The public diplomacy of Ukraine in wartime: a path to reputational security

Abstract

The paper deals with the study of Ukraine's public diplomacy in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The research looks into the environment, actors, and goals of the contemporary public diplomacy of vulnerable states and substantiates the high relevance of the concept of reputational security by Nicholas J. Cull for the better understanding and improvement of Ukraine's communication with foreign publics. Based on studying tripartite interaction (involving Ukraine, which carries out public diplomacy, target groups in foreign counties, and the enemy represented by Russia and its allies), seven levels of reputational security are identified. Each of them corresponds to a different reaction of foreign publics to events within the country, ranging from indifference to joint resistance to threats. A model of the country's reputational security, which combines its level of reputational security with recommendations for its public diplomacy and actions of a hostile third party, is developed.

Keywords

• reputational security
• public diplomacy
• russian-ukrainian war
• image of a country
• propaganda