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'E-journal. Public Administration' host its first workshop

On November, 15, 2012 “E-journal. Public Administration hosted the first workshop for its authors. The workshop was titled “Communication management and strategic communication in the contemporary world”.

The workshop attracted many students, graduate students and professors from both MSU and other universities.

Dr. A.L. Hazin, Chair of Strategic Communications, in his opening speech invited the participants to discuss the communicative component of international relations in all its aspects — economic, social, political and security. He stressed the importance of the topic and expressed his hope that “E-journal. Public Administration” will host such workshops on a regular basis.

“E-journal. Public Administration” executive editor and School of Public Administration lecturer Anna R. Lagno greeted the participants and briefly outlined the history and future prospects of the faculty’s electronic publishing.

The first presentation was given by Professor Evgeny N. Pashentsev. He stated that modern global communication management and strategic communication practices are self-contradictory — captivating in their dynamism and prospects, but also presenting obvious risks to the future of global community. In his presentation E.N. Pashentsev examined the interconnections of strategic communication and communication management, focusing on the latest trends in the USA and in China.

Professor Marko Ricceri, secretary general of the Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies (Rome, Italy) in his presentation discussed the role of communications management in the development of political and economic relations between Russia and the European Union. Globalization forces the states to work for creating proper conditions for their own system’s competitive ability. This can be achieved by either completely reorganizing the public administration system or by adopting new models and intervention instruments (“strategic outcome planning”) to ensure maximum public services efficiency.

Dr. Ricceri stressed that today, especially in the western world, particular traits and meaning of Eurasia are not yet clear. Occasionally the Eurasian initiative can cause concern. Given that most EU citizens can’t answer adequately “What is Eurasia?”, comprehensive communications program is in everyone’s interests. Such a program should be structured to accommodate strategic goals, operative tasks and specific actions, and it will also require a set of efficiency evaluation indicators.

Dr. Greg Simons, senior researcher for Center for Crisis Management Research and Training, Swedish National Defence College and Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University, made a presentation on information operations in the Middle East. Talking about the current condition in Syria, he stressed the importance of critical thinking than it comes to western media coverage of the events, which includes propaganda and other information manipulation technologies. Dr. Simons characterized the civil war as a part of “arab spring”, which is in its turn connected to “color revolutions”.

After the presentations, the participants answered the questions, asked either via e-mail in advance, or from the audience.

You can read the articles in “Communication management and strategic communication in public administration” section on our website:

No 33. 2012. URL: http://e-journal.spa.msu.ru/vestnik/vipusk/33_2012.htm

No 34. 2012. URL: http://e-journal.spa.msu.ru/vestnik/vipusk/34_2012.htm

Lidia Yu. Pakhomova
editor, “E-journal. Public Administration”