Productivity Review (pre-1986), 1(1), 12–22.

98

based on simulation16. While each of these methodologies has its own strengths and weaknesses and as such has different degrees of applicability depending on the specifics of the supply, we propose to focus on rationalizing the supply through the project management, an instrument that aims at the efficiency of the whole process, with a wide spectrum of performance and capacity dimensions. What does project management do? For the military logistics systems, the rationalization of the supply implies, first of all, the optimization of the legislative framework in the field. In this case, the optimization involves carrying out research projects, having as a deliverable, a legislative proposal that captures a supply-support system, comprising multi-step, multi-item, multi-indenture and also the dynamics of reverse flows for repairable components. Such an approach implies, secondly, the development of the supply management system, which must be linked to the principles defined by the promoters of the modeling school17 in the field of project management. In this respect, particular relevance is given to practical aspects, such as:  reviewing the tools for planning, purchasing or provision from other sources than from economic operators, by integrating software programs, which have the capacity to react in critical moments for the supply chain;  adjusting the logistic support with the held of databases with information on the sources of supply;  providing digital support for integrated transport;  initiating national stock management programs, by launching viable projects to remove normative barriers on exchanging atypical material goods, subject to wear and tear, as the case may be, in collaboration with private economic operators;  organizing deposits with the help of technology and information tools. Last but not least, in an effort to rationalize the supply of defence resources, the use of the specific methods of project management is necessary in assessing the interactions between its different stages, in order to understand how the impact of the decision related to the stock management, demand planning, source identification and subsequently the method of purchase or provision, at a certain time or location affects another sub-activity or stage along the supply chain. Thus, in rationalizing the supply of resources for defence, a recurring challenge of the project management is to optimize the data network, starting from the normative regulations, continuing with the necessary planning, sources identification, organizing and coordinating the way of ensuring resources, including transport, and ending with the reception and storage, evaluation activities of the entire supply chain. For example, in the United States, the transformation of the procurement process has become an important objective, given the economic and defence implications. Thus, following a research project18, it was found that the structure and policies in the system are the cause of the supply difficulties encountered in the American aviation forces, the main key sources of diagnostics used being the theory of stock management the principles of the supply chain and the analysis of the logistics systems as key sources of diagnostic power. This research project provided an overview of the causes and effects of the supply difficulties of aviation forces, thus:  lack of a function to establish the aviation requirements, which causes inadequate budgetary planning and inadequate management of the funds to reach the training objectives;

16 S. Talluri, De Campos H., Op.cit., p. 64. 17 Frank Anbari, Cristophe Bredillet, Perspectives on research in project management: the nine schools, Published in International Network of Business, 2013, pp. 5-7. 18 G.H. Parlier Op. cit., pp. 1-3.

99

 limited understanding of mission-based operational demands and spare parts associated with consumption patterns, resulting in faulty cost planning and inefficient inventory policy;  the failure to optimize the stock policy to obtain the degree of preparation adapted to the mission objectives, results in inefficient procurement;  the impossibility to proactively synchronize and manage the logistics significantly increases the delay time of the order, being associated with a poor training of the personnel;  the lack of operations to modernize the inadequately organized warehouses reduces the enormous benefits of a closed-loop supply chain;  limited visibility and control over the economic operators of the profile, leading to the diminution of the production sources of raw materials and increasing challenges to reduce the aging degree of the aircraft fleet;  the supply stages that operate independently, uncoordinated and not synchronized within the chain, create dangerous effects for the fulfillment of the objectives;  lack of an "engine for innovation" that will accelerate and then support continuous improvement for a knowledge-based organization.

The solution identified through the aforementioned project was the development of an integrated, multi-step software network, which offers more opportunities for the supply chain efficiency, such as: avoiding multiple forecasts, due to inconsistencies between stages, monitoring of the demand and offer variables, including the delivery time, differentiated adaptation of the demand for services and improvement of stock management19. In relation to what would be done in a project to rationalize the supply base, another research study20 mainly aims to create a database with the main suppliers considered optimal with the organizational objectives. To this end, the researchers proposed the analysis of data envelope analysis (DEA), focused on overall efficiency, rather than on production or size. This focus on efficiency can make the DEA a more appropriate choice for strategic procurement initiatives, as it allows for a comprehensive assessment of suppliers based on the efficiency with which they turn input (outputs). In case of rationalizing the supply of defence resources, the analysis of data coverage should include in addition to the suppliers and other sources, so the dimensions of DEA could be as follows: A. Inputs (capabilities of sources of supply):  Quality management practices and systems (QMP);  Documentation and self-audit (SA);  Process capacity (PMC);  Management of the organization (MGT);  Design and development capabilities (DD);  Cost reduction capability (CR); B. Results (supply source performance):  Quality - Price - Delivery / Transport;  Cost reduction performance (CRP);  Other data regarding sources, technical assistance, suppliers' responses to RFQ (request for quotes) and the supplier's response to unique problems in a timely manner.

19 Waters D., Logistics - An Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Palgrave Macmillan Publisher, 2003, pp. 322- 346. 20 Talluri S., De Campos H., Op.cit., pp. 65-71.

100

In summary, the results of the DEA assessments reflect how well a provider benefits from its existing capabilities to achieve significant customer performance. Given the issues presented, a high level of efficiency indicates a supply system that has certain practices and capabilities in place to be able to respond effectively to the current and possible supply needs of each category of forces. In this regard, future research may consider conducting a longitudinal design to complement the deficiencies of existing studies, to provide temporary evidence on the informal integrated direction of the supply chain, cost performance, operational performance, and product complexity21. However, a scheme for project management implementation in the field of procurement requires analytical methodologies to properly test the wide range of new initiatives, modern technologies, process changes and innovative policies to be applied in this particularly important area for Romanian state security and defence.

Conclusions: future research directions The technological, economic, social and geopolitical changes directly influence the evolution of the military system, which must constantly adapt to the new conditions, so as to respond to the multiple security and defence challenges. Given this context, an inverse proportional relationship is created between the increasing number of missions of the armed forces, which are becoming increasingly complex and the limited resources for defence increasingly. Thus, rationalizing the supply of resources for defence is an essential step in achieving the balance between the level of preparation of forces and the challenges of the current socio-economic-geopolitical environment. The purpose of this paper is not, however, exhaustive. The paper highlights some of the main future research directions we propose. If we analyze the overall conclusions of the studies quoted above, we can synthesize some future research directions regarding the rationalization of supply using project management:  reviewing the normative mechanisms in the field of supply, through draft laws that allow logistics to become more flexible and responsive;  the creation of a research base in the field of military logistics that will contribute on the one hand to the identification of optimal solutions for the introduction of the IT tools provided by NATO, such as Logistics Functional Services (LOGFAS), in all structures, as well as the development of national software programs containing common electronic databases for norms, sources of supply and integrated transport and storage possibilities, through automatic guidance systems, in an operational image;  the integration of modern supply chain management technologies to optimize the process of establishing the consumers’ needs (subsistence food, uniforms, mobile feeding systems, protective equipment against weapons of mass destruction, self- armor, weapons, ammunition, etc.);  designing and building a distribution network, which represents a method to ensure the successful delivery of the necessary resources to the military units, in an efficient hybrid system of centralized and decentralized supply;  reducing the costs of supply, by minimizing the excess stocks and concentrating the efforts of standardization and improvement of the storage conditions, on material property bases;  implementation of a national research program for developing the modeling and simulation capacity of the supply chain, in order to support the strategy focused on

21 Wong C.W.Y., Lai K-H., Bernroider E.W.N., The performance of contingenies of supply chain, published in Int. J. Production Economics 165 (2015) 1–11.

101

logistics performance, starting from the rationalization of the sources of supply, on principles of efficiency and up to the optimization of financial, human and material resources used to meet the demand dimensioned in relation to the mission to be fulfilled and the existing stocks. Therefore, rationalizing the supply of defence resources is a complex and long process, involving regulatory changes, investments and training in software systems of storage and integrated data analysis, for which project management can generate solutions capable of meeting current challenges. It is certainly worth stating that the human resources operating with these software must be trained. In addition, as the current socio-economic-geopolitical environment, the products, technologies and missions of the armed forces changea and trigger changes in priorities for supply chains, requiring them to be more flexible to respond quickly to these changes. Therefore, the continuation of the research of the best practices and trends in the rationalization of the supply, is essential for the automation of the exchange of information between the categories of forces and the subordinated units, leading to an improvement of the efficiency in procurement, lower costs with the material resources and the services, visibility in real time, faster communication between the involved factors and improved collaboration in the supply chain, meaning the accomplishment of the organizational missions in optimal conditions, according to the standards imposed at international level.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Anbari F., Bredillet C., Perspectives on research in project management: the nine schools, Published in International Network of Business, 2013. 2. Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 2017Badea D., Constantinescu M., Mănescu G., Defence resources management – an introductory course, ”Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy Publishing House, SIBIU, 2017. 3. Badea D., Bârsan Gh., Stanic M., Coman M., Modelarea și simularea activităților și acțiunilor militare, ”Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy Publishing House, SIBIU, 2014; 4. Biederman D., “The Customer Is King, Again”, Journal of Commerce, 2010; 5. Deming, W. E., Improvement of quality and productivity through action by management, publicat in National Productivity Review (pre-1986), 1(1), 12–22. 6. Dickson, G. W. (1966). An analysis of vendor selection systems and decisions, Journal of Purchasing, 2(1), 5–17. 7. *** - ISO 9000 accesat online https://www.iso.org la data de 12.01.2020. 8. Koskela L., The underlying theory of project management is obsolete, Publisher: University of Salford, Manchester, 2002. 9. ***- Lexicon Militar, Editura Militară, Bucureşti, 1980. 10. New Strategy Center, România nu poate fi un actor regional relevant fără o armată modernă și o industrie de securitate puternică, București, 2016. 11. Parlier G.H., Transforming US Army Supply Chains: An Analytical Architecture for Management Innovation, 2010. 12. Pînzariu S., Managementul constituirii, depozitării și preschimbării stocurilor de luptă în armata României, “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania, 2015. 13. Pușcașu M, Apărarea Națională și managementul resurselor pentru apărare, “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania, 2009. 14. Talluri S., De Campos H., Supplier Rationalization: A Sourcing Decision Model, The Jurnal of Decision Sciences Institute, Volume 44, Number 1, 2013, p. 58.

102

15. Tănase I-F., Curs de conducere logistică (1), “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania, 2010. 16. Waters D., Logistics - An Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 17. Wisner J. D., Keah-Choon T., Keong Leong G., Principles of Supply Chain Management - a Balanced Approach, Cengage Learning, 2011 (http://www.sap- project.ca/SCMP/CHAPTER1READING.pdf); 18. Wong C.W.Y., Lai K-H., Bernroider E.W.N., The performance of contingenies of supply chain, Int. J. Production Economics 165 (2015) 1–11; 19. http://www.isglimited.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/ISG_LOGFAS_Support_Se rvices.21174635.pdf, accessed on the date12.02.2020.

103

STANDARDIZATION OF THE FOOD SYSTEM IN ROMANIAN ARMED FORCES

Alina-Elena IONAȘCU Officer, Application School for Logistics, “General Constantin Zaharia”, [email protected]

Toma PLEȘANU Professor, PhD, “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania, [email protected]

Abstract: Increasing the pace of transformation of the military environment in conjunction with legislative changes in areas such as public procurement or finance and the results of studies, which reveal a diversity of adverse effects of nutrition from many points of view on human health, requires standardization actions in terms of normative regulation to the feeding system in Romanian Armed Forces. In this context, a standardized approach to managing the feeding system is a fundamental way of ensuring the physical and mental resilience of the armed forces. The paper presents a brief overview of the concepts used, the scientific principles of nutrition, continues with the explanation of the program used by the American researchers to correlate the nutritional needs of the US military with the field of action and ends with highlighting the authors' proposals for standardizing the feeding system of the military in the Romanian armed forces. Keywords: standardization, feeding system, resilience, nutrition, armed forces.

Introduction Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, a remarkable personality of the universal culture, claimed the principle that "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do!”1, an idea fundamentally valid also for initiating a standardization approach of the military system of feeding the Romanian armed forces. In a broad sense, considering as a general framework the fact that in the 21st century the world's food is governed by the principle of serving food as soon as possible, by the principle of over-sizing food and the selection of agri-food products based on the lowest price, it becomes obvious that knowing nutritious foods is not enough, and making healthy choices all the time becomes a challenge. In a restricted sense, with Romania's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Romanian armed forces participate alongside the allied countries in operations in certain areas facing new challenges, such as hybrid warfare, which increases the risk of injury from explosions, in this case the management of the health of the military being influenced by the nutrition provided. According to arguments by integrating a collection of principles and rules based on the works of the specialized literature, the research studies referring to specific working groups, lessons learned and comparative analyses with the systems applied in the allied armies, standardization can contribute to minimizing or eliminating the difficulties encountered by the military logistics professionals in planning and restoring the feeding capabilities, reviewing the optimal caloric diet for the various categories of military personnel and nutrition advice. Moreover, the fundamental premise is that awareness of the need to develop a research

1 https://lectiidesucces.com/citate-motivationale/, no. 56, visited on February 12, 2020.

104

program for the revision of the military feeding system, in time of peace, siege or war, depending on the context of the activities in the job description and the current nutritional intake of food, is essential instarting the standardization of the feeding process. In this context, the reason of the present research derives from the common conception of the 21st century regarding the understanding, study and practice of nutrition, in an integrated approach, which promotes the knowledge of the specific factors for an optimal and balanced nutrition, through experimental research, centered on the individual, in view of establishing ways of action to face challenges such as inadequate nutritional behaviors, food safety and the coexistence of undernutrition and excessive nutrition, and implicitly the opportunity for setting norms, standards and ethical values in this field congruent with human health.

1. General aspects of understanding human nutrition The evolution of nutrition over time is congruent with that of human knowledge of the environment, chemistry, physics and medicine, the first ideas belonging to Hippocrates, who wrote the first papers on differentiating the diet according to the health and argued that a balanced lifestyle depends equally on the nutritional value of the food and the sports activity of each individual. Currently, the specialized literature2 admits that nutrition is the science that deals with the study of food, nutrients and other chemical constituents and the effects of food - the components of health. Food is characterized by a number of attributes, such as:  nutrition is an interdisciplinary science, meaning that it interferes with the principles, discoveries and practices in multiple fields, which influence each other;  nutritional recommendations for the public constitute new knowledge about nutrition and health, considering that each individual has personal characteristics;  the science of nutrition is based on principles standing for basic truths and serving as the foundation of our understanding of nutrition;  healthy people need the same nutrients throughout the whole life cycle, but in different quantities, due to metabolic, physical and mental changes; moreover, metabolism, broadly defined, represents a range of biochemical processes that promote cell function and survival3;  from a nutritional point of view, needs can be satisfied by a wide variety of eating habits, determined by social, cultural, economic, regional influences, material, financial and environmental possibilities;  the nutritional state during one stage of the life cycle influences the health in the following stages, as they are interdependent. In another conception, human nutrition describes the processes by which cells, tissues, organs, systems, and the body as a whole, obtain and use the necessary substances from food (nutrients) to maintain structural and functional integrity4. Since each field of science is governed by a set of principles that provide the foundation for knowledge development, nutrition is based on ten such principles, which, once learned, can be a driving force for understanding the theses explored in the next chapters of this approach. According to the specialized doctrine5, the 10 principles of nutrition are: 1. food is a basic need of people;

2 Brown J., et al., Nutrition through the life cycle, Cengage Publisher, 2011, pp. 2-3. 3 Lapierre H., Skomiał J., Energy and Protein Metabolism and Nutrition, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2016, p. 27. 4 Gibney M.J., Susan A., Lanham-New, Cassidy A., Vorster H., Introduction to human nutrition, Wiley- Blackwell Publisher, 2009. 5 Brown J., et al., Op.cit., p. 6.

105

2. foods provide energy (calories), nutrients and other substances needed for development and health; 3. eating disorders have their origin in cells; 4. poor nutrition can result from inadequate levels of nutrient intake; 5. people have adaptive mechanisms for managing food intake fluctuations; 6. malnutrition can result from poor diets and disease states, genetic factors or combinations of these causes; 7. some groups of people have a higher level of risk regarding inadequate nutrition; 8. poor nutrition can influence the development of certain corneal diseases; 9. adequacy, variety and balance are the essential characteristics of a healthy diet; 10. there are no "good" or "bad" foods.

By virtue of these principles, it can be said that human nutrition is a complex scientific field, which deals with studying how food substances provide optimal and balanced nutrition for sustaining life. Consequently, if food is a basic need of the people, then the military personnel need sufficient food to maintain an optimal health, which will allow them to perform their duties. Thus, from a general and particular point of view, a menu adapted to the needs provides energy measured in the calories, nutrients and other substances necessary to cultivate the feeling of food security, which allows the development of acceptable capabilities in the working environment in which the individual acts.

2. Conceptual framework for standardizing the military feeding system The aspects presented above suggest that some of the major discoveries, processes and evolutions of nutritional understanding still need to be fully translated into simple and concentrated ideas, respectively materialized into effective measures necessary to realize all the potential benefits. One way to achieve this goal is the standardization, supported by nutritional research, whose illustrious historians hold a series of discoveries capable of optimizing the lives of millions of people around the world. From a conceptual point of view, standardization represents the activity carried out by a recognized body (at international level: International Organization for Standardization, abbreviated ISO) that elaborates specifications, fundamental principles, operating rules for products, services and systems, in order to increase their quality, efficiency and security, while also contributing to the facilitation of international trade6. Basically, ISO has issued ISO 22000: 2018 Certification related to food. The scope of this standard is aimed at both food producers and packaging producers who come into direct contact with the food product. In addition, the ISO 22000 standard can also be applied by additive manufacturers, machine and equipment manufacturers used in the food industry, service providers along the food chain (logistics and transport companies, cleaning, disinfection services, etc.), disinsection and pest control for food producers) and public service providers (canteens, restaurants, catering etc.)7. The standardization of feeding can be defined as a set of unitary stages having as objective the establishment of the essential principles for feeding the military, the specifications of the norms and food ratios, the agri-food products supplied and the food associations in order to standardize the implementation in all subsystems. At the same time, it sets the particularities of rigor, menu optimization, with the help of specialized human resources in nutrition, diets, culinary technology and merceology, improvement of health, by

6 https://www.iso.org/standards.html, visited online on February 17, 2020. 7 https://www.srac.ro/ro/, visited online on February 18, 2020.

