Crisis Communication and Deterrence: The Interaction of Facts and Fictions

Project Information

CODE

Grant agreement ID: 101030005

DOI

10.3030/101030005

Project closed

EC signature date 22 March 2021

Start date 1 August 2021

End date 30 July 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 219 312,00

EU contribution

€ 219 312,00

Coordinated by

SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CODE (Crisis Communication and Deterrence: The Interaction of Facts and Fictions)

Reporting period: 2021-08-01 to 2023-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This MSCA research project “Crisis Communication and Deterrence: The Interaction of Facts and Fictions” examines crisis communication during the Cold War from a media historical perspective. The project aims to comprehensively explore the fictitious Red Telephone, which supposedly connected Washington’s White House to Moscow’s Kremlin during the Cold War. An integral part of this genealogy is the history of the existing hotline, a teletype connection, that both ‘superpowers’ established as a result of their experiences during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The goal of the project is to write the unwritten and interwoven history of the hotline and the Red Telephone within the framework of an imaginary history of the Cold War.

Analyzing the factual and fictitious channels of communication together aims to characterize the Cold War as a conflict that was not only determined by actual events and political concepts, but also by fictions of nuclear war.
Based on this, the researcher focuses on the resonances between factual and fictitious Cold War events against the backdrop of deterrence policy. Thus the project contributes to the media cultures and imaginary history of the Cold War and the subsequent phase of political transformation. The overarching purpose is to better understand the agency of media in constructing fictitious crises and escalating and deescalating factual crises. This aligns closely with the question of how authorized and sovereign actions are delegated to technical media during time-critical crisis situations. The project examines fictitious and factual crisis communication during the Cold War and the fear triggered by weapon systems and deterrence, until the ‘War on Terror’ caused a new kind of fear. The fiction of the Red Telephone condenses political and ethical questions that the secret diplomacy of the hotline is unable to address. Therefore, it constitutes the reality of life, which is updated through societal self-descriptions.

The investigation period covers the initial means of transatlantic crisis communication during World War II; the concepts of Cold War deterrence; and the discussions on crisis communication in the 1950s. It also covers the rupture in 1989/90 up to the proposed end of the Red Telephone in 2008, triggered by a Hillary Clinton commercial. Although the historical investigation progresses largely chronologically, it follows a media-technological logic, which shifts from (purportedly) two communication partners, the USA and the USSR, to a network, through the integration of third parties. Initially, it investigates how the hotline and the Red Telephone contributed to the formation of the Cold War bipolarity against the backdrop of the policy of deterrence. In a further step, the project explores the ways in which third parties disturbed the bipolar USA-USSR crisis communication, until eventually, network-shaped communication prevailed after the end of the Cold War.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project is structured in three work packages:

WP1: Facts and fictions of crisis communication during the Cold War.
WP2: Fractured bipolarity: Third parties in crisis communication.
WP3: After the Cold War: From telegram to tweet.

WP1 discusses the agency of human and non-human actors in crisis communication by comparing actual crisis situations during the Cold War with fictitious ones depicted in literature, films, and caricatures. The red phone originated in fiction, while the actual hotline used a teletype system during real crisis situations. WP2 discusses how actors, such as the British and French governments, undermined the hotline's bipolar scheme by establishing their own links to Moscow. This challenge was a symbolic success but not a politically relevant one. WP 3 shows the change of crisis communication following the end of the Cold War, examining the novel and film "The Sum of all Fears" (Tom Clancy) and a presidential election ad from Hillary Clinton. The argument is that, on the brink of the War on Terror, the bipolar red telephone disappears and the networked, mulitpolar emergency means of communication emerge.

All work packages have been completed, and two research trips have been undertaken: one to La Courneuve and Nantes (Archives Diplomatiques), and one to London (The National Archives). The results are published (partly in press) in six book chapters. The monograph The Red Telephone (working title) is nearly complete.

The research results were presented at five conferences in Bodø, Flensburg, Odense, and Vienna, as well as at two workshops in Odense. One workshop ("Connection and Communication: How to Manage a Crisis") was co-organized with Dr. Claire Yorke and the other ("Beyond the Sea") with Prof. Anders Engberg-Pedersen.

The project was presented to a broader audience through interviews with El Correo, a Basque newspaper, and Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a German broadcaster. In addition, a talk for the general public, titled "Geschmacklose Politik," was given in Flensburg, Germany. The researcher also participated in two panel discussions on the relationship between the media and politics.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The research project is the first media-theoretical and media-historical study to examine the red telephone as a hybrid object consisting of fictional narratives of powerful leaders calling each other and the factual hotline link between Moscow and Washington. It provides a nuanced understanding of communication media and explains that each diplomatic communication depends on the employed means of communication. Rather than focusing on the political leader, the project shows that communication is always made possible by a network of actors, including non-human agents. In this sense, this history of the red telephone not only offers a historical view on crises events of the Cold War, but provides also results for current politics and communication.

If the main goal of historical research in culture and media studies is to reflect on and understand societal and cultural processes in order to apply the findings to the shaping of our future, then the same is true for this MSCA project. First, the work demonstrates how fiction impacts real life and society. Specifically, research show how novels, films, caricatures, journalism, and other media, in combination with political developments and scholarly research, can cause (subliminal) fear, leading to irrational actions. This media historical study is not only historically relevant but also relevant to current issues, such as fake news and its negative impact on policy. Second, the project examines the impact of emergency media on submitted content. More broadly, the project highlights the importance of selecting the the right communication means to discuss political issues fairly and effectively.

A Red Telephone