How Is Propoganda Used In Foreign Policy

. Essay, Research Paper

How and when is porpoganda used in foreign policy.

Propoganda is an instrument of policy that governments use to influence a particular

group, therefore maiking that group think what they want them to think, do what they

want them to do etc. Although the use of propoganda greatly increased during the

twentieth century through the use of mass media (especialy through the invention of

radio and television) it is not a new phenomenon. Propoganda earliest use was in used

connection with religous missionairy activities (indeed this is where the word

propoganda was first used). On of the earliest users of propoganda was Saint Paul,

who established the first Christian churches in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. It was

Pope Gregory XV who established the Congregation of Propoganda in 1622, hoping

that it would help direct the activities of the Roman Catholic Church throughout

Europe.

Propoganda, before the nineteenth century, was not usually aimed at the population,

but at ruling elites. Policy was made by the ruling elites, normally the monarch, the

royal court and their diplomats who did not have to worry about foreign public

response – they had to impress their foreign counterparts, not foreign populations .1

However, since the nineteenth century, people have taken an increasing interest in

politics, states have become incresingly democratised, therefore giving more and more

people the vote so now that governments have to justify their actions to their

population. This means that propoganda, as a tool for foreign policy, has become

increasingly useful. For example, if Government X directed propoganda at the

population of Government Y, then that population may support Government X and

therefore Government Y may pursue a more supportive foreign policy towards

Government X. Holsti says that one of the unique aspects of modern international

political relations is the deliberate attempt by governments … to influence the attitudes

and behaiviour of foreign populations .2 However, it should be noted that public

opinion has greater influence on foreign policy in demorcracies than in authoritarian

governments.

Propoganda is also frequently used by governments on their own population so as to

create or sutain large public support for high defence expenditure. Therefore, Defence

policy and foreign policy have become clsoely cnnected as both demand public

support. For example, when Britians world-wide interests were threatened and she did

not have the military resources to defend them, between World War I and World War

II, Britain had to pursue a policy of appeasement until rearmament was adequate

enough to act. The problem this posed was how to convince a principally pacifist

Britian ravaged by World War I and the economic depression that the government (a

government that claimed to be peace loving ) needed to raise military expenditure

without worrying the poublic or alerting foreign governments to Britains real plight.

This was achieved by the British government pursuading people that reamament was

necessary, as Britain Must Be Strong to avoid war. In such an instance, as defence

involves a high degree of security, even in free societies, their is legislation involving

the curtailment of the press in matters of defence and security. This is considerably

easier for authoritarian countries. For example, in the Soviet bloc the media was state

controlled and therefore would always tow the official, governments line. However,

for this to be effective, the Soviets had to spend a lot of money in preventing Western

transmissions from seeping into the Soviet bloc. Methods used ranged from complex

signal jammers to prevent radio and television broadcasts being heard by their

population to a ban on certain books and the use of photocopiers3. Interestingly, the

invention of sattelite television meant that many people in Soviet Russia found out

about the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986 before the Communist government

admitted it to them (though they had already admitted the accident to the rest of the

world).

Propoganda also works at the unofficial level, through pressure groups or movements.

Examples of this would be the large Cuban anti-Castro group that has kept pressure on

the US to maintian its sanctions on Cuba, the large Jewish lobby that helps make US

foreign policy in the Middle East more favourable towards Israel. Holsti sites the

example of when various black people from South Africa toured other countries

hoping to raise the awareness of the plight under apartheid. Their hope was that these

audiences would then put influence their governments to formulate foreign policy that

would put pressure on the South African government. This largely succeded, and many

governments around the world put economic sanctions on South Africa until it stopped

using apartheid.

Propogan

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