106

prevention of chronic heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and obesity, all having a profound impact on brain health8 and supporting missions assigned to a high level. In fact, a brief foray into the literature reveals that the specialists in the field were concerned with ensuring an optimal framework for ensuring the military feeding, pursuing the fulfillment of nutritional requirements of food, selecting foods on the principles of energy efficiency with the help of doctors and establishing the conditions of meal serving. Since the nineteenth century, Max Rubner promoted the idea that nutritional value should be appreciated not in relation to an illusory universal food standard, but on the basis of a diet that allows the body to naturally develop, maintain its proper anatomical shape and ability to to do specific types of work within a given framework.9. During the Second World War, nutritionists noted the concern for assessing and planning appropriate diets for troops sent abroad or for special details regarding the variety restrictions of food served, which largely depended on processed agri-food products, limitations imposed by transport or weather conditions. Thus, a number of special ratios have been designed for troops operating in unusual situations, such as tank operations or environmental conditions (tropics, mountains and desert)10. At the same time, the same author proposes a plan to rationalize the feeding with the help of the nutritional assistance offered by the officers of the Sanitary Corps, which had to be based on the adequacy of the diet, according to restrictions, environmental conditions and the nutritional need, the differences available being determined by the specific of the different foods parts of the country and within reasonable limits. Thus, substitutions of the foods in the menu could be made if those prescribed were not available or because the dishes had to be modified to adapt to the value of the ratio of the garrison, when issuing the menu plan.11. Over time, the researchers found that performing nutritional assessments among active military personnel is difficult and expensive, especially in conflict areas, but collecting this information was necessary. Data on food intake and nutrient intake prior to mobilization would be valuable when making nutritional recommendations as a preventive approach. Moreover, the occurrence of traumatic brain injury, known as traumatic brain injury (TBI), among military personnel involved in operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Vietnam, led researchers to a new research hypothesis regarding Nutrition of combat forces, namely knowledge of the nutrition status of TBI patients, pre and post injury is essential to determine if specific nutritional supplements would improve their health. In this regard, the committee made recommendations for updating the guides on assessing the nutritional status and their contribution to the health of the military12. To this end, we recall the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which allowed us to understand that dietitian nutritionists (NDs) should play a significant role in educating medical students, residents and physicians, evoking the importance of improving nutrition, improving the quality of medical support13. Despite these issues, researchers are trying to understand what are the barriers that prevent large-scale

8 Heller S., Get Smart - Samantha Heller's Nutrition Prescription for Boosting Brain Power and Optimizing Total Body Health, Johns Hopkins University Press Publisher, 2010, p. 2. 9 Treitel C., Max Rubner and the Biopolitics of Rational Nutrition, published in Central European History 41, 1– 25, 2008, pp. 15-16. 10 Howe P.E., Nutritional aspects of feeding an army, published in Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.120 No.2, 1942, pp. 95-95. 11 Idem. 12 Erdman J., Oria M., Pillsbury L. (eds.), Nutrition and Traumatic Brain Injury - Improving Acute and Subacute Health Outcomes in Military Personnel, National Academies Press Publisher, 2011, p. 20. 13 Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Interprofessional Education in Nutrition as an Essential Component of Medical Education, published in JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS, 2017, p. 1104.

107

implementation of simple measures, even decades after scientific confirmation of their effectiveness?14. Last but not least, the studies that dissected the intense expansion between the activation states of the T cells (lymphocytes) and the metabolism in relation to the nutrients, a process so important for humans in general, but also for the armed forces acting in hostile areas, have taken over the environment - the metabolic nature of their dysfunction being a prominent question that remains to be explored in this area15. Considering these aspects, a broad program of "standardization of the military feeding system" undoubtedly involves carrying out an analysis of the previous attempts of the scientific reformers, consolidating a study, articulated by the biopolitical understanding of food and the military body of the 21st century in various action environments. In this way, we can lay the foundations of the new food principles, the specifications of the agri-food products to be supplied, feeding regimes, feeding rules, system design rules, starting from the inputs (products, means, human resources) to the outputs (ratio, type of meal, health condition, degree of physical and mental parameters, manner of performing tasks).

3. Model of rationalizing the feeding system of the US Army In the case of the United States of America16, military planners focused on optimizing food ratios, gradually eliminating the use of canned foods, and in order to achieve this goal, they called on a team of designers, who were informed of the importance of developing the nutrient standard by taking into account that it would be served in the tactical field. When the designers presented the new ratio, called "Meal Ready to Eat (MRE)", initially composed of 30 food products, two drinks, a cream substitute, assorted sweets, organized in 12 menus with repetition of some elements. Each meal could be eaten hot or cold and usually contained an entree, a starch or vegetable food, biscuits, a drink powder to be added to the water and a sweet dessert. Three meals provided 3600 kcal per day, caloric intake recommended by the surgeon general for young active male soldiers. These military rations had a validity of 3 years, and they contain significantly improved foods, completely preferred and packed in flexible plastic compartments, military planners asked to know its capacity to support the soldiers, over time, and raised a few research questions, which marked their activity for about a decade. These questions were aimed at: how much will the soldiers eat in packaged food in field conditions? What will happen to food intake and body weight over time? How long can this ratio be considered as the sole source of food? How can one determine if people have eaten enough to maintain a healthy condition that ensures good performance? To answer the questions raised by the new ratio, two test groups were chosen: one consisted of civilians tested in a control laboratory and the other was made up of military, field tested. Twenty student volunteers, of normal weight, male, paid, were divided into two groups that took all the tables, for a period of 42 days, at the research center. One group received MRE, the other group received a control diet consisting of freshly prepared food that provided 3600 kcal per day, and the composition of macronutrients was the same as that of MRE IV (fourth improved version of MRE). It has been traditionally served at the table, as a menu, for 12 days.

14 Webb G.P., Nutrition Maintaining and Improving Health, Editura CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2019, pp. 12-13. 15 Delgoffe G.M., Powell J.D., Feeding an army: The metabolism of T cells in activation, anergy and exhaustion, published in Molecular Immunology 68, 2015, pp. 492–496. 16 Edward S., Matthew K. F., Meiselman H.L., Effects of food attributes and feeding environment on acceptance, consumption and body weight: lessons learned in a twenty-year program of military ration research, US Army Research, published in Appetite, Vol. 44, 2005, pp. 33–45

108

Regarding the field test group, the researchers tried to keep the conditions in the laboratory regarding the limitations on food availability, as well as the social aspects of the meals. Unlike the actual feeding of the military, the laboratory group had fixed meal hours, easy access to hot and cold water for the preparation of drinks and the rehydration of the ratio components and a microwave oven for heating food. In addition, they had dinner plates, food utensils, bowls and glasses. In the first 2 weeks of the experiment, the two groups had comparable levels of caloric intake, the daily consumption for the MRE group starting to decrease during week 3, from 3380 kcal in week 1 to 3017 kcal in week 6. While for the group control intake remained stable, the MRE group ate fewer calories (3149) per day than the control group (3465 kcal). In addition, the answers to the final questionnaire from the initial extended field study indicated a strong desire for more variety in ratio, especially for drinks and there were no indications of gastrointestinal problems. Thus, the results obtained regarding the difference in caloric intake between the two groups (with almost 1000 kcal per day lower in soldiers compared to the students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, abbreviated MIT) oriented their research towards rational studies, after which they found that the initial focus on food characteristics and their acceptability had to be balanced with many other non-food factors that exert important influences on nutritional balance. One of these factors is the effort associated with the consumption of a meal in the field, the parallel effects of the environmental context on the contribution of food, underlining the potential importance of its analysis when standardizing the food ratio is aimed at. Finally, the observations clearly suggested that periodic annual changes in ratio serve to maintain nutritional, energy intake to an acceptable level, so that during the 18 years of research, a large number of changes were introduced into the ratio. Thus, the principle that variety within a meal leads to increased nutritional intake of food to humans was the basis for future changes in the MRE. The individual elements of the latest MRE version better reflect the contemporary cuisine and the tastes of young people, and the number of food, beverages and snacks from ration increased from 35 in MRE IV to over 70 in MRE XII (produced in 2002)17. Therefore, the working model of the military planners, in their approach to standardizing the feeding, can be considered a reference point for the logistics professionals of the Romanian army, regarding the importance given to the research based on tests with different working groups, in different action environments, perseverance in the process of gradually improving the food ratio, in accordance with the nutritional needs of a military body, respectively the requirements of the missions assigned to them and the country's security and defence strategy, in the context of 21st century NATO operations.

Conclusions The standardization of the military feeding system is a proactive concept meant to support the military logistics professionals, whose conceptual concerns regarding the restoration of the feeding capabilities of the Romanian Armed Forces have been noticed mainly from 2017 to the present day. In this period, we have looked for methods to solve the constant system deficiencies, starting from the management and execution structures of the undersized feeding, continuing with the infrastructure and the equipments subject to wear and tear, and ending with the projects of revision of the regulations in force from this domain. As we have seen in the presentation of the American model of rationalizing the food of the military, the optimal diet for them is based on obtaining adequate nutrition, the selection of agri-food products being less important in comparison with the analogy of the

17 https://www.dla.mil/Portals/104/Documents/TroopSupport/Subsistence/Rations/qapubs/appa/mre22.pdf, visited online on February 18, 2020.

109

nutritional reactions of the body with the main environmental conditions, with the new food preparation techniques and systematic variety of menu plans, depending on the gastronomic trends. If we analyze these ideas in relation to the principles of nutrition, presented at the beginning of the paper, we find that all people require the same set of essential nutrients, but the amount of nutrients required varies depending on a number of factors: environment, activity, body size, body conditions, meal service, metabolism, energy consumption, lifestyle etc. In view of these aspects, we consider it appropriate to adopt a series of measures adjacent to those already taken to restore the feeding capabilities of the Romanian army, as follows:  setting up joint commissions to systematically study the issue of military nutrition through assessments of food intake in different military environments (when eating in the dining facilities specific to the military environment or when living on a rational diet);  investments in food research programs that should anticipate as far as possible changes in the characteristics of the component foods, in order to prevent food insecurity among the military, associated with undernutrition or consumption of inadequate products with the nutritional support necessary for mission support;  the foundation of the standardization of the military nutrition should be based on the knowledge of the nutritional physiology obtained in the laboratory; for example, it would be important at present to investigate the energy intake of foods specific to the morning meal, in correlation with the nutritional balance required for a military man and the effects of the frequency of consumption on the human body;  updating the instructions for feeding the military in time of peace, siege, or war, to meet the energy needs and nutritional benefits. The guidelines should be elaborated in a collaborative manner with various key actors, such as: doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, culinary technicians, marketers and food engineers, in order to establish the optimal food ration for the Romanian military;  introduction of food education in the training themes of students, students and trainees, who are in training in military education institutions;  improving the methods of food preparation. Considering the rapid evolution of nutrition research, any logistics decision regarding the regulatory framework of feeding in the Romanian army, in time of peace, siege or war, needs research that will ground, based on updated and relevant information, models of food nutrition necessary for the military, according to the category of forces, the scope of action, the requirements in the job description and status. These values should be compared with agreed standards for optimum consumption of foods and nutrients specific to the civilian environment and based on any discrepancies, standardized measures for public health nutrition programs should be initiated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Brown J., et al., Nutrition through the life cycle, Editura Cengage, 2011. 2. Delgoffe G.M., Powell J.D., Feeding an army: The metabolism of T cells in activation, anergy and exhaustion, publicat în Molecular Immunology 68, 2015. 3. Edward S., Matthew K. F., Meiselman H.L., Effects of food attributes and feeding environment on acceptance, consumption and body weight: lessons learned in a twenty-year program of military ration research, US Army Research, Appetite, Vol. 44, 2005. 4. Erdman J., Oria M., Pillsbury L. (eds.), Nutrition and Traumatic Brain Injury - Improving Acute and Subacute Health Outcomes in Military Personnel, National Academies Press, 2011.

110

5. Gibney M.J., Susan A., Lanham-New, Cassidy A., Vorster H., Introduction to human nutrition, Editura Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 6. Heller S., Get Smart - Samantha Heller's Nutrition Prescription for Boosting Brain Power and Optimizing Total Body Health, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. 7. Howe P.E., Nutritional aspects of feeding an army, Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.120 No.2, 1942. 8. Lapierre H., Skomiał J., Energy and Protein Metabolism and Nutrition, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2016. 9. Treitel C., Max Rubner and the Biopolitics of Rational Nutrition, Central European History 41, 1–25, 2008. 10. Webb G.P., Nutrition Maintaining and Improving Health, CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. 11. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Interprofessional Education in Nutrition as an Essential Component of Medical Education, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2017. 12. https://www.iso.org/standards.html, visited online on February 17, 2020 13. https://www.srac.ro/ro/, visited online on February 18, 2020.

111

THE DEFENCE RESOURCES LIFE CYCLE

Lucian Dragoș POPESCU Colonel, Professor, CAROL I National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present the management of defence resources throughout their entire life cycle. This approach allows a more effective defence planning starting with defence planning based on threats to national security. In this respect, the material resources, the weapon systems, and the human resources have been analyzed from the perspective of awareness and cost management throughout their life cycle. Keywords: life cycle, defence resources, weapon systems, human resources.

1. Conceptual delimitations regarding the product life cycle The product life cycle1 represents the period of time a product spends on the market, starting with its launching and ending with its withdrawal from the market. Of course, their commercial "disappearance" (from a certain market or even from all markets), implying their disappearance from the company's offer, does not always equate with their automatical exit from consumption. In the endowment of the population (individuals, families, households) or of the enterprises, they remain products, in good working order, for a certain period of time after they have been removed from the factory. Studying the relationships between the product life cycle, the evolution of the competitive environment and the strategies of the companies, it seems to indicate a certain modification of the competitive process in parallel with the different stages: launching, growth, maturity, decline and possible disappearance. One of the most complete analyses of these aspects belongs to Joel Dean2 and he considers the formation of the price and the price policies of the new products - so almost exclusively the competition by price (the premise from which is that any substantial change in the field of competition besides price, and that cannot cause changes in prices).

Figure 1 – Product Life Cycle – source: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Product-life-cycle%3A-the- evolution-of-a-paradigm-and-Cao-Folan/897dddf9043c2af6eb0cc0af6bde8db44ba03f2f 12.01.2020

1 http://life-dcd.ro/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/06/Articol-2014-Analiza-ciclului-de-viata-in-domeniul- gestionarii-deseurilor-CD.pdf consultat la data 20.01.2020. 2 Joel Dean, Managerial Economics, Englewood Cliffs, Pentice-Hall Inc., 1951, p. 410-413; conform Martin L. Bell – Marketing. Concepts and Strategy, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1966, pp. 288-296.

112

A typical life cycle for a product (see Figure no. 1) appears represented in the form of an "S" curve, and it may represent the starting point for developing a competition theory on a certain (new) market that takes into account the company profit and the time factor. Such an analysis must follow each stage or phase of the product evolution distinctly, because it determines changes in the conditions of the competitive process (regarding the competitive environment: the number of producers, the market size, homogeneity, access restrictions, etc., and also competitive strategies mainly). There are two major life cycle concepts of a product. The first (more widespread) claims that a product has four stages that the product goes through during its presence on the market: • Launch • Growth • Maturity • Decline The second conception regarding the life cycle of a product states that we are dealing with six distinct stages, exemplified in Figure no. 2: 1. Market research 2. Research, design, development 3. Launching / placing the product on the market 4. Increase 5. Saturation (maturity) 6. Decline and disappearance from the market

SALES

VOLUME

Market Development Launch Growth Saturation Revitalization Decline TIME Research

Figure 2 – The life cycle phases. Source - https://conspecte.com/Marketing/ciclul-de-viata-al-produsului.html accessed on 12.01.2020

There is a close connection in all six phases of the product life cycle between the sales volume curve and the expenditure and profit curve The expenses are very high in the R&D phase and in the relaunch phase; the expenses are lower in the growth and maturation stages, while in the design and launch phase there is no profit, which increases slightly starting with the growth and maturity stage and decreasing during the declining period.

113

Most products exist within a certain timeframe. As goods, so as an object of market activity, they describe a life cycle, beginning with their launch (birth) and ending with their withdrawal (death) from the market. But their commercial death, implying their disappearance from the market, does not always equate with their exit, automatically, and from consumption (use). In the endowment of enterprises, and also of the households of the population, there are products, in working order, a long time after they have been put out of use. The life cycle of a product is usually considered the time interval between the moment of its appearance on the market and the moment of its disappearance from that market.

