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.