EFFECTIVENESS

Figure 3 – The phases of defence resources life cycle. Source – the author of the present paper

2. Concept on the life cycle of resources Keeping in mind the above detailed, I believe that a similar approach can be used in terms of defence resources. In this respect, I present in Figure no. 3 the life cycle of defence resources. We considered the evolution of the efficiency of the use of the resource during its whole life cycle. Its defining coordinates are represented by the notification of the need to counter a threat through the necessity of military action, presently represented graphically by T0. Following an analysis consisting of prospective studies on the possible courses of action, as well as the evolution of the external environment of the military action, the main operational requirements are defined having as main reference the moment when the respective resource will come out of the army, respectively T4. This implies the use of complex forecasts on the evolution of the security environment, the national and global economy, the evolution of technologies and their impact on the military environment, the impact of the demographic evolution of the population, the evolution of the social environment, the evolution of the economic environment, as well as the impact political factor on military action. Forecasts should estimate what the threats to the security of Romania could be in the near future in Q4. Considering these threats, it is necessary to establish the ways to combat them, both militarily and non-militarily. In the situation of combat by military action of these threats, the means of action and the design of the structures that will be involved must be established. These structures must be equipped with technology and staffed. Basically, the technique we intend to buy today is the one with which we will have to work in 50 years from now. In this regard, we need economic forecasts when making a decision to

114

determine whether the financial effort can be sustained in the long run. Also, forecasts regarding the demographic evolution of the population, as well as of the social environment are required because the designed structures must be staffed and the latter must be willing to act in the desired sense. I consider a time horizon of these forecasts of approximately 50 years to cover the range T0- T4. I refer to this time horizon because the area between the graph and the time axis is represented by the costs with the respective resource. Should aspects of the life cycle of military technical systems be regulated by the Instructions in the I 1000 series, the life cycle management of the other resources proves to be more intuitive. The time interval between T0- T1 corresponds to the creation phase, respectively from the moment of the notification of the need, establishing its satisfaction with a material solution and establishing the operational requirements. In the field of human resources, this interval corresponds to the design stage of the T1 schooling plan, the moment when the schooling plan in the military university education is approved and becomes public. During this period, the characteristics that should be fulfilled by the officers who will make strategic decisions and will lead the military actions in a future up to 40 years, as well as the quantitative characteristics that will provide the personnel needs, should be established. In the interval T1- 0 we can find the launch phase, respectively the contracting phase for military technical systems and the training period for human resources. The T0-0 interval is a period in which expenditure is recorded without having a visible efficiency. Point 0 is the moment when the weapon systems reach the troops or, as regards the human resource, the moment when a military educational institution is graduated. From this moment we can say that the investment in resources begins to become profitable, E0. We can seriously talk about the effectiveness of the investment, from the time of T2, when we have the first operational structure that can be used in a military action. This structure can be a battalion, a division, a squadron, etc. depending on the weapon system purchased. Interval 0-T2 represents the operational phase of the weapon system. As regards the human resource, this interval corresponds to the period of preparation in the application school and is finalized with the occupation of the first T2 function. The growth phase is identified with the complete operationalization phase of the weapon system temporarily limited by the interval T2-T3. With the completion of the operationalization, the period of maximum efficiency is reached. The maximum efficiency period corresponds to the saturation phase, when the investment in resources is amortized, respectively the T3-T4 interval. This period can only be extended if the weapon system is revitalized, should that be the case. From the moment T4 we discuss the phase of decline, respectively the decommissioning of the weapon system. For human resources, this stage corresponds to retirement. We must emphasize that this stage involves significant costs until the time of decommissioning, Tf.

Conclusions Approaching the management of defence resources implies an integrated approach throughout their life cycle. The use of this approach is based on defence planning based on threats to national security. Particular attention should be paid to the quality of the forecasts underlying the design of the structures because the costs of investments in weapon systems and the human resource are achieved throughout the life cycle of the resources, respectively the T0-Tf interval, while the amortization of these costs is made only in interval T2-T4.

115

Only material resources, weapon systems, as well as human resources have been addressed because they have the longest life cycle and as such they influence long-term defence planning.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. http://life-dcd.ro/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/06/Articol-2014-Analiza- ciclului-de-viata-in-domeniul-gestionarii-deseurilor-CD.pdf 2. https://conspecte.com/Marketing/ciclul-de-viata-al-produsului.html 3. https://www.iqads.ro/dictionar/ciclu-de-viata-comerciala-a-produsului 4. https://www.scribd.com/doc/25214912/Ciclul-de-Viata-Al-Unui-Produs 5. https://media1.webgarden.ro/files/media1:5565b3e341ff2.pdf.upl/Concuren%C5%A3 a%20%C5%9Fi%20ciclul%20de%20via%C5%A3%C4%83%20a%20produselor.pdf 6. http://www.rasfoiesc.com/business/marketing/Ciclul-de-viata-al-produselor47.php 7. JRC - “Supporting Environmentally Sound Decisions for C&D Waste Management”, 2011. 8. Bell Martin L., Marketing. Concepts and Strategy, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1966. 9. Kotler, Philip et al., Principiile marketingului, Ediția Europeană (Trad.din l.engleză). Editura Teora, București, 2001. 10. Kotler, Philip, Managementul marketingului. Analiză, planificare, implementare, control, Bucureşti, 1998. 11. Zamfir Andreea, Managementul Serviciilor, Colecţia Management, Editura ASE, Bucureşti, 2011. 12. SR EN ISO 14040: 2002, Management de mediu-Evaluarea ciclului de viață-Principii și cadru de lucru. 13. Skinner, W., Manufacturing Strategy on the "S" curve. Production and Operations Management, 1996, 5, issue 1.

116

GOOD ORGANIZATION – A CORNERSTONE COMPETENCE OF A GOOD MANAGER

Mirela PUŞCAŞU Colonel, Professor, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Luiza-Maria COSTEA Professor, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: In order to be successful, a manager must have special skills. Organization is one of the cornerstone competences of any individual, who wants to be a good manager. Thus, regardless of the size of the team or organization, a good manager should know how to organize the projects, the team, the tasks for each individual in the team. Keywords: manager, team, organization, tasks, standards.

Introduction A manager plans objectives and tasks, which must be fulfilled and accomplished; they also define the organizational structure capable of meeting these objectives. Moreover, the manager selects the work team for the fulfillment of the planned tasks, manages the whole process and permanently controls the unfolding of the activities carried out in order to successfully fulfill the goals established under the existing conditions and with the resources available. The most organized managers carry out the objectives set. Never will the initiatives taken by a disorganized person, who carries out a chaotic program and invokes all sorts of excuses, be completed. Therefore, it is preferable to follow some rules:  we deal with most difficult tasks first thing in the morning, so that we do not feel the pressure of the tasks. And it would not be wrong to set a time limit to finish what we set out to do, but also to force ourselves to set aside whatever might distract us;  an attitude oriented towards organization and not to perfection, makes us feel less overwhelmed by the long list of tasks that must be accomplished;  giving up outdated tasks, which could not be solved, makes it possible for us to focus on solutions to new problems;  should we not take into account the tasks as a whole, but solve them in turn, we will no longer feel helpless and tempted to give up. At the end of each workday, we check the agenda, evaluate what we have accomplished during the day, write off the tasks performed and establish the agenda for the next day. Preferably, focusing on efficiency and productivity. Excessive work leads to fatigue and a lot of stress, but working smart and efficiently and using time in activities that lead to the fulfillment of professional goals, you may also reach increased productivity. In this respect, you need planning, organizing, prioritizing, simplifying, with investing time in activities that lead to the fulfillment of professional goals. Clarifying priorities is the first step to investing time wisely and efficiently.

117

How to be an effective manager There are managers who inspire and motivate their subordinates, but they fail to increase their level of commitment.1 Studies conducted in the field conclude that there are employees who leave the organization because of the relationship they have with the manager or their colleagues, and not because of the actual work. Very good managers work on permanently developing and on better understanding the employees and collaborators, constantly being aware of the practice they must adopt in order to be more efficient in the managerial work. Managers can do many different things in order to improve themselves professionally, but they also have mandatory tasks that need to be accomplished, no matter how efficient we want ourselves to be. Management means teamwork, therefore an efficient manager assumes the responsibility that each subordinate can cope with the tasks allotted, thus the team obtaining the expected results. As a successful manager, one needs complete knowledge and skills, such as:  adaptability. It helps better orient the team management, thus rapidly finding solutions to new and diverse problems;  how to lead. Management means art, which is why managers must inspire confidence, establish directions of action and share responsibilities to all team members;  development. A good manager finds solutions to ensure the personal development their subordinates need, including the way that personal development supports the organizational activity. Their own development is also important, because a manager who constantly improves professionally, constantly improves their skills, motivates, through their example, subordinates towards similar behavior.  communication. Skills in this regard help the manager communicate effectively, process information and transmit it clearly. Otherwise, they become inefficient because they lose the essential and will not be aware of the impact on the team.  interorganizational relations. Effective managers build personal working relationships with the team, so trusting the manager makes them feel appreciated and willing to work hard, to put more effort when needed.  delegation. It is a skill rarely found in our society, because most managers prefer to work than to teach subordinates what, how and when to perform the tasks they receive. As one can see, efficient management has several important components, which are not easy to achieve. The features presented above are associated with successful management, if the individuals holding managerial positions obey them. The manager plans goals and tasks, which must be fulfilled and accomplished. They define the organizational structure capable of meeting these objectives. Selects the work team for the fulfillment of the planned tasks, manages the whole process and permanently controls the activities to successfully fulfill the objectives established under the existing conditions and with the resources available. Basic rules for being an organized and effective manager (commander, chief) in any organization:  first organize yourself in order to be able to organize others: . plan permanently and realistically what you have to do, as, otherwise, you will never have enough time for anything;

1 https://revistacariere.ro/inspiratie/actual/cum-sa-fii-un-manager-eficient/, accesat la data de 11.02.2020.

118

. “control time”, it is for you to decide how you “spend it” (just like money - it's like a budget item). If you are a disorganized manager, time will always be a limited resource; . a daily list of all activities or a long-term plan, if possible, helps to know, establish and respect organizational and individual objectives. The activities in the list should be sorted into two categories:  active (positive) – they help you reach your goals and control your activities;  reactive - they are trifles which "land" daily on your desk and you have to take care of them in due time in order not to hinder the manager in the smooth running of the organization’s activity; . Schedule and share tasks, otherwise if you take care of everything, you will not have enough time for your own. If in your team there are people who, for various reasons, have not been tasked with anything for years, they should not be overwhelmed with tasks for the first time. When you have learned how to organize yourself, learn how to organize others.  learn to delegate: - give subordinates authority to take decisions without consulting you; - get rid of fear of losing control; - give up what you enjoy doing.

GROWING UP

One cannot delegate RESPONSABILITY Task delagation + authority (you keep being the only one held accountable) pentru greşelile subordonaţilor

When you delegate for the first time you should be patient, but you should act accordingly when knowing your subordinates, so that you should know: - what tasks can you delegate? - is the person "X" able to solve them? - how long might person X take to carry out the task? The training plan for subordinates, so that they become responsible for what they have to do: - you do not disturb them while working, but be in their proximity; - "take your hands off them", but you supervise them; - be available to support them when they need to; - you supervise the progress of activities; - always check the key points.

Job tasks are to be carried out AT WORK and NOT AT HOME and the other way out!

The delegation must be well thought out, otherwise it will become abdication!!! A new task cannot be delegated without proper training. People need some time to learn and to trust themselves.

119

To “schedule” someone's tasks, you must know: - how long it takes for the task to be well executed; - how important the task is; - how urgent the task is. The importance and urgency of a task (order) are not the same thing! - an urgent task is not necessarily important; - it may be urgent, but minor. Assign TIME in the agenda for important tasks. At the end of the day, for a few minutes, analyze the (un) solved tasks and set new tasks / priorities for the next day. For the proper functioning of the organization, the personnel selected / trained / employed is preferable to be carefully determined (the right man at the right place!). Other rules: • subordinates must be notified when changes occur; • Be a reactive manager in the negotiation process, otherwise you react without any success; • do not allow being interrupted when you are doing an important activity.

How to allot tasks to subordinates:  clearly and accompanied by time limit and expectations;  define the task very well, so that they take responsibility;  set performance standards;  establish the key areas where you have to obtain certain results and you review them together, regularly

The standard: . must be respected by each employee; . it must be visible, common, fixed; . it is a unit of measure imposed by the chief subordinates with whom the subordinates can compare their activities alone, because it mirrors them against what they have to do and allows them to find out on their own to what extent they work well and how to respect it; . is a useful working tool for both the manager and the subordinate; . must be feasible and specify the quality, the quantity, the time, the cost. There should be a warning system from the first excuses, when the standards are not met (eg - "Tomorrow at 12.00 I want the 2-page X project ..."). If there are deficiencies in setting standards, they must be discussed and resolved. In order for subordinates to be well organized, they must always find time for individual discussions, so that they understand their individual purpose and use these personal goals to stimulate their individual activity. Always acknowledge their achievements and show them satisfaction both personally and collectively. The managers in any field of activity must be carefully established and defined, otherwise they may greatly interfere with the activities of the organization. Subordinates are called where they need to be and where they need them!

Conclusions Management is art and science, as we could find in many pieces of literature in the field, because depending on how it is implemented, it can reveal organizational success. Objectives realistically set, within a time horizon, with resource identification, lead the organization towards achieving performance standards. The management means team work, therefore an efficient manager assumes the responsibility that each subordinate faces the tasks

120

received, thus the team obtains the desired results and, morever, we can be part of an efficient organization.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Drucker, Peter Ferdinand, Managing in a Time of the Great Change, Harvard Business Review Press, 2009. 2. Pink, Daniel H., Ce anume ne motivează cu adevărat, Editor Riverhead Hardcover, 2009. 3. Stevens, Mark, Ești un manager de... modat, Editura Amaltea, 2008. 4. Tzu, Sun, Arta razboiului (Traducere de Raluca Parvu), Editura Antet, 2013. 5. https://www.manager.ro//intelepciunea-omului-organizat 6. https://mihaelastroe.ro/chiar-vrei-sa-fii-un-managerlider-din-ce-in-ce-mai-organizat- si-mai-eficient/

121

THE NEED OF TRAINING IN THE CONTEXT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Mirela PUŞCAŞU Professor, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Luiza-Maria COSTEA Professor, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: The changes our society has been witnessing are due to the evolution of most fields of activity, as a result of science and technology advances. Thus, organizations are facing, as a result of the influence of the external environment, the need to engage other development strategies. The change must be well defined, quantifiable, all the implications regarding the formation of other cultural values and norms be presented, according to the desired meaning. The most important resources of any organization are human, which is why the level of staff qualification is very important. Having this in mind one should mention that efficient management becomes interested in the training and specialization of the employees. Keywords: change, organization, strategy, human resource, training, specialization.

Motto: “People fall into two categories: Those who search and do not run into anything, and others who find something are not pleased with it”. Mihai Eminescu

Introduction The whole history of mankind did not witness so many changes, as we have seen recently. These changes seem to be due to the improvements registered in most fields of activity, as a result of science and technology advances. The starting point is dominated by political changes, with implications in international relations, in relations between economic operators, in the legal system, in the way of allocating resources. Thus, organizations are required, as a result of the influence of the external environment, to engage alternative development strategies. Military organizations are part of this process as well.

Thoughts on change Most definitely organizations are to respond by finding other ways in which they can achieve their mission objectives, taking into account threats, opportunities for development, their redefined position, in line with available resources. The conditions generated make life difficult for organizations, that cannot abandon their conservative practice, the traditional forms of organization becoming quite cumbersome. In fact, specialists in the field, such as Alvin Toffler, an influential business personality, who very clearly defined trends in the current information-based economy, have been developing issues in this regard, even from his first book The Future Shock (1970)1., but also Warren

1 According to Alvin Toffler’s statements, “the speed of change is now out of control, and modern society is potentially facing maladaptation …there are limits to change that people can endure… while stress and disortientation experienced by individuals by the desperate effort towards adaptation is shortly harmful to health.

122

Bennis2, envisioned since 1995 the disappearance of organizations that practice bureaucracy. He argued that bureaucratic organizations fail to cope with the speed and unpredictability of change; diversity of specializations and activities; the complexity of modern organizations; participatory leadership styles and the generous weight of the social component in the organization. However, in order for the bureaucratic organizations to succeed in maintaining such conditions, it is necessary to achieve their objectives based on: simple organization; uniformly conducted activities; routine; stability; management modes, which does not involve much social component. Managers are recipients who are responsible for achieving organizational goals. In case of a change, it can be accepted if it does not contradict the organizational cultural values. Failure to accept leads to conflicts between the management apparatus, which puts pressure in favor of change and employees, who oppose resistance. Frustration inevitably emerges, which will put its mark on achieving ornamental performances. Conservatism, foe to a fluent way of change, highlights the differences in the organization, in the sense that some sub-organizations will give in to change faster than others, which need more time for adaptability. Huczynski A.A. and Buchanan D.A. present in their work Organization Behavior (1995) the main causes of resistance to organizational change, in the opinion of Arthur Bedeian3:  Personal purpose. Change can lead to loss of power, status, respect, job security; can cancel commitments, relationships, consolidated in time and effort. People are subjective when it comes to their own person, they think of their own position, not the organization itself:  Lack of trust and understanding. If the information about the reason for the change, its nature, the consequences of which are too few and incorrect, then the suspicion and uncertainty arise.  Different perceptions. Cultural values determine how change can be perceived in terms of costs or benefits, becoming more difficult to accept, if it is considered to be not appropriate. Resistance to change can lead to other forms of change.  Intolerance to change. Change can require totally different thinking and behavior. The unknown and the uncertainty cause stress, which can lead to hostile manifestations, regardless of whether they may seem positive Resistance to change can have different causes and it can be difficult to understand, but it is very important to be prevented, in order for individuals to be prepared for its acceptance, thus putting it into practice becomes more effective. Change entails two types of forces4: motor, which tend towards change (eg, the management of the organization, which wants to save itself) and resistant, which tends to maintain the current state (eg: employees disappointed by the management). These forces exist only if they are perceived. If management believes that employees are opposed to change, then the approach will be in this direction. Employees should be supported to be aware of the change as such, and not to strengthen the actions, as otherwise they might be more opposed to the change. Rather than a threat and sanctioning practice, it is better to identify obstacles and find ways to remove them. Identifying the source that generates employee dissatisfaction, leads to removal or at least to tempering by acceptable procedures.

2 Warren Gamaliel Bennis was an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer in the contemporary field of Leadership studies. 3 Arthur G. Bedeian, American business theoretician and management professor. 4 Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational psychology in the USA and he viewed this idea through the concepts forces and resistance to change (1951).

123

Change must be well defined, quantifiable, all the implications regarding the formation of other cultural values and norms be presented, according to the desired meaning. In order for an organization to reach its success, the quality of the human resource and the HR management come before technology and finance, according to the statements of Professor Aurel Manolescu “… without the effective presence of people who know what, when and how to do it, it is absolutely impossible for organizations to achieve their goals.”5 Adaptation implies the existence of a change plan6 which will be based on answers to questions concerning the changes that will be in the external environment; the changes required within the organization to achieve performance; what can happen as a result of not taking preventive measures; the dimension of change; receiving change in the organization; what path the change could have.

Integration or adaptation of employees The employee, in order to be subject to organizational changes, must have an adequate volume of knowledge and be capable of adaptive efforts. The concern for the integration of the personnel presupposes a process of adaptation to new work requirements and harmonization with the cultural values and norms of the organization. Psychologically, adaptation is a process in which the personality of the employees is psychically modeled by the professional and social environment. Adaptation to change implies: familiarization with the new conditions, which can be done quickly, if it is based on sufficient and correct information; accommodation support; trust, confidentiality, safe atmosphere. The success of the process is based on the collective effort, on the employer’s effort, which ensures cohesion, climate and a professional perspective and of the employee, with affective, psychosocial, volitional, professional availability. These determinants can support adaptation through professional interest, self-development, intellectual flexibility, involvement, realism, or can make it difficult or slow down through selflessness, blasphemy, intellectual rigidity, isolation, non-involvement. The management team must behave differently from the employers in the process of change. They are important: the personality, the skill, the motivation, in order to gain the respect and the confidence of the employees. It is necessary to have the possibility to study, to harmonize the individual interest with the organizational objectives. Change is ensured when group cohesion is ensured and when new performance goals and standards have been achieved.

Employees training Within an organization, most important resources are the human, material and financial ones. That is why the level of staff knowledge is very important, so that an efficient management becomes interested in the training and improvement of the staff. Managers become aware of such need, especially when there are difficult situations in which a previously efficient employee gets poor performance during times of hardships. The training and improvement of the human resource becomes a requirement, because knowledge is rapidly becoming obsolete and new skills are needed. The human resource becomes a sum of basic qualifications and knowledge necessary to carry out the activity in support of the organization in achieving the objectives. The possibility of adapting the human resource to the changes that have taken place influences the entire institutional capacity to cope with the influence of the external environment.

5 A. Manolescu, Managementul resurselor umane, Editura RAI, Bucureşti, 1998. 6 O. Nicolescu (coord.), Sistemul decizional al organizaţiei, Editura Economică, Bucureşti, 1998.

124

Therefore, the training and improvement of the personnel is a means by which the organizations maintain the level of competence of the employees and adapt to the demands arising as a result of the organizational changes that have occurred. It is an activity with the purpose of acquiring the theoretical knowledge and the practical skills, so that the staff can pay for the tasks received, at the required level. Although the diplomas or certificates are very important, they do not measure the professional training, if the activity, mainly informative, of professional training of the training institutions do not consider, besides the enlargement, the updating or the acquisition of new knowledge and the development of an attitude necessary to practice the profession in in relation to the current position. If we talk about efficiency in the training and training of the personnel, then we talk about the existence of costs. In order not to find a waste of resources, it is good to establish the training needs, where and how the preparation is done. Factors of the external environment of the organization, such as technological changes or the market, influence the planning and implementation of training programs. But, the need for staff training and improvement, differs from one organization to another, influenced by: the external environment (requirements, legislation, etc.); the internal environment (new policies, new collaborators, etc.); the quality and adaptability of the existing workforce; the degree of support of the organization regarding the career development; the ability of management to realize that staff training and training is a motivating factor and not least the quality of the personnel training managers. Naturally, managers, who know the training needs and who can convince about them, supported by the HR compartment of the organization, are the ones who establish the training needs, otherwise the training of the ad hoc and random staff, cannot justify the expenses of nor preparation of the objectives in terms of efficiency. If the process of preparation and improvement is perceived as an opportunity to improve the capacity to perform the tasks received, it becomes a motivating factor of the human resource, and the results will be as expected. A cycle of preparation and improvement involves:

Training policy

de pregătire

Training needs Training planning Training establishments

de pregătire Training sessions

Evaluating the training process

Expectations following the preparation and improvement process are: new knowledge and skills; improving the quality of work; knowledge and application of new methods in work; a lower need for labor control; increased satisfaction in the work done and new prospects for promotion. If the presentation of training and improvement needs so far seems to be a form of organizational advantage, it also presents some disadvantages, such as: a number of costs (the organization pays the employee during the training period); the risk of losing the job, if the employee does not meet the requirements imposed following the training.

125

Sometimes staff training is part of the routine of career development in some organizations. The identification of training and training needs involves a complex analysis, focused on defining training objectives and programs, taking into account: positions; performance goals and standards; comparing acquired knowledge and skills with job requirements; establishing the programs, courses and methods corresponding to the training, as well as the institutions that can provide the training; a cost-performance ratio, which involves the lowest costs.

Conclusions Conservatism, which does not readily accept change, highlights the differences within an organization. The resistance to change is also registered as a result of the fact that it implies the cancellation of social relations and the confrontation with the unknown. In order to be more easily accepted, it is important that resistance to change be prepared in advance, and, thus, being accepted becomes more effective in practice. The training, which is very important, also involves significant costs on the part of the organization, which is why it must serve the organization, be useful to it, justifying the cost of training. Numerous training programs, if they do not previously have a training plan, can be carried out over a generous period of time, thus becoming inefficient.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. AVRAM, Eugen, Schimbare si dezvoltare organizațională, Editura universitară, 2014 2. MANOLESCU, A., Managementul resurselor umane, Editura RAI, Bucureşti, 1998 3. NICOLESCU, O., (coord.) Sistemul decizional al organizaţiei, Editura Economică, Bucureşti, 1998 4. RUSSU, Corneliu, Management, Editura Expert, Bucureşti, 1996 5. RUSSU, Corneliu & Albu, Mădălina, Diagnosticul şi strategia firmei, Tribuna Economică, 2005

126

Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR, PhD Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU, PhD

127

128

ASSESSING LIFE-LONG LEARNING PROGRAMS

Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR Associate professor, PhD, ”Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: Life-long learning is essential to the success of any modern productive organization, regardless of the field of activity. This position is embraced, more or less openly, by all top managers (who actually do not dare to contradict this „fashionable” idea) and even by a large number of the personnel trained and occupying executive positions. This is also due to the fact that numerous management studies, conducted with instruments and viewed from diverse perspectives, confirm the idea that human resources – respectively the quality of professional training regarding knowledge, abilities, and attitudes – are often instrumental in reaching workplace goals, therefore in allowing organizations to have high performance in a certain field of activity1. Keywords: continuous training, program, evaluating program.

Introduction Life-long learning is essential to the success of any modern productive organization, regardless of the field of activity. This position is embraced, more or less openly, by all top managers (who actually do not dare to contradict this „fashionable” idea) and even by a large number of the personnel trained and occupying executive positions. This is also due to the fact that numerous management studies, conducted with instruments and viewed from diverse perspectives, confirm the idea that human resources – respectively the quality of professional training regarding knowledge, abilities, and attitudes – are often instrumental in reaching workplace goals, therefore in allowing organizations to have high performance in a certain field of activity. However, even under circumstances in which organizations invest significant financial, material, and human resources and provide, quite frequently, generous life-long learning programs to all their employees, results are often less than the expectations. There may be multiple causes for this and they do not necessarily always depend on the quality of the life- long system applied, but by the general management, organizational culture, etc. Still, when this life-long learning program is the weak link, analysts often realize that important amounts of money have been spent for training courses conducted according to the best teaching methods and techniques, with hyper-qualified instructors, yet resulting in low practical outcomes in employees’ activities. In such a situation it is clear that there was a mistaken identification of the need for training of the personnel of the organization.2

Why is life-long programs evaluation’ important? Teaching, learning and evaluation/assessment are not simply juxtaposed, but they are actually closely interconnected, thus becoming a unitary whole. Therefore, these three activities become an organic unit that can be best understood through the unity of goals or objectives:

1 Mardar Sorina-Mihaela (2010), Educația adulților. Realități și perspective în formarea profesională continuă, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, p. 120. 2 Idem, p. 137.

129

 Depending on the goals or objectives set, the teacher/trainer performs the teaching activity (by selecting contents, adapting them to the level of the group in training, by choosing teaching means and methods);  The objectives of the training discipline or activity need to become acknowledged by the students in an appealing and clear manner so as to direct them in their learning. For over fifteen years now, even 1st grade students ask – or wonder – „why do I need to learn this?” – hence the necessity to clarify the learning goal irrespective of the level of studies. In addition, clarifying goals determines an active involvement of both the educators and the educated, ensuring the appropriate correspondence between finalities, contents, strategies of self-development and self-assessment;  Evaluation or assessment is also performed starting from finalities (objectives or goals) – this is not an activity that the trainer might undertake „playing by the ear” or in order to „catch students unprepared” or punish them or just because he/she is simply bored. Evaluation is not a goal in itself, but an instrument for obtaining improvement. Evaluation needs to be involved in each moment of the educational activity. Evaluation, with everything it comprises – choosing the evaluation type, the methods, designing the tests and items – is initiated right at the moment we start thinking about the program itself. In this manner, we are certain that we are making an assessment to see if the goals have been reached. Evaluation is an important step in the educational activity, resulting from the characteristic feature of the educational process, namely its self-regulatory nature;  The goal is to create perfect coherence between what is learned, taught and assessed – between expectations and results, in order to meet learning goals.

Steps In the lines below, I am going to present a few concrete steps that need to be taken when we are conceiving the evaluation of a training program. 1. Which is the program that needs to be evaluated? Not every training program needs to be evaluated. Although any evaluation program tends to influence, one way or another, the situation of an organization, the training programs answering certain objectives related to changing a certain attitude or raising awareness upon a situation do not need to be evaluated (for instance programs that aim at team-building or integrating the new employees). Evaluation is related to the whole value of the program; it places the program in an organizational context and regards the manner in which the results obtained influence planning the following actions. Therefore, if a program is not going to be conducted again, why should we waste time collecting data that are not going to prove useful in the future? 2. Why should we evaluate? Evaluation, both of learning and of the program as a whole, should be part of any training program, according to Vaughn3. It is important for the organization, for the trainer, for the students. The organization needs to know the measure in which the cost of training is justified and the measure in which students are going to be able to work on their own after finishing the respective training. Trainers need to find out how well they have done their job and students should find out whether their efforts to study have been successful or not and if their efficiency is going to grow in the future. Other reasons might be: effects upon participants, impact upon workplace performance, relevance of results from the point of view of profitability, flexibility and survivability of the organization as a whole. Each objective set involves the evaluator in different manners and activities and might offer the reference framework for the following questions.

3 Robert H. Vaughn (2008): Manualul trainerului profesionist, Editura Codecs, p. 112.

130

3. What should we evaluate? In 1970 Warr, Bird and Rackham4 and then in 1974 Hamblin5 developed the CIRO framework. C – context in which the training program takes place I – input R – reactions to the program O – outcomes of the program 4. Who is going to the evaluation? Depending on the answer to the first two questions, we may discover several possibilities. Trainers, line managers, top executives, external consultants, participants themselves – they all have their interests in performing the evaluation. Yet, each of these is going to bring their own point of view upon this task, which means that none of them is beyond the drawback of subjectivity. Actually, this is exactly the point proving the true importance of understanding the nature and purpose of evaluation; failure in finding an appropriate assessor may render the organization vulnerable to manipulations. Evaluation is an extremely sensitive and technical process and its results are just as valid and accurate as the process that has generated them. 5. When is evaluation performed? If the purpose of the evaluation is to check the validity of the program, then initial evaluation and final evaluation are sufficient. However, even thus, it is a good idea to perform a certain evaluation at a certain interval of time, in order to acknowledge how much was retained and reached its ultimate impact (the most relevant period would be at about three or four months after graduation). If there is a need to determine the cost-efficiency ratio of entries, this should be assessed using participants’ reactions during and at the end of the program in connection with the established objectives. If the cost-efficiency ratio of a program needs to be determined in order to see whether the organization should be able to invest at other times in such programs, it is necessary to assess work performance, on short term, long term, and, probably, the profitability, flexibility, and competitiveness of the organization. Another extremely important element in evaluation is the time factor. The assessment performed in depth, using sophisticated methods, that is conducted in five different moments, is really costly. This type of evaluation may be necessary, but at the same time may prove practically impossible and hard to justify, given the benefits. A simple type of monitoring, performed at regular, yet critical intervals, is cheaper and maybe just as relevant. 6. How should we evaluate? The answer to this question depends on what is being evaluated and when evaluation is necessary. The CIRO framework may better explain parameters that need to be taken into account by any evaluation. 7. How are we going to present the assessment report in front of those concerned? According to Vaughn6, the content and the level of formality are determined by the relationship between the personnel in charge with training and the people who are given the report. In most organizations it is customary to present a written report. In case this report also includes propositions, some organizations also require a detailed account of their implications: the type and coverage of the proposition, the implementation plan, the arguments in favor of the proposition, the estimation of the costs for implementing the proposition.

4 Warr P., Bird M. W., Rackham N. (1970): Evaluation of Management Training, Aldershot, Gower, p. 312. 5 Hamblin A. C. (1974): Evaluation and Control of Training, Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill, pag. 301. 6 Robert H. Vaughn (2008): Manualul trainerului profesionist, Editura Codecs, pag. 306.

131

CIRO Assessment Framework7: Context We need to establish the degree of accuracy with which the training needs were assessed, why this particular program was chosen as a solution, whether the purposes and objectives were undertaken in order to ensure the external consistency of the program and whether the organizational context was taken into account. Inputs The mission of the assessor is to find out how well the training program was planned, organized, designed and conducted. It involves determining the cost-efficiency, cost-efficacy ratio. Moreover, it is necessary to identify the cost of resources used in order to cover the needs for training (time, money, experienced personnel, materials); the cost of the means, methods, and content; if the selection criteria of participants in the program were appropriate. Reactions This means discovering participants’ perceptions on the program – the immediate reactions to the program. It is vital to establish what and how participants „feel” as a distinctive element in contrast to what results show. Knowing these aspects is going to have an impact upon the future [participants and may explain certain issues related to motivation or success which occur during the program. At the same time, it may result in discovering the reactions of other parts involved in the learning process – we may compare them with the reactions we are hoping to determine. It might be important to monitor reactions after each session or after each key-segment or at the end of a module. Hamblin recommends using each session of the program from as many points of view as possible: how enjoyable it as, the time allocated for discussions (duration), level of presentation, information content, relevance, length of session. Outcomes of the learning event Outcomes should be measured at one or all the following levels, depending on the purpose of evaluation and the resources available: 1. At participant level: we evaluate not only the reactions to the program, but also the changes observed at the end of the program with respect to the knowledge, abilities, and attitudes; 2. At working place level: we identify the changes that occur in the behavior of the participant at the working place. This is accomplished through observation, discussions with the managers / colleagues / clients of the participants, performance reports, reactions of the participants themselves; 3. At team/department/unit level: we identify the changes that take place within the team/department or unit, as an outcome of following through the respective training program; 4. At organization level: we identify the changes that occur within the organization as a whole and which is due to the training program. These latter two types of results are the hardest and the most difficult to assess. Success depends on the way in which from the very beginning the aims and objectives of the training program and the way of assessing their fulfillment were established. At department level, changes refer to the productivity ratio, costs, errors, absenteeism, fluctuation, frequency of accidents. Upon organizational level, changes may be noticed in the organizational structure, flexibility and reducing conflict levels, decreasing the resistance to change, attracting and keeping valuable employees. It is important to make the difference between an assessment framework such as CIRO – with the respective procedures – and an assessment process. The letter is crucial to the success of any program.

7 In Harrison Rosemarie (2002): Learning and development, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development House, London, p. 315.

132

Conclusions Although this approach may seem to be commonsensical, there may be criticism too. For instance, one debatable issue refers to the large number of stages and the content of each stage, to the fact that it seems to be a slow and costly process and, although it sounds good in theory, it may be considered that in time the investment does not pay off. I chose to make a detailed description of all the phases, as, most of times, those who are in charge with training programs are not specialists in the field, but rather people who are trying to get on-the-job training, or to be professionally reconverted (most of times, engineers). I believe that they are the target audience who would benefit most from finding explained and detailed the stages necessary for performing a life-long training program. The specialists in the field of education find it easier to go through these stages, they recognize faster the critical points they need to pay special attention to, they may put together the stages or conduct them in parallel wherever it is possible to do so. As it developed as a specialized function, training has developed its own language; it is believed that this may create barriers by using jargon, therefore the entire process becomes too difficult for those who are not specialists8.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Rosemarie Harrison (2002): Learning and development, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development House, London. 2. A. C. Hamblin (1974): Evaluation and Control of Training, Maidenhead, McGraw- Hill. 3. Sorina-Mihaela Mardar (2010): Educația adulților. Relități și perspective în formarea profesională continuă, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică. 4. Robert H. Vaughn (2008): Manualul trainerului profesionist, Editura Codecs. 5. Warr P., Bird M. W., Rackham N. (1970): Evaluation of Management Training, Aldershot, Gower.

8 Mardar Sorina-Mihaela (2010): Educația adulților. Realități și perspective în formarea profesională continuă, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, p. 136.

133

M-LEARNING – THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE OF THE CENTURY

Monica CONDRUZ-BACESCU Associate Professor Ph.D, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, [email protected]

Abstract: The present paper aims to analyze how m-learning has a major influence on today’s education. It is a new concept, a complementary form of learning, which aims to help us in the process of learning and professional qualification, through solutions adaptable to time resources. M-learning technology requires a distance learning system, which should include a system of access to training materials and services from various mobile devices, as well as the availability of web services. The objective of m-learning is to create flexible teaching solutions that allow access to information on various types of mobile devices, as well as to produce materials in a variety of situations. The basic feature of m-learning is that it allows learners to be in the right place, at the right time, to access information. Personalization is an important component of m-learning, because the difficulty of navigation and the small screen size of mobile devices make it difficult to obtain learning materials. M-learning focuses on learner mobility, interaction with mobile technologies and the learning process. Keywords: m-learning, educational challenge, mobile phones, digital literacy, students, teachers.

Preliminary considerations The rapid development of m-learning technologies, wireless communications and the increased demand for wireless mobile devices, especially mobile phones, has made it possible to direct researchers' attention from web-based e-learning to easy and convenient learning. A distinct feature of m-learning is mobility. With the emergence of the concept of m-learning, users can use all the facilities it offers through the latest technologies. M-learning is considered the educational challenge of the 21st century. It is a new concept, a complementary form of learning, which aims to help us in the process of learning and professional qualification, through solutions adaptable to time resources. M-learning technology requires a distance learning system, which should include a system of access to training materials and services from various mobile devices, as well as the availability of web services. The software underlying m-learning includes in addition to mobile applications specifically designed for educational purposes and those designed for other types of use, such as data access, readers and maps, but which can be adapted for educational purposes. The m- learning hardware includes mobile phones, laptops, tablets, which are capable of running mobile applications. Mobile devices are useful insofar as their usefulness is understood and do not completely replace the classical lessons, but only constitute an extension of classical education, a method of accessing any data, anytime and anywhere. “The objective of m-learning is to create flexible teaching solutions that allow access to information on various types of mobile devices, as well as to produce materials in a variety of situations”1. The basic feature of m-learning is that it allows learners to be in the right place, at the right time, to access information. The m-learning content can be accessed from any location and is customized for each student. Personalization is an important component of m-learning, because the difficulty of navigation and the small screen size of mobile devices

1 N.Francois, Elearning Now: How to Create Successful Elearning Courses and Teach Online Today. Routledge. London, 2014, p.87.

134

make it difficult to obtain learning materials. M-learning focuses on learner mobility, interaction with mobile technologies and the learning process. The evolution of e-learning practices in recent years is associated with a tremendous increase in complexity. By associating the concept with all situations and educational contexts that use new technologies in order to improve the process, it is obtained a broad range of activities and products that are under the sign of innovation in education in the last twenty years. Therefore, the need for epistemological clarification involves, primarily, accurately determining the type of intervention of the implemented level, categories of beneficiaries, types of results expected, the time frame in which each category of effects is likely to occur and also other qualitative and quantitative determinations in the design, development and evaluation of e-learning programmes. In the context of theoretical and practical development of program and project assessment field, of assessment patterns multiplication, of different specialists’ interest expansion in various fields to carry out evaluations, it emerged naturally, the concern for quality. In extending these concerns in the programs evaluation field, the efforts to investigate the value and merits of e-learning programs should be guided by a set of principles or specific requirements grafted onto a unitary conception over epistemological landmarks that constitute the core of e-learning field. Obviously, an e-learning program will be designed in a specific institutional context and to meet particular needs. In an evaluation report by the European Commission and OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), the authors note: “There are too few studies on complex interactions between various types of programs for information and communication technology implementation. It seems that we first need tools to assess and monitor the level of usage and the appropriate changes”2. The approach to e-learning research is far from clarifying problems outlined in this ever-expanding teaching-learning-assessment form. However, in the last two decades, new information and communication technologies supported educational institutions to focus on key aspects of learning and teaching. Educational practice indicates an increase in learning motivation in terms of using new technologies and a massive application of computer assisted education, grafted on a growing need to keep up with rapid changes in the profile of skills required by the labor market. In this context, we need a solid theoretical foundation for improving e-learning programs in progress and to develop others to meet the new challenges of the knowledge society and contemporary educational practice. We live in the information millennium, and the presence of computer and technology in our lives is already a natural thing. Anyone has a PC more or less advanced and the interest in information technology is constantly growing. “As the amount of information that must be acquired is school/college has increased significantly in recent years, the pupil/student nowadays is moving towards using computers as a means to inform and assist in the learning process”3. Information sources such as Internet and educational programs are becoming more useful, the number of Internet users and educational software application being on the rise. Internet is one of the main sources of information used in teaching. Consequently, the computer has become a necessity for pupils/students and teachers alike. 48% of believe they can hold a conversation in a foreign language, compared to 58% of the European average, and 31% of surveyed Romanians said they can have a conversation in English, 17% in French, 5% in German and Spanish and 3% in Russian. Almost nine out of ten EU citizens believe it is very useful to have the ability to speak foreign languages and 98% say that mastering foreign languages will be beneficial for their children's future, according to a new survey on the attitudes of EU citizens towards multilingualism and learning language.

2 B. Holmes, J. Gardner, E-learning: Concepts in practice. SAGE. California, 2014, p. 98. 3 D. R.Garrison, Elearning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice, Routledge, London, 2016, p.85.

135

However, there is a gap between aspirations and reality in terms of the ability to speak a foreign language in practice: tests among adolescent students in 14 European countries show that only 42% are proficient in their first foreign language and only 25 % in the second language. A significant proportion, 14% for the first foreign language and 20% for the second, does not even reach the level of basic user4. The ability to communicate in a foreign language broadens your horizons and opens new ways; it enhances the employability for a job, and for companies it can open new opportunities in the single market. At 11 years after Declaration in 2002 of Heads of State and Government, who pleaded for teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age, Europeans are largely aware of the benefits of multilingualism. Almost three quarters (72%) agree with this objective and 77% think it should be a political priority. More than half of Europeans (53%) use the foreign languages at work and 45% believe they have achieved a better job in their own country due to linguistic competencies. However, the number of people who say they can communicate in a foreign language declined slightly, from 56% to 54%. This is also caused by the fact that Russian and German are no longer compulsory in school curricula in countries of Central and Eastern Europe5.

M-learning M-learning does not just mean the transmission of text information between two devices. This concept involves much more: the information can be sent visually and / or audibly via video clips, slideshows, audio files, various applications, which can be downloaded from the network in a relatively short time and then used when the user wants. M-learning does not replace learning, but offers a way to extend the support of learning outside the classroom, to conversations and interactions in everyday life. Here are the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the case of m- learning. Strengths and weaknesses: - Practical, accessible and interesting mobile devices available to enable learning; - Better and faster mobile devices, with high storage and storage capacity, which make it possible to install complex applications on them; - Internet connectivity on mobile phones is not limited to WiFi. SMS and voice transmission can be used as mobile learning tools; - Development platforms for mobile devices are easy to use; - Low costs; - The large number of operating platforms, types of devices and variations in support technologies makes it difficult (and sometimes even impossible) to create a unique solution that works on any system and any device; - Technologies are developing rapidly; - The use of tools for designing effective learning solutions is difficult; - There are basic security and data security issues, due to the lack of common standards for mobile phones; - Lack of tools to create compelling content for mobile learning.

Threats and opportunities - A fast and real-time way to ensure the learning process; - Access to a lot of information; - Access to education of persons with disabilities;

4 http://www.ziare.com/articole/invatare+limbi+straine, accessed on 16 January 2020. 5 http://www.ziare.com/articole/invatare+limbi+straine, accessed on 16 January 2020.

136

- Lack of learning standards on mobile devices and generally learning technology on mobile devices; - The multitude of platforms and mobile devices. Although today the concept of m-learning faces a number of threats and weaknesses, there are also opportunities and strengths that see m-learning as an integral part of learning strategies in the workplace. M-learning applications are developed as standalone applications or based on distributed applications. Distributed applications can be web-based or dedicated architecture. “The m-learning applications can be educational, logical, knowledge testing, SMS or MMS with various questions / answers or tests, databases with information stored on the phone, browsers for easy search / presentation of the contents of web addresses”6. From an educational point of view, the quality of the m-learning application is defined by criteria regarding pedagogical elements that allow users to communicate with each other, but also with the trainer to define their learning environment: - characteristics of the student, such as: level of knowledge, age, special abilities or disabilities; - the educational process that describes ways and techniques to distribute knowledge, to test students, to obtain feedback or to guide the process towards the student; - educational content that may require a special format for storing or delivering data. From the point of view of the device there are technical characteristics that can influence the quality of the applications: - the user interface that allows the user to interact with the device; - communication capabilities that manage data transmission between multiple devices; - operating system and internal process that manages the m-learning application and offers support; - physical characteristics regarding size, weight, type of display, keyboard, presence of a digital camera, compatibility with external devices and hardware. “Digital literacy has become one of the core competencies of the XXI century. Without the ability to use mass-media effectively and responsibly, labor market opportunities are very low. Today, over 250 million Europeans regularly use the Internet”7. E-learning, m- learning (mobile learning) are concepts that entered teachers’ vocabulary too. M-learning is a new method of learning, a relatively new concept in the learning field. The concept of m- learning is derived from the term e-learning. Learning no longer happens only at a desk. Students now expect constant access to information, no matter where they are. Which is exactly why more and more faculties are using iTunes U to distribute digital lessons to their students. Young people seek information anywhere and mobility is an attribute of modern life. Therefore, we talk about mobile learning/teaching anywhere and anytime; this is called ubiquitous computing. Mobile devices, mobile phones, tablets, Pocket PC, iPod's, notebooks, smart phones support this kind of learning. It is perhaps the largest collection of free educational media resources available online for students, teachers and those interested. Many prestigious universities share their educational resources in this way. “iTunes U, part of the iTunes Store, is possibly the world’s greatest collection of free educational media available to students, teachers, and lifelong learners. With over 100,000 educational audio and video files available, iTunes U has quickly become the engine for the mobile learning movement. It puts the power of the iTunes Store in the hands of qualifying universities so they can distribute their educational media to their students or to the world”8.

6 Palloff, R., Pratt, K., Building Online Learning Communities, Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 2nd Edition, 2016, p.62. 7 Pritchard, A., Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies. Pedagogy and Practice. Paul Chapman Publishing. London, 2016, p.25. 8 http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning, accessed on 20 January 2020.

137

Students can carry in their pocket an entire library of materials, lessons and games. Apps are changing the way teachers teach and the way students learn. You can find apps for every subject and for every stage of learning. Students can download books on their iPhone or iPod. With iTunes U for iPhone and iPod touch, a university professor can put all the materials and assignments from his course in the students’ pockets. The iTunes U courses can include all the items you would use in a traditional course: a syllabus, handouts, quizzes, and so on. “And they can include your own video and audio lectures, as well as interactive elements such as content and links from the Internet, iBookstore, App Store, and iTunes Store. You can create iTunes U courses via an easy-to-use, browser-based tool from Apple, then use the same tool to distribute your courses directly to your students”9. The apps can help students learn English at any level: reading, writing, grammar skills, listening and speaking.

Conclusions M-learning offers an opportunity for both students and teachers. The flexibility of approaching the new learning methodology gives optimal services for mobile users. For effective teaching in an m-learning environment, both teachers and students need to understand the nature of social relationships, the quality of interaction and communication to ensure communicative competence, which includes the exchange of information, knowledge, experience and skill development. There will certainly be an increased dynamism in the field of educational software and teaching techniques using the computer. Perhaps, most schools/universities will benefit, in the future, of equipment and necessary resources for e-learning. We can be sure, however, that technology will not turn back, nor teaching methods and the demand in e-learning programs and educational software will sky-rocket. Therefore, e-learning is addressed to all those who want to learn, regardless of age or education. “E-learning is thus an option of lifelong learning in the information society”10. Traditional teachers could become future tutors, providing virtual classroom management. The tutor plans group activity in the virtual classroom, raise aspects of the lesson in discussion forums, provide ancillary resources for understanding, comments on topics, indicates where each class member must insist. Of course tutor’ new activity is paid according to performance. Performance is given by the class audience; this time students are free to enrol in one course or another, and are free to leave the course if it is ineffective. “Transmission of information, learning in an open, professional system, continuously supported by special pedagogical methods and techniques becomes a commodity that can be bought”11. Even if e-learning cannot completely replace traditional learning methods, it can facilitate learning or even provide more effective solutions. Its success depends on the quality of the solution adopted and, of course, the degree of students’ motivation.

9 http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning, accessed on 20 January 2020. 10 Rosenburg, M., Elearning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. McGraw Hill Education. London, 2017, p. 23. 11 Weller, M., Delivering learning on the Net, the why, what and how of online education. Routledge Falmer. London, 2016, p. 101.

138

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Francois, N., Elearning Now: How to Create Successful Elearning Courses and Teach Online Today. Routledge. London, 2014. 2. Garrison, D. R., Elearning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice. Routledge. London, 2016. 3. Holmes, B., Gardner, J., E-learning: Concepts in practice. SAGE. California, 2014. 4. Palloff, R., Pratt, K., Building Online Learning Communities, Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 2nd Edition, 2016. 5. Pritchard, A., Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies. Pedagogy and Practice. Paul Chapman Publishing. London, 2016. 6. Rosenburg, M., Elearning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. McGraw Hill Education. London, 2017. 7. Weller, M., Delivering learning on the Net, the why, what and how of online education. Routledge Falmer. London, 2016. 8. http://www.ziare.com/articole/invatare+limbi+straine 9. http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning

139

THE OVERWHELMING INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES ON EDUCATIONAL FIELD

Monica CONDRUZ-BACESCU Associate Professor Ph.D, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, [email protected]

Abstract: The paper approaches the issue of information technologies’ influence on educational field. The continuous improvement of the information and communication technologies, the increase of the degree of use and the continuous adaptation to the requirements imposed by the development of the society make of these technologies an optimal environment for the transmission of information. Education must integrate and adapt its offerings to support the new generation, updating its aims and resources, so as to respond to new challenges and at the same time provide education subjects with effective working skills and tools. Therefore, the influence of the computer in the education process has both positive and negative aspects. Important is the role of the teacher who has to intervene in order to make the training activity more efficient, to prepare surprise elements in order to keep students' attention awake and to clearly emphasize the role of the computer: as an auxiliary teacher in the teaching - learning - assessment activity. Keywords: information technologies, education, learning, teacher, Internet, assessment.

Preliminary considerations The continuous improvement of the information and communication technologies, the increase of the degree of use and the continuous adaptation to the requirements imposed by the development of the society make of these technologies an optimal environment for the transmission of information, a necessary but not sufficient condition for the success in the educational process. Education must integrate and adapt its offerings to support the new generation, updating its aims and resources, so as to respond to new challenges and at the same time provide education subjects with effective working skills and tools. If changes in curricula, organizational forms, and material resources are relatively easy to implement and control, human resource modeling is a more difficult and time-consuming process. Therefore, the influence of the computer in the education process has both positive and negative aspects. Important is the role of the teacher who has to intervene in order to make the training activity more efficient, to prepare surprise elements in order to keep students' attention awake and to clearly emphasize the role of the computer: as an auxiliary teacher in the teaching - learning - assessment activity. A concrete example of the influence of technical transformations on the development of the educational process is that of the impact of information and communication technologies. “Computers can play the role of teachers, they can encourage creative thinking, promote entrepreneurial spirit or curiosity”1. However, technology alone is not a solution. First of all, we need new educational models. Thus, modern educational concepts insist on individualized education, practically, on teamwork, and on a guide of information discovery. At present, Romanian society faces a series of challenges in the field of education: globalization (city-country-world); continuous education (student-specialist); e-learning (traditional learning - distance learning); the informational revolution (knowledge information - the information society). Despite what one might think, the practice of distance learning does not entirely belong to the present times. In the world, at least one hundred years ago,

1 K.Carey, Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere. Riverhead Books. London, 2015, p.85.

140

educators sent the materials printed by mail. Later, the media was replaced by the electronic one (floppy disks, CD-ROM or even e-mail). Other means of distance education have also emerged: radio, video and television (years ago, national television has been teaching foreign language courses, and lately some universities have even developed their own television network to educate students and the interested public). But these forms of distance learning have not found their expected efficacy due to lack of immediate feed-back and real interactive communication. And yet, for that time, they played an important role in educating students. “In the age of new information and communication technologies, the Internet has revolutionized all areas of social and professional life, including education”2. Internet education is a new way of learning the pupil / student, but also a new way of teaching the teacher. It is vital for all pupils and students to have access to the Internet to know the new technologies and for this it is necessary to introduce the ICT tools in the curriculum. Distance education has now become a feature of the university environment, and more and more educational institutions pay more attention to pedagogical and accreditation activities, seen from the perspective of the relationship established between new information and communication technologies and didactic objectives. In this context, the virtual university, virtual library or e-learning is becoming more common.

New information technologies Historically speaking, the transfer of knowledge between teachers and students has been done from person to person. The development of telecommunication over the past 30 years has also influenced the evolution of the educational field, which has led to the emergence of training methods that are an alternative to traditional ones. The need for lifelong learning has led to the emergence of lifelong learning, and hence of e-learning systems that have had a strong impact. Currently, trends tend to focus on advanced technologies that have penetrated strongly in the sphere of education. More and more advanced software and hardware resources are included in the development of applications that provide courses and teaching materials with rich educational content, supporting the learning and evaluation of those interested. “New technologies, smartphones, tablets, social networking sites shift the focus from how information is obtained and processed, from how it is communicated, to the technique of obtaining and processing information”3. All these concepts not only require technological assistance, but they would be impossible to achieve without the help of information technologies. The learning style will have to be individually tailored to each student, and this cannot be achieved without the help of technology. The computer is a complex means of education, which helps to train the student. Its use becomes effective only when it is done methodically, by observing a few conditions. The most important thing is to avoid exaggerating the role of this instrument in the formation and information of the student. Another problem of current education is that students learn in large groups. This makes many feel bad when they have to respond and make a mistake. The major advantage of computers is precisely this elimination of the state of confusion. They will give them the chance to learn without being bothered by the opinion of others. Computers will become an electronic mentor. Thus, instead of the current model - in which a single teacher is in front of the class teaching a group of students - they will have the exact opposite - a user in front of a computer with hundreds of teachers included. “Computers will allow an apprenticeship in areas that are hard to achieve in reality, such as surgery or piloting an airplane. Multimedia has captured the imagination of teachers more than any other

2 G.Conole, M.Oliver, Contemporary Perspectives in E-learning Research, Themes, Methods and Impact on Practice. Routledge. London, 2014, p.56. 3 D. Elkins, D. Pinder, Elearning Fundamentals, ATD Press. London, 2015, p.22.

141

technology”4. The goal it must pursue is the development of observational skills. All children are capable of observations, comparisons and some analyzes based on cause and effect phenomena. These are the cognitive goals that we should develop in our students. Multimedia applications will attract students with images and sound. In addition, their involvement in an interactive environment of hyperlinked data will be realized. Using these types of applications as learning resources goes hand in hand with constructivist learning theories, according to which in today's world, subject to continuous change, the ability to quickly analyze and solve a variety of problems is far more important than pure application of stored information. The best method of teaching a conceptual way of thinking, necessary for such tasks, is through a system of tests. In this system, the student is subjected to concrete situations, of the real world and forced to make decisions. Interactive multimedia, with its user training capabilities, could be the perfect support for such processes. Our society is in permanent change, but the same thing happens with technical innovations. The computer influences not only a part of our life, but it manifests itself in all its fields. The form of communications, the pace of life, the work and even the environment have undergone, thanks to this innovation, essential changes. Today we are not talking in vain about the so-called information society, but this is considered a community whose goods – the information – have developed continuously. Nowadays, the use of the Internet and telecommunications brings important changes in the way we learn. Learning must go beyond the classroom and encompass complex disciplines and technologies. Therefore, in today's education we move from training to learning, where the act of learning is placed before teaching, and the student is located in the center of the education process. Among the main objectives of modern education is the improvement of the teaching- learning processes, using the new multimedia technologies. New technologies are changing the world around us. High quality education is essential for success in the labor market and to be able to cope with an extremely competitive environment. By constantly and efficiently using these technologies in the education process, students have the opportunity to acquire important skills. Most of them, especially in urban areas, are already routinely using the Internet and email, or social networks like Yahoo or Facebook. This way of communication is also felt in their way of learning. Whether or not the teacher uses information and communication technology in the classroom, students will certainly use modern means of information at home to support their homework. The use of the computer in the educational process becomes a necessity in the conditions of accelerated development of information technology. “For the new generations of students, already accustomed to the avalanche of multimedia information, the concept of assisting the learning process with the computer is an intrinsic requirement”5. The computer is perceived in turn, as a toy, a tool, an information resource. The use of the computer for communication, information, training has already entered into the daily routine. The student-computer interaction allows the diversification of the didactic strategy, facilitating the student's access to broader, logically organized, varied structured information, presented in different visualization modes. In fact, not the computer itself as a physical object, including even multimedia configuration, produces immediate pedagogical effects, but the quality of the programs created, of the computer products, integrated according to methodological efficiency criteria in the training activities. Pedagogical modernization therefore implies the existence of hardware, software and their ability to adapt, receive and capitalize in the instructional environment. The school must keep up with the technology, understand and anticipate the impact on the learning mode. The

4 A.Okada, Collaborative Learning 2.0: Open Educational Resources, US: Idea Group, 2012, p. 99. 5 J. M. Pawlowski, Global Open Education: A Roadmap for Internationalization. In: Open Education 2030, 2016, p.78.

142

computers have been incorporated into the educational programs, giving those who are trained more freedom and flexibility, but also individuality in the classroom. The use of the Internet by students was an idea that quickly caught on. Learning that emphasizes participation is a type of training that gives the student an active role in the learning process. Students print their own rhythm and strategies. The learning mode is individualized, not standardized. Regarding the effects of the computer in education, there are both positive and negative aspects. It is known that in the education of our country the informative aspect prevails over the educational one. The introduction of computer science as a school subject and the introduction of computer technologies in the school environment must have the training aspect. The teacher creates a suitable environment for the preparation of learning activities that facilitate the use of technologies by the students in order to learn and communicate. It is essential that all teachers be prepared to carry out such activities with their students. Teachers should be prepared to make students benefit from the advantages that technologies can offer. With the help of the Internet, web product development programs, audio/video recordings, computer graphics creation programs, online courses and educational software for various disciplines can be created. Virtual education is an attractive and effective form of learning, training and information and it has the advantage that the student can choose what, when and how much to learn, the order of learning and the method of learning. In the field of education, in the last ten years, the use of the Internet has undergone a phenomenal development, a number of factors influencing the adoption of web and multimedia technologies in educational programs. Today, teachers who integrate IT technology into the education process help students develop their thinking and learning skills, and in a classroom where a variety of instructional strategies are used, students are deeply involved, feel challenged and learn better. The teachers of such classes are aware of the benefits of using these strategies to make students responsible for their own learning process. The computer provides game learning. Many educational products turn learning into a fun activity. Because students learn the easiest when playing, computer learning can be the ideal solution. The student learns new things without making a special effort and without getting bored. The computer facilitates understanding of new concepts, which the student is getting closer to. They are more easily understood through the computer, as it provides visual and auditory support and makes interactivity possible. In addition, the student is no longer only required to listen to the information offered by someone. The computer used in learning helps to consolidate information. “Theoretical information is not sufficient for learning, and the student needs situations in which to apply the knowledge he has learned”6. Therefore, most educational games contain a wide range of exercises through which the student sets his knowledge. The test results are provided in a few seconds, usually accompanied by recommendations on how the student can improve their performance. Thus, the computer helps you to check if the student really understood the new concepts. The computer can compensate for the inadequate supply of school laboratories and make it easier to understand processes or phenomena that are not obvious. In addition, the student can redo laboratory experiments at any time, view multimedia animations and simulate the various natural phenomena. The computer facilitates troubleshooting. Through feedback tests, which when the student fails, gives them clues to solve. In this way the student is helped to understand and learn how to solve different types of problems. When you want to give students additional training or practice what they learned in school, you can give them access to specially created sites. The anxiety induced by the test decreases substantially

6 J.D. Shank, Interactive Open Educational Resources: A Guide to Finding, Choosing, and Using What's Out There to Transform College Teaching, US: Jossey-Bass, 2014, p. 54.

143

precisely because in the online environment, the student is the one who can set the level at which to work and solve the exercises. When he does not know something, he can resume the sequence as many times as he needs to understand and solve. Unlike the TV and the variety of channels it offers, the computer allows active and selective interaction with the materials. Choosing useful information, selecting sources you can trust are some of the lessons that students use in learning computer. The educational products on the computer can be the ideal teacher because they are sufficient, the student does not need other materials, tests the initial level of the student, teaches, explains, fixes his new knowledge, then tests it. With educational software the student is helped to understand the concepts. “Educational products that have interdisciplinary approaches are very valuable, as they help the young person to transfer information to new, different situations and contexts”7. As in life, when solving some problem situations we resort to sometimes atypical solutions for that kind of problem. The accommodation from school with the calculation technique influences the intellectual formation of the students, by: ▪ Stimulating interest in new ones. The basic law that governs computer-assisted education is the interactive involvement of the student in the action of presenting knowledge, capturing the attention of the subject and eliminating the risk of boredom or routine. ▪ Stimulation of imagination. From computer games that develop skills of use, imagination and reaction speed in an attractive graphical presentation, the student begins to create their own software products. ▪ Development of logical thinking. The decomposition of a theme into sequentially organized stages, the logical organization of reasoning represent cognitive actions that bring depth and speed to the judgment of a problem. Free access to information, respectively the exchange of information brings many advantages and possibilities. On the other hand, this access has its disadvantages: you can find a lot of information on both sides of the border between legally and illegally. Due to the current expansion of the Internet, control over these types of information is almost impossible. It should not be understood that this area is censored. There must be only one signal that the responsibility for accessing such information is ours alone. Moderate use of the computer is desirable.

Conclusions The implementation of IT technologies in education is not a new concept. The way information is defined and delivered through current technologies is innovative. All of these technologies contribute to a transition in education that puts learners in the role of self-taught people through an education interface, encouraging them to take a more active role in their own education. Standardization of technology is the result of using the Internet, which has fundamentally transformed the way socialization, interaction and presentation of information. To be successful, an educational system must be extremely flexible and easily updated because new requirements arise at each step. Therefore, computer-assisted training, like any teaching method, has advantages and disadvantages, which must be known by the teacher in order to be used or avoided. First and foremost, the use of the computer means time-saving, yet expensive. Second, the computer simulates some processes and phenomena, but does not replace experiments or direct observation. Finally, perhaps most important, the computer leads to the diminution of human and social relationships, risking to cause the education process to be dehumanized. The student, in front of the monitor, having the power to inform and understand, renounces to the direct relationship with his colleagues or teachers, gives up communication.

7 G. Sharma, Open Educational Resources for Teacher Education: A Participatory Action Research, Paris: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2014, p.63.

144

The digital dimension of education will become more important in the years to come and that it is a phenomenon that we can not control. Technology is part of our lives and occupies a growing space, and learning can not ignore social reality. This is also recognized by both the public and the institutions, and there is a consensus that any intervention in education must have a digital component. At this point, Romania has three major options: 1. Let things grow naturally. Investments in digitization continue, especially in infrastructure, and communities to organize and create (or not) open resources; 2. Speed up the process by stimulating the creation and use of OER through public policy measures; 3. To force a rapid shift from traditional resources to OER through major investments and specific legislation. Of the three options we recommend the second, the one of equilibrium. To leave things in their own rhythm means to miss a development opportunity that comes, as we have shown, at a relatively low cost. Romania has set a fast pace of growth, at least faster than developed economies, to achieve the goal of equalizing them. This is difficult to achieve and without missing new opportunities to increase innovation and smart investment in human capital. On the other hand, forcing a very fast movement is a risky game. The stakes are high, and the potential benefit, if everything goes well, can be very high. Romania can burn stages and find niches to become a great performer. But the associated risks are high and have a major impact. Rapid switching to digital (open or not) can increase the already existing differences in access to quality education, which means getting behind a significant proportion of citizens. In the long run, it becomes an insurmountable cost.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 10. Carey, K., Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere. Riverhead Books. London, 2015. 11. Conole, G., Oliver, M., Contemporary Perspectives in E-learning Research, Themes, Methods and Impact on Practice. Routledge. London, 2014. 12. Elkins, D., Pinder, D., Elearning Fundamentals. ATD Press. London, 2015. 13. Okada, A., Collaborative Learning 2.0: Open Educational Resources, US: Idea Group, 2012. 14. Pawlowski, J. M., Global Open Education: A Roadmap for Internationalization. In: Open Education 2030, 2016. 15. Shank, J.D., Interactive Open Educational Resources: A Guide to Finding, Choosing, and Using What's Out There to Transform College Teaching, US: Jossey-Bass, 2014 16. Sharma, G., Open Educational Resources for Teacher Education: A Participatory Action Research, Paris: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2014.

145

STUDY ON THE PREPARATION OF NON-SPORTS RECRUITS FOR MILITARY OPERATIONS

Raducu POPESCU Associate professor, Universitatea “OVIDIUS” Constanta, [email protected]

Abstract: At the beginning of a military career, candidates must prove objectively that they are able to meet anthropometric standards, medical checks, academic qualifications and other physical standards, these are just some of the obstacles that a candidate must meet before becoming a military officer. The experience of the activity in preparing the future candidates shows us that often the moment when this decision is taken by young people, it does not coincide with the period when their physical form is at the level established by norms. The level of general physical training with which the candidates appear for the contest is directly correlated with the previous driving experiences but also with the interest for obtaining a good specific training. For the majority of candidates, a properly prepared and customized training program influences the following preparation stages and the fulfillment of the missions favorably. Keywords: physical training, military career, mission accomplished.

Armies from all over the world acknowledge the importance of good physical fitness for the performance of military duties. The Military Exercise Training (MET) attempts to provide assistance to this search for better physical fitness and performance1. In many international studies, the dynamics of morphological changes have been analyzed in the case of those who started their military career. A sample of 130 recruits between the ages of 18 and 20 was evaluated in terms of anthropometric dimensions, body mass index and endurance, Cooper test. The career of soldiers in military organizations is characterized by an initial course during which they are appointed recruits and go through a period of military adaptation, later being named soldiers. The recruits are prepared for a military career, ensuring the safety of military organizations and society. In this context, they must be in physical form in order to accomplish the required missions The actions of the future combatants will be carried out under the command and supervision of the superiors, whose responsibility is the group of recruits. Their activity in the field will take place in military march for distances of 5 km or more, during which the recruits will carry on their equipment. In addition to these requests, the recruits must know that the future job involves the integration into a general physical training program - strength, endurance - which involves the completion of different tasks specific to military actions in military operations, but also absolutely necessary for each member of the team for completing the resources each military needs. Besides the physical training, the recovery has a contribution of 50% as it is said in most specialized studies in the field of human performance, in obtaining a good and very good general form. The physical capacity of the recruits must be at the level necessary to be able to carry all the equipment and armament provided, it having a weight of approximately 25 kilograms during a march with a distance of 5 km, or for a minimum time of 50-60 minutes. The physical demands are accentuated by the unfriendly physical conditions in which the military

1 Avila JAD, Lima Filho PDDB, Páscoa MA, Tessutti LS. Effect of 13 weeks of military exercise training on the body composition and physical performance of ESPCEX students. Rev Bras Med Esporte. 2013;19(5):363–366.

146

must carry out their missions, high temperatures, wind, high humidity. Before starting the march, it is recommended a period of 5-7 minutes in which the military can organize their equipment, but can also mobilize and regain the effort capacity required to perform the physical tasks under the required conditions. The training of recruits in terms of strength in resistance regime is of particular importance. The capacity to carry a weight of 25 kg, additional to the equipment carried, during 20-25 minutes must be trained through special programs of different intensities and with specific customizations. The force required to lift, transport, pull or push, are very important, often the operations of the lives of wounded soldiers was conditioned by the level of training of the comrades. The design of programs of muscular training and general psycho-physical training adapted to the initial level of the recruits influences the rate of progress and equally contributes to a solid, absolutely necessary internal construction. The stages of the programs must be correlated with the test baths permanently adapted to the general requirements but also to the specific requirements in the case of the different missions carried out in hostile or less favorable conditions but with a specific one. Research and development of human performance has made several attempts to determine aerobic requirements for combatants who need strength, but also to identify the weight in which the legacy inheritance and the various predispositions are favorable to a military activity. The Army Physical Training Research Institute, physically, prepares all military personnel participating in UN peacekeeping missions, producing and implementing a physical training plan based on the military physical training (MFT) manual.4 This is necessary since, once integrated into the UN service, these military personnel perform various types of physical and operational activities that require, in addition to other physical valences, the relative muscular strength of their upper and lower limbs2. Correlation of the muscle training is directly correlated with the achievement of the set objectives, the maximization of the physical capacity induces the minimization of the percentage of exposure in the risk area. Periodic assessments to which soldiers are subjected show the level of operational physical training, as required. Design and application of complex tests with which a complete and objective evaluation can be done, implies that in this process devices and software programs dedicated to generate information will be used. The scientific-statistical analysis of the data collected from each military, as well as in the case of a group, represents valuable information with which the specialists can set up a personal or group profile. The scientific approach to selection among civilians, the initial and subsequent periodic evaluation of recruits provide them with an important feed-back which they with the help of specialists will be able to use during their entire period of military activity but especially after the reserve, when most of them from now on he gives up the constant physical training. The concern for movement must be cultivated from the beginning of the military occupation, as an endless battle that every soldier must carry for the rest of his life. In a parallel study, besides other values, the body mass index of the active military and of those who have been in reserve with births up to 55 years. Preliminary statistical calculations show that the body mass index in the case of those who went into the reserve is 27% for men and 28.5% for women. Both measured values are above the average values of the population in the respective area, from the same age scale but among civilians and not former military personnel. Previous studies report that military

2 E. Corter, Exército Brasileiro, Diretriz de preparação específica de tropa para missão de paz (BRABATT 2). 2011.

147

physical training promotes positive biological adaptations in increasing power and muscular endurance3 Body composition and physical condition are associated with higher physical performance and a lower risk of health problems. Military activities are characterized as having a high physical and psychological load, physical training and body composition, can have a negative effect on military performance and for this reason must be carefully treated. Specialized studies carried out on a sample of recruits analyzed the morphological and functional changes of the military recruits after twelve weeks of physical training. The sample consisted of 150 volunteer recruits aged between 18 and 20 years. The anthropometric variables (body weight, height, body mass index, arm, waist and hip circumference, waist / hip ratio, triceps skin thickness, suprailiac and abdomen and body fat percentage) and deposition test (1 minute) were evaluated; push-up test and 12-minute running test. The physical training protocol involved the training, strength, agility and flexibility. Descriptive statistical procedures were performed with mean, standard deviation, variation and percentage, and the comparison between the two moments was performed using Student t test for dependent samples. Significance level was set at p <0.05.

The results showed a decrease in the sum of the three folds. (42,7 ± 25,2 mm la 33,9 ± 17,7 mm)

A decrease in fat percentage (14,1 ± 7,3% la 11,8 ± 6,1%)

3 Maior AS, Souza MWBJD, Defilippo E, Granado FD, Boadbaid JWDS, Beyruth RMDP, et al. Efeitos do treinamento físico militar na potência muscular dos membros inferiores e nos indicadores da composição corporal. Revista de Educação Física, 2006;135:5–12.

148

An increase in lean mass (57,6 ± 6,0 kg la 58,6 ± 8,0 kg)

Decreased fat mass (10,1 ± 6,4 kg la 8,3 ± 5,2 kg)

They also showed improvements in the push-up test (21.3 ± 9.0 to 33.5 ± 8.9), the sit-up test (35.2 ± 8.3 to 49.8 ± 7, 4), the 12-minute test (2212 ± 316m to 2760 ± 214m) and

V̇ O2max (35,2 ± 8,3 ml.kg − 1,min − 1 până la 49,8 ± 7,4 ml.kg − 1,min − 1)

In another study, the sample consisted of 192 male soldiers, with an average age of 23.2 ± 3.6 years. The subjects were stationed in a military base, having activities and tables with defined hours, being released at the end of the week. The training program was applied four times a week, lasting 90 minutes for 14 weeks and involved aerobic and endurance exercises. During the pre and post-preparation period, body mass index, height, waist and abdomen circumference were measured to calculate body mass index (BMI) and fat

149

percentage (% F) with the Salem Protocol. In addition, 12-minute running tests, arm flexion, abdominal flexion, and bar flexion were performed to calculate the Rogers index (RI). In both tests, no differences were observed regarding body mass, height, body mass index or hip circumference. According to the above, it was found that the methodology adopted during the physical training was effective in reducing the percentage of fat and increasing the cardiorespiratory capacity, improving the physical capacity and the health of the military recruits. The evaluations of the other studies among the recruits showed that that physical training after a program and under the guidance of some specialists, causes changes in the morphological and physical conditions. The training cycles grouped by preparation stages and adapted to the initial general physical training level of the recruits, are a factor in the chronic adaptations in the body composition and in the specific physical form of the army. In addition, this reinforces the idea that testing using easy-to-understand protocols with low costs can allow large-scale monitoring of military physical training. In this way, we can affirm that the application of these customized programs after the initial tests, is important for the correct administration of the plans of physical training, to contribute to the improvement of the physical state and of the quality of life of the military personnel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Avila JAD, Lima Filho PDDB, Páscoa MA, Tessutti LS. Effect of 13 weeks of military exercise training on the body composition and physical performance of ESPCEX students. Rev Bras Med Esporte. 2013;19(5):363–366 2. Campos, L.,Campos, F.,Bezerra,T., Pellegrinotti,I. Effects of 12 Weeks of Physical Training on Body Composition and Physical Fitness in Military Recruits, Int J Exerc Sci. 2017; 10(4): 560–567 3. Campos LCB, Campos FAD, Bezerra TAR, Pellegrinotti IL. Evaluation of recruits morphofunctional profile from a military unit of Brazilian Air Force. Cinergis. 2016;17(2):91–95. 4. Ezequiel da Rosa, S., Martinez, E. Marson, A. - Military physical training, muscular strength, and body composition of brasilian military personnel, Rev Bras Med Esporte vol.24 no.2 São Paulo Mar./Apr. 2018 5. Exército Brasileiro. Diretriz de preparação específica de tropa para missão de paz (BRABATT 2). 2011. 6. Maior AS, Souza MWBJD, Defilippo E, Granado FD, Boadbaid JWDS, Beyruth RMDP, et al. Efeitos do treinamento físico militar na potência muscular dos membros inferiores e nos indicadores da composição corporal. Revista de Educação Física. 2006;135:5–12. 7. Pļaviņa L, Umbraško S. Analysis of physical fitness tests and the body composition of the military personnel. Papers Anthropol. 2016;25(1):27–36.

150

THE INFLUENCE OF RAP MUSIC ON THE CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM

Vladimir MĂRUNȚELU Lawyer at Magda Volonciu &Associates [email protected]

Carmen-Liliana MĂRUNȚELU Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Letters, Ovidius University of Constanta [email protected]

Abstract: In a period marked by profound social, cultural, political and technological changes, in which they emphasize the processes of social exclusion, it is necessary to advance in the understanding of how pedagogy and practices can contemplate the challenges to fulfill education rights and culture. New perspectives of education based on multicultural and critical concepts committed to the rights of individuals and the social inclusion of youth, such as the Pedagogy of youth, come into sight. This idea, connected with the elements facilitated by the wide spread of hip hop in the academic field in many countries and in its intersections with education nurture our reflection on the pedagogical potential of this manifestation. This article shows how this youthful expression, characterized as a place of construction of the identity of young people in which symbolic, social and material processes are mobilized, can be understood and appropriate in critical pedagogical processes, including in school education. Keywords: HipHop, pedagogy, education, youth culture.

Introduction The teachers in the American schools mainly attended by African American students have always encountered real difficulties in capturing the attention of these young people and the identification of some motivational elements, most of them showing a very low level of interest in the lessons of the school program, which generated a very low level of graduation rate among students of color who presented various characteristics of the Hip Hop culture. It was speculated that the potential causes of these situations would have been: high level of criminality in family environment, poverty and lack of opportunities, poor parental education, negative pressure of entourage, family instability, uninspired choices in social models1, but it was impossible to identify concrete solutions and remedies for combating numerous and profound antecedent causes. However, as the rap phenomenon has become more widespread, being gradually accepted, validated and even appreciated as an artistic and social phenomenon outside the "undergorund" environment too, the first initiatives to implement this current have also appeared in the conventional education system. Thus, the impact of rap music on modern education system has been increasingly felt since the beginning of the 2000s, both at the level of primary and secondary education, as well as at the level of higher education. Over time, numerous controversies have arisen regarding the existence of a distinction between rap music and hip-hop music, controversies that have come up in the specialized literature, in the online environment, among the listeners and admirers of this musical genre and even and among genre artists.

1 Kelly D. Williams, Teacher Perceptions of the Use of Hip Hop Culture, Hip Hop Pedagogy and Identity Development in an Urban Elementary School , ProQuest, 2015, p. 9.

151

Perhaps the most eloquent and endorsed opinion in this regard is provided by the American rapper and producer KRS-One, who, in his work, "The Hip Hop Bible: The First Instrument" 2, makes a distinction between (a) hip-hop ( written with a hyphen), defining it as a term that represents a musical genre, used with the meaning of the product of rap music, respectively those elements and events associated with the enterntaiment of rap music, (b) Hip Hop (written without a hyphen and with capital letters), which he defined as representing a culture, the artistic response to oppression; a form of expression; a flourishing culture of creativity and nostalgia, noting that there would be no less than 9 essentials of Hip Hop culture (1. b-boying / b-girling / break dancing; 2. emceeing / rapping; 3. deejaying; 4 graffiti / aerosol art; 5. beat boxing; 6. street fashion; 7. street language / lingo; 8. knowledge of self / self awarness; and 9. street entrepreneurialism) and (c) rap, which in the artist's opinion represents the action of playing rap music; musical style in which the rhythmic and / or rhymed speech is hummed on a musical accompaniment; hip-hop. Therefore, in this paper we will refer to the terms rap, hip-hop and Hip Hop according to the meanings offered by KRS-One in his work, taking into account in particular his expertise in the field and the fact that, in the course of his artistic activity, he gained a vision and experienced a deep and holistic perspective of the phenomenon. The integration of rap music and hip hop in the curriculum has increased the interest of students in education, while increasing the literacy level of young people of color. In this regard, various innovative pedagogical programs, such as #HipHopEd or the Hip-Hop Educational Literacy Program, have been initiated. There has been published even a teaching guide through Hip-hop ( "The Hip-hop Education Guidebook: Volume 1”), which contains a collection of lesson plans that teachers and educators can use to integrate hip-hop into the lesson plan of the classes, in a wide range of subjects, such as: mathematics, science, language arts, social justice etc.

Short incursion into the history of Hip Hop and rap music It is difficult to identify the exact temporal moment when the first identifiable forms of rap music were born, the origins of this genre being still relatively uncertain. There are opinions that the origin of rap music comes from western Africa, where African musicians recited stories only on the rhythms of a percussion accompaniment. Other sources say that, around the same time, Caribbean folk artists also recited rhyming stories, while other authors believe that the first forms of rap music appeared in Africa thousands of years ago, when African griots were reciting, on the rhythms of hand-crafted instruments, stories about their families and about events locally held. 3 The term "rap" dates back to the 14th century, and with regard to the etymology of the term, it was conveyed that it came from either the Norwegian or the Swedish "rap" (hit, whip) or from the term "hreppan" (to touch, to treat), used in Old English. Hip Hop movement and rap music, as they are generally known and widespread today, were born in the late 1960s, early 1970s. One of the 5 neighborhoods of New York, "the Bronx”, nicknamed, in the Hip Hop world, "the Boogie Down" and then called "the quintessence of urban failure" or "the lowest American slum", is credited as representing the "fertile soil for the birth of the revolutionary cultural current called Hip Hop4”. Recognized as one of the most prominent founding figures of Hip Hop culture, DJ Kool Herc was born in Kingston, Jamaica, immigrating with his family in 1967 to New York

2 The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument – KRS ONE, PowerHouse Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2009, pp. 45-47. 3 History of Rap Music – The True Origins of Rap Music, accessed February 27, 2020, on https://colemizestudios.com/how-did-rap-start/ 4 Hip Hop Culture, Emmet G. Price III, ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara, 2006, p.28.

152

City. He borrowed many elements of Jamaican street culture, especially the inclination to organize spontaneous outdoor parties (in the public space). 5 Highlights also include founding artists of Hip Hop culture, including DJ Disco Wiz, Grandmaster Flash or Afrika Bambaataa, many founding members of Hip Hop culture of Latin American or Caribbean descent. In 1974, Afrika Bambattaa managed to transform one of New York's most violent bands into the first Hip Hop culture organization, "the ZULU nation". Even today, ZULU nation is one of the most socially recognizable and active Hip Hop organizations. In the same year, Bambattaa, along with DJ Busy Bee Starski, are credited for creating the name Hip Hop (referring to those original parties), so that a year later, in 1975, Grand Wizard Theodore was credited with discovering "scratch" (scratch), the extraordinary technique used in DJ-ing consisting of rubbing the vinyls back and forth on a board.6 At present, rap culture and music have undergone an important evolution, perhaps even unanticipated by many specialists, up to this moment more than 50 musical styles derived from hip-hop have been created and developed, such as rap, country rap , crunk, hip hop soul, jazz rap, trip hop or rap opera. In the hip-hop music industry, hundreds of artists have subsequently established themselves, gaining an important international reputation, among them being performers such as Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nas, Kendrick Lamar or Drake and many others.

The implementation of Hip Hop and Rap music in the global education system Many teachers have globally faced difficulties in getting the attention of pupils and students. After numerous more or less successful researches and attempts to approach and establish connections through elements that are relevant to young people and able to strengthen the pupil/ student - teacher relationship and trigger interest, it was found that a functional bridge is represented by hip-hop and, in particular, by rap music and lyrics. Thus, numerous educational programs were initiated and implemented, aiming to implement hip-hop in the educational system; the first program of this type was #HipHopEd, the first educational platform that used hip-hop as an educational form and proceeded to apply it in the education system. This program was initiated and organized by Christopeher Emdin, professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Columbia University and author of the bestseller "For White Folks", and Timothy Jones, lecturer at Columbia University. The program is made up of and supported by a community of educators, pupils and students who seek to stimulate traditional educational systems and their structures, and to enhance the culture and voice of the young generation. #HipHopEd facilitates innovative educational programming in schools and organizes events connecting youth culture, education and various industries, including a weekly professional development chat on Twitter (#HipHopEd) and an annual conference. #HipHopEd Twitter chat serves as a virtual professional learning network of educators, university teachers, students and community members who meet to discuss hip-hop and education intersections. The #HipHopEd Twitter chat started in 2010, with a few consistent participants and has developed into a network of over 18,000 international members. Each week, a topic is presented to the community and, for one hour, Twitter chat participants share their reflections, responses, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, tools/ resources/ information with the professional learning community. One of the central intentions of the program is to create a space where the academic accreditations are not required to be part of

5 Decoteau J. Irby, Do the Knowledge – a standards based hip-hop learning guide, Philadelphia, accessed February 28, 2020, Available from http://www.artsanctuary.org/, pdf, p. 53. 6 Decoteau J. Irby, Do the Knowledge – a standards based hip-hop learning guide, Philadelphia, accessed February 28, 2020, Available from http://www.artsanctuary.org/, pdf, p. 23.

153

the learning network, the value of a participant in the network relying exclusively on his/her participation7. In addition, in 2010, Marcella Runell, an American author and educator, together with Martha Diaz, media producer, entrepreneur and organizer of social events, founder of the International H2O Film Festival, set up the Hip-Hop Educational Center. This community organization aims at triggering social change and equity, at influencing education, at making it more inclusive and culturally responsive to students, through research, professional development and leadership enhancement. The Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) has published three field reports, presented hip-hop education models at teaching and learning conferences, starting its research activity with a national analysis of collaborative hip-hop programs with the Metropolitan Center for Equity Research at the University of New York and the Transformation of Schools. Since then, it has collaborated with dozens of institutions and organizations. According to the vision of the Hip Hop Education Center, for the area of Hip-Hop education to expand and become a sustainable field, it is first necessary for hip-hop to be acknowledged and established by the Government of the United States of America as a national cultural treasure, worthy of being introduced into the curriculum of public schools8. The two founders of the Hip-Hop Educational Center, Marcella Runell and Martha Diaz, also collaborated in 2007 in developing and coordinating the publication of the first Hip-Hop educational guide, i.e. "Hip Hop Educational Guidebook": Volume 1”, a collection of lesson plans that teachers can use in order to integrate hip-hop music into the education system. Specifically, each type of lesson included in the educational guide is based on concrete case studies, thought by teachers who were inspired by the practical applications of the methods described in the book. Each lesson contains a series of elements that the teacher will use in order to guide himself/ herself in his/ her activity, such as: the grades to which the respective lessons are addressed (e.g.: grades 7 - 9), the subject/ subjects in which they can be integrated (e.g. creative writing, language arts, English, etc.), a brief presentation of how the lesson will be conducted, the recommended working time, objectives, necessary material resources (e.g.: lyrics, projector, CD player, pens, etc.), the activities themselves and how they should be carried out. The American hip-hop artist Gabriel Benn, known as Asheru, launched the H.E.L.P. program (Hip-hop Educational Literacy Program), which combines the hip-hop language and music to teach and improve the pupils’ and the students’ writing and reading skills. The activities carried out by H.E.L.P. offer students the opportunity to practice and improve the following skills and competences: phonemic awareness and phonics skills, including identifying, creating and using rhyming words, studying word families, reading words with irregular spelling; fluency skills, including echo and repeat reading, as well as developing original writing; vocabulary development, including explicit and implicit learning of new terms, using explanatory dictionaries and thesaurus, figurative language and making connections between words from the speaking and listening vocabulary with those from the reading and writing vocabulary; reading comprehension, including the ability to read texts with a view to compare their content9. In 2012, the University of Arizona announced and subsequently introduced a study program in hip-hop; this specialization was organized and supported within the Department of African Studies. The program offers students an understanding of the origins and development of the forms of expression that make up hip-hop culture around the world (hip- hop dance, rap music, graffiti, fashion, business and film) and presents students the themes

7 On the Inauthenticity of Hip Hop, accessed February 28, 2020, on https://hiphoped.com/ 8 https://hiphopeducation.com/about-2/ 9 http://cornelwestacademy.org/hip-hop-educational-literacy-program-h-e-l-p

154

represented in the hip-hop culture (defence and acquisition of spaces, amalgamation of different cultures, migrations, multilingualism, race, class, gender, religions, sexuality, nationality, politics, economy and search for identity)10. Moreover, in 2012, the Cornell University announced its collaboration with DJ Afrika Bambaataa for a period of 3 years; subsequently, he held free talks in various classes, interacting with student groups and holding some concerts at the university. Regarding the Romanian educational system, the Hip-Hop culture and rap music have penetrated our country since the early 90's, when many young people started to access rap music from the United States. The first hip-hop bands (such as Vorbire Directă, R.A.C.L.A., Morometzii, Paraziții or B.U.G. Mafia) also began to affirm themselves in the country, and an important part of these bands and pioneering rap artists, acknowledged nationally, profess even nowadays (B.U.G. Mafia, Paraziții, La Familia sau R.A.C.L.A.). Although at the level of the young Romanian generations, the impact of rap music has been considerable, no initiative to integrate the Hip Hop culture or the rap music has officially started throughout this period, the educational system being characterized by a high degree of conservatism and rigidity. However, the first initiative (with a national impact) to use rap music as an adjuvant and method of learning compulsory school material was taken by a student, i.e. the young rapper Psihotrop. In order to facilitate learning the compulsory material for the national Baccalaureate examination in the Romanian language, at the beginning of 2017, he wrote lyrics in which he structured, in an ingenious way, the comments of the literary works from the compulsory school syllabus. He put these lyrics on rap music and distributed them online so that as many students as possible could access them. However, the educational project launched by the young rapper did not stop here. He is keen to revolutionize the system and expand it for the coverage of other school subjects, relevant to Romanian pupils from the perspective of national exams, such as history or biology. Perhaps the precarious stage of the Romanian education system would require an infusion of innovative elements such as the ones mentioned above, and alternative educational methods, given that the current educational system seems to deepen the wounds of old age, which are more and more important nowadays. This aspect is tacitly or expressly acknowledged even by the persons who contributed or who could have contributed to its change.

Conclusion Perhaps one of the essential questions that arise from an analysis performed on the aspects presented in this article would be: what are the elements that cause young people to assimilate, learn and understand more easily the information transmitted through rap music? The basic feelings and emotions transmitted and generated by rap music are mainly negative, such as aggression, anger or pain; these feelings and emotions are suppressed in the primary education of the majority of young people. Both family education and school education predominantly pursue to eliminate any form of manifestation of these types of feelings and emotions. This is why rap music is probably one of the few forms, possibly the most intense, but also non-invasive, through which young people have the opportunity to better understand themselves and sometimes even to express their negative feelings, thus experiencing catharsis, to a lesser or to a greater extent.

10 https://africana.arizona.edu/programs/africana-studies-minor-hip-hop-cultures-focus

155

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Decoteau J. Irby Do the Knowledge – a standards based hip-hop learning guide, Philadelphia, on http://www.artsanctuary.org/ 2. Kelly D. Williams, Teacher Perceptions of the Use of Hip Hop Culture, Hip Hop Pedagogy and Identity Development in an Urban Elementary School, ProQuest, 2015. 3. The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument – KRS ONE, PowerHouse Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2009. 4. History of Rap Music – The True Origins of Rap Music, on https://colemize studios.com/how-did-rap-start/ 5. Hip Hop Culture, Emmet G. Price III, ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara, 2006 6. On the Inauthenticity of Hip Hop, on https://hiphoped.com/ 7. https://hiphopeducation.com/about-2 8. http://cornelwestacademy.org/hip-hop-educational-literacy-program-h-e-l-p 9.https://africana.arizona.edu/programs/africana-studies-minor-hip-hop-cultures-focus

156

HOW CAN THE TEACHER SHAPE ATTITUDES? – A TAXONOMY OF THE AFFECTIVE FIELD

Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU Assoc. prof., PhD, “Carol I” National Defence University [email protected]

Abstract: Romanian school generally speaking is largely focused on reaching cognitive goals. Transmitting, receiving and strict reproduction of knowledge is the huge reproach brought by beneficiaries and the labor market to the Romanian school system. Within the present paper we wish to highlight the existence of affective, emotion-based acquisitions, elements leading to shaping attitudes and behaviors. The taxonomy of the affective field offers the teacher the model of a number of goals that he/she may state and propose as such to his/her students, in order to shape attitudes, integral parts of their future professional competences. Keywords: education, attitudes, teacher, taxonomy of affective field, affective goals.

Introduction Any professional competence is built on three categories of resources: knowledge, abilities, and attitudes specific to the respective professional domain, elements that interact in order to create a complex instrument in order to solve different kinds of similar professional situations and issues. Competences are not acquired as a finite product. Competences are built in time, little by little, by adding and integrating cognitive, attitudinal, and actional components, so that, at a certain moment, they might be able to work in a flexible and easy manner, as a set of tools that may be activated, when needed, in order to approach the professional situations encountered. If knowledge transmission and acquisition are the easiest to achieve (they can be found readily available in text-books, treaties, etc.), the shaping of the valuable component of professional competences is a qualitative endeavor which is at the same time both difficult and complex. Learning is part of the mechanisms continuously involved in the adaptation of the human being to the new life conditions, in the permanent development and upgrading of each person in order to match new life circumstances, including professional ones. The human psyche, in a cyber-approach, is able – throughout the whole life of the individual – to perform self-programming activities through the learning mechanisms. However, learning presupposes various types of acquisitions:  cognitively: knowledge (to know) and the capacity to summon knowledge (to do – to apply, to explain, to analyze, to synthesize, to evaluate, to think critically, to compare, to identify causes and effects, to classify),  in the affective-attitudinal realm (to be - values, attitudes and behaviors, interests, tastes and preferences, feelings, self-image, ideals and passions),  in the actuating realm (to do – psychological-actuating abilities),  in the social realm (to know – knowledge about the social world, people, groups, individuals) and abilities of building efficient relations (to do – to interact, to communicate, to empathize, to collaborate, to support an opinion, to lead, to coordinate, to give feedback etc.), in other words „you learn as a PERSON”1.

1 Negovan, V., Introducere în psihologia educației, Editura Universitară, București, 2005, p. 12.

157

To know Romanian education at all levels is criticized for its overall focus mainly on cognitive acquisitions (general knowledge and culture at under-graduate level; theoretical knowledge at university level). Teachers are themselves specialists in a domain of knowledge that they can deliver as such, following the magister-centric model: the teacher teaches and the student learns. For instance, within the Program of psycho-pedagogical studies, Level 1, the teacher teaching the psychology of education can convey a sum of knowledge delivered as such about the information psychological mechanism (sensations, perceptions, representations, thinking, memory, imagination) or about the theories of development (S. Freud’s psycho-affective theory, Erik Erikson’s socio-affective theory, J. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Kholberg’s theory of moral development). If everything remains solely at this level, the teacher cultivates a model of adding up knowledge layers that will prove sterile and impossible to apply in the educational practice.

To do Any professional field, generally speaking, and any subject matter, in particular, presupposes besides an amount of knowledge (memorized) also the means of processing them (devised, thought of) and the means of applying them (turned into actions). This means going through learning experiences in which knowledge is transferred, contents are analyzed, synthetized and turned into new projects and new areas that are cognitively innovative. For instance, the teacher who teaches psychology of education may design practical seminar activities in which theoretical knowledge about the information psychological mechanism might be applied and transferred: 1. each student is going to propose, for the subject matter he/she is going to teach, two concrete modalities in which he/she is going to use primary psychological processes and secondary psychological processes in teaching-learning a certain content (application). 2. Each student is going to analyze a school text-book, for the subject matter he/she is going to teach, in order to identify the manner and extent in which the composing elements of the information psychological mechanism are used in processing the respective concepts (analysis). As for the theories of development, students can identify the implications of each of the theories upon the manner in which they are going to conceive from now on the teaching of their own subject-matters: 1. The student is going to elaborate a set of educational corollaries, applicable to the respective subject-matter, at different levels associated with students’ ages, starting from each theory of development shown by the teacher. 2. The student is going to analyze concrete situations from the classroom (teacher-student interactions) that he/she might solve by using the conceptual tools provided by different theories of development which could be rendered by the following questions: Which are the concrete elements of the case? How can this case be approached from the perspective given by each theory? Which are the solutions proposed? It is important that the results of these exercises be presented in class and debated with the whole group of students. Besides using the conceptual frameworks offered by the teacher, students are encouraged to make personal options, to support them with arguments, to submit them to their colleagues’ public assessment, to accept or disagree with ideas coming from these colleagues. Thus, the result is a shaping intellectual exercise of processing, developing, illustrating, systematizing, and integrating theoretical knowledge in the actual classroom practice with the students. This learning experience goes beyond the informative framework (training) and becomes formative (education).

158

To be Thirdly, any subject matter or module of knowledge which can be taught-learnt encompasses a certain layer of values, attitudinal trends and therefore generates certain behaviors in the future graduate performing his/her profession. For instance, the study of primary and secondary cognitive mechanisms by the future teachers and instructors conveys them the necessity to valorize all the resources of knowledge that the human being has available: the manner of thinking and capacity to memorize (the intellect) are not the only important things, but also the senses, perceptions, the complementary use of analyzers when a domain of knowledge is being studied (value: diversity). The human being is not only an intellectual entity, but also a sensorial one and, in order to emerge, concepts need to rely on a concrete, imagistic layer. Regarding the study of development theories, the value conveyed is that of the trust in the power of education: each person is capable of development and evolution and education comes in support of this process of becoming (value: educable quality). Both the History teacher and the Math teacher have to understand that the study of their subject matters is only an instrument of evolution of the human being, not a goal in itself. At the same time, these theories of development show that the human being is made up of intellect, affectivity, morality and so on, having multiple dimensions that all teachers need to become aware of and have in mind when teaching a certain subject. The goal of studying the Psychology of Education is raising the awareness of the future teachers with respect to the psychological conditionality of the learning act and the implications of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in school success. Knowledge, just memorized as such, is but a database useful as a starting point in cultivating certain:  values (personality, education, diversity, progress, human being),  attitudes (of empathy, of confidence in the power of education, of perceiving the differences among children, of encouraging personal and group efforts, humanism)  teacher’s behavior in the classroom (encouragement, valorizing each student, tolerance, teamwork and cooperation, increasing each student’s responsibility according to his/her personality etc.), according to the psychological acknowledgement of his/her students. Nowadays, indiscriminate mass accumulation of knowledge is blamed and the trend is in favor of cognitive attitudes and abilities2. Highly qualitative education should not only enlighten (to know, to do), but also to heat the spirit (to be). „Functional illiteracy” results from the fact that, within the teaching practice, learning gets a single significance: assimilation of knowledge. J. Piaget3 pointed out that our adaptation to the environment requires assimilation (the process through which individuals manage to cope with the new situations through the already existing patterns) and accommodation (the process that implies a change in the existing patterns or devising new ones). The balancing of the two processes results in modifying our mental structures and the progress of our abilities along our entire lives. Teachers will need to generate learning experiences for their students that might also allow for permanent accommodation.

Taxonomy of affective goals Education is, par excellence, a goal-oriented process, a human activity organized and conducted in order to reach a goal / an end-state considered relevant and desirable in a certain period of societal development. G. De Landsheere, in the Introduction to his book „Defining Educational Goals” states that „The idea of education always implies a goal. The very

2 V.Landsheere, G.Landsheere, Definirea obiectivelor educației, Editura Didactică și pedagogică, București, 1979, p. 117. 3 A.Birch, Psihologia dezvoltării, Editura tehnică, București, 2000, pp. 94-95.

159

etymology of the word expresses this fact: to educate means to lead, therefore to direct towards a goal”4. Wishing to support teachers in elaborating the objectives of their teaching activities, renown specialists in pedagogy and psychology have conceived and operationalized several taxonomies of the educational objectives, in different domains of development of the human personality:  taxonomy of the cognitive domain (Benjamin Bloom – Taxonomy of Educational Objectifs, Handbook I: Cognitive Domaine, 1971, New York),  taxonomy of the affective domain (D. R. Krathwohl, B. Bloom, B. Masia – Taxonomie des objectifs pédagogique, II “Domaine affectif”, 1970, Montreal),  taxonomy of the social domain (S. Leise, W. Beyerlein, D. K. Apple - Taxonomy of the social domain),  taxonomy of psycho-dynamics domain (J. Simpson - The Classification of Educational Objectives, Psychomotor Domain, University of Illinois, 1966). In Bloom’s opinion5, the affective domain refers to accomplishing the objectives that describe the change of interests, attitudes, and values as well as the progress made regarding reasoning and the capacity of adjustment (behaviors). Thus, when setting up certain affective goals for the educational activity that the teacher is going to pursue with his/her students, the teacher aims, first of all, at outlining a set of values (considered as desirable for the respective profession or for the adjustment to a certain workplace); secondly, he/she strives to instill a set of attitudes based on these values and, thirdly, to exercise a set of behaviors congruent with those values and attitudes. For instance, among the fundamental affective goals of the school, one of the most important ones should be learning – as a value – and the positive attitude towards the learning activity, towards whatever is new, towards creativity and curiosity, backed up by the joy and enthusiasm for the learning process. All these value-oriented directions are subsequently going to constitute the basis for knowledge, contributing to building up a cognitive construction. Positive psychology (Shawn Achor6) draws attention that an affective state characterized by positive emotions (joy, optimism, trust, gratitude) is going to determine a rise in efficiency of the students’ cognitive endeavors (they learn faster, deeper and for a longer period concepts, principles, theories). Bloom himself considered that if we are not careful enough in advance with respect to the cognitive-affective balance in education, the development in the cognitive domain may exercise a negative effect upon affectivity7. In Dictionnaire actuel de l’éducation (2005) value is defined as „a fundamental, conscientious and lasting certainty that induces as effect a manner of being or acting as an ideal or a highly desirable goal for a person or for society”8. There is a direct connection between values and attitudes: the forming of an attitude is influenced by the value that „overviews” it. There are two categories of values, serving as backgrounds for building and assuming attitudes and behaviors:  those involved in living a certain state (whatever is or should be: good, happiness, equity, optimism, balance);  as an instrument involved in reaching the goals (how we can act: honesty, success, courage, responsibility, communication skills, teamwork)9.

4 De Landsheere, V., De Landsheere, G., Definirea obiectivelor educației, București, EDP, 1979, p. 7. 5 Apud op.cit., p. 117. 6 www.shawnachor.com/the-books/the-happiness-advantage/ accessed on 03.03.2020. 7 V. De Landsheere, G. De Landsheere, Definirea obiectivelor educației, București, EDP, 1979, p.118. 8 R. Legendre, Dictionnaire actuel de l’éducation, 3e édition, Montréal, Guérin, 2005, p. 1429. 9 M. Boza, Atitudinile sociale și schimbarea lor, Polirom, Iași, 2010, p. 14.

160

Al. Roşca (1943) defines attitude as „an acquired mental pre-disposition, more or less long-lasting, towards reacting in a characteristic way (usually favorably or in opposition to), towards people, objects, situations, ideas, or ideals that the individual comes into contact with”10. Therefore, an attitude is a for or against tendency towards a certain element within the surrounding environment which thus becomes a positive, desirable thing, or, on the contrary, a negative element, to be avoided. Attitude has a certain significance only in relation with a value and it expresses the mindset of the individual with respect to a situation he/she has to confront. From the educational perspective, the most important properties of attitudes are the following11:  valence – An attitude can be positive or negative, favorable or unfavorable to an object. From the educational perspective, the aim is to cultivate positive attitudes towards values circumscribed to the realm of education (balance, curiosity, success, empathy, learning) or to the profession of the future graduate (responsibility, teamwork spirit, communicative skills, initiative, professional ethics, integrity) as well as certain negative attitudes towards opposing values.  intensity – It designates the position occupied by attitudes on continuous and bipolar scales of the favorable/unfavorable scales used for measuring them. The closer an attitude gets to an extremity of this scale, the more intense it is going to be considered.  central character – It refers to the position occupied by an attitude among the individual’s identity elements.  accessibility – It refers to the force of the link that connects the attitude and its object – the bigger the force, the faster the respective attitude is going to be activated in the presence of its object.  power – It refers to the force of an attitude, namely to the intensity of an individual’s feelings and convictions when the respective attitude is activated. The continuation of attitude is behavior, considering that attitude generates or is the basis of behavior. Yet, there are delays proven through scientific experiments between attitudes and behaviors. There are multiple causes for these delays:  there are several internal and external stimuli that influence behavior (for instance, other people’s opinions);  several contradictory or complementary attitudes may be affected simultaneously upon behavior;  attitudes may change in a certain interval of time if an individual is having his/her values questioned. The link between the three elements, values, attitudes and open, concrete behaviors is described in the following definition in Dictionnaire actuel de l’éducation (2005): „An attitude is based on a system of values manifest, in case of each individual, through a constant behavior.”12 The taxonomy of the affective domain (D. Krathwohl, B. Bloom, B. Masia) comprises classes of goals or aims that are actually successive stages in the process of internalizing a value and transposing it in attitudes and behaviors that become features of the personality of the educated individual. The taxonomy is based on the affective objects expressing the analysis and awareness regarding socio-moral values (reception, reaction), proposes afterwards passing to aims describing valorization and organization of socio-moral contents

10 Apud idem, p. 13. 11 Idem, pp. 19-20. 12 R. Legendre, Dictionnaire actuel de l’éducation, 3e édition, Montréal, Guérin, 2005, p. 138.

161

by the pupil/student’s affective adhesion towards them, in order to end with the category of affective objectives describing attitudinal and behavioral manifestations which are relatively permanent and express the internalization of a system of socio-moral values guiding one’s behavior13: To become sensible to the 1.1 Awareness existence of certain stimuli, or 1.2. Willingness to receive 1. RECEPTION certain phenomena; to feel information urged to perceive or receive 1.3. Directed attention or them or to pay attention. preference To show commitment in 2.1. Accord approaching a subject or 2.2. Willingness to answer 2. REACTION activities in order to try to 2.3. Satisfaction to answer understand them in depth. To show a sufficiently stable 3.1. Acceptance of a value behavior in order to 3.2. Preference for a value 3. VALORIZATION demonstrate the crystallization 3.3. Commitment of a belief or attitude. To organize values in a 4.1. Conceptualizing a value system, to determine the 4.2. Organizing a system of 4. ORGANIZATION relations among them, to values establish which of them are dominant and profound. To identify, in a coherent 5.1. Generalized disposition 5. CHARACTERIZATION personal hierarchy, the place 5.2. Characterization THROUGH A VALUE of values guiding the person’s OR A SYSTEM OF adaptive conduct. VALUES

Following the model developed by Krathwohl, G. De Landsheere proposes another version adopting the criterion of the level of activity, of personal employment of the one who achieves the projected objective of learning. Since manifest behavior is much more easily observed by the teacher, G. De Landsheere's model is easier to adopt in teaching activity. According to G. De Landsheere, there are 5 stages14 through which the student can evolve from passive to active behavior: 1. The learner / student responds to an external stimulus. 1. It is only receptive - the student's behavior is a kind of affective state in which the individual perceives a value, without having any reaction. 2. Accept and react - the student reacts, either accepting or rejecting a value, by word, by gesture, by attitude, but does not prove a deliberate choice. 3. Accept and react, accepting or refusing - the student now knows what they like or want should they be in the presence of people, things, states, they engage. 4. The learner / student takes the initiative. 5. The learner / student tries to understand, to judge, to feel - he / she manifests interest, curiosity, sensitivity to have an initiative affectively, in other words, he / she has found, to a satisfactory extent, the meaning of the values in order to adopt a philosophy.

13 V. De Landsheere, G.De Landsheere, Definirea obiectivelor educației, București, EDP, 1979, pp. 133-134. 14 Idem, pp.135-136.

162

6. The learner / student acts according to the options assumed - the student's behavior is determined by their moral, aesthetic, sentimental options, but they are also able to change their behavior in the light of some convincing arguments or evidence.

Conclusions The taxonomy of affective goals is a very useful tool for teachers in their educational practice. Considering the need for professional competence to comprise the attitudinal component (to be), within each program of studies at university level, sets of desirable values, attitudes and behaviors are defined from the perspective of the respective professional field (for example, in the medical field LIFE is the supreme value, within the psycho-pedagogical field DEVELOPMENT/TRUST IN THE POWER OF EDUCATION are the values to be guided by). This triad values-attitudes-behaviors can be designed and realized as follows in a study program: • Within each subject matter, throughout the semester, the teacher will define affective objectives, starting from the assertion of the desirable values, the reception and awareness of the existence of the desirable value by the students (course and seminar), passing through the manifestation of the attitudinal option (seminar) and finalizing with the explicit manifestation of a behavior that proves the assumption and internalization of the respective value (project, presentation of practical activities, internship, evaluation of mentors within the internship). • Within subject matters dedicated to the formation of this attitudinal component derived from the set of professional values: professional ethics and integrity, emotional intelligence, team management, stress management, organizational culture, etc. It is important to raise awareness by the teacher through designing the learning activities of the processuality necessary to be followed: a. getting in contact with the set of values; b. debates on their assumption, formulation of the personal option, argumentation and its assumption; c. the transposition of the affective option assumed into desirable and explicit behaviors within the group of students, in finding solutions to the various case studies, during the internships of professional practice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Birch, A., Psihologia dezvoltării, Editura Tehnică, București, 2000. 2. Boza, M., Atitudinile sociale și schimbarea lor, Polirom, Iași, 2010. 3. Landsheere, V., Landsheere, G., Definirea obiectivelor educației, Editura Didactică și pedagogică, București, 1979. 4. Legendre, R., Dictionnaire actuel de l’éducation, 3e édition, Montréal, Guérin, 2005. 5. Negovan, V., Introducere în psihologia educației, Editura Universitară, București, 2005. 6. www.shawnachor.com/the-books/the-happiness-advantage

163

164

INDEX OF AUTHORS

BĂLĂNESCU Olga Carmen, 42 CONDRUZ-BACESCU Monica, 134, 140 COSTEA Luiza-Maria, 117, 122 HLIHOR Ecaterina, 64 IONAȘCU Alina-Elena, 95, MARDAR Sorina-Mihaela, 129 MARINESCU Delia-Mihaela, 57 MĂRUNȚELU Carmen-Liliana, 151 MĂRUNȚELU Vladimir, 151 MATEI Bogdan-Costin, 80 MIREANU Constantin, 72 MUSTAȚĂ Marinel-Adi, 89 PLEŞANU Toma, 95, 104 POP Andreia Mariana, 28, 36 POPESCU Lucian Dragoș, 112 POPESCU Raducu, 146 PREDA Alin, 9, 19 PUŞCAŞU Mirela, 117, 122 RÎŞNOVEANU Adriana, 157 SÎRBU Dana, 48

165

The publications consists of 166 pages.

”Carol I” National Defence University Typography Bucharest/Romania, sector 5, 68-72 Panduri Street e-mail: [email protected] Phone: 00-40-021-319.48.80/0215; 0453

441/18.03.2020 C. 117/2020

166