6. The Slovak Republic
6.2 Slovak Public Diplomacy
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public diplomacy been present in the Slovak diplomacy for a very short period of time, but it was preceded by a very strong tradition of propaganda, often used by the communist regime.
Broader analysis of this newly discovered territory of a smaller state’s public diplomacy can bring an innovative perspective on employment in the new public diplomacy and illustrate how the smaller states been adapting to the alteration in new millennium international relations.
6.2 Slovak Public Diplomacy
Regardless of the fact that Slovakia is a relatively young country, only appearing on the world map since 1993, it is not entirely unfamiliar with the concept of the PD. Public diplomacy had already been an important part of Slovakia’s Euro-Atlantic integration strategy and corresponding activities before the year of accession, 2004. Former Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs state secretary Oľga Algayerová proclaims that the Slovak PD remained fragmented as the relevant domestic institutions and players continued to follow their particular interests and agenda. The development of PD in Slovakia has been characterized by the lack of a universal, whole-of-the country and comprehensive approach.186
During the 2009 conference called “Public Diplomacy: The new strategic tool for Slovak Diplomacy”, Elena Mallicková, the then head of PD department at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, defines Slovak public diplomacy as follows: “Public Diplomacy of Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a long-term communication process at home and also abroad and which aim is to increase Slovak attractiveness, its credibility and the understanding of foreign policy goals.”187
186 Algayerová, O., 2010. Establishment of Public Diplomacy In Slovakia: An Effective New Approach, Valletta: University of Malta. p. 1.
187 Mallicková, E., 2010. Public Diplomacy as a Priority of Slovak Ministry of Foreing Affairs. Bratislava, Ústav európskych štúdií a medzinárodných vzťahov, FSEV UK, p. 10.
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The principal part of the Slovak PD is cultural diplomacy which has been playing a crucial role since the creation of the independent Slovak Republic, as a fundamental component of the pre-2004 strategies. European Union countries are the key partners in political, economic and strategic fields. Most of the Slovak PD has been focused on the “Old Continent” countries and this is reflected also in all the foreign policy manoeuvers.188
Special attention is paid to the economic dimension of cultural diplomacy and its implementation with the aim of supporting the economic interests of the state. Accordingly, the focus of the Slovak cultural presentations focused primarily on promoting SR as an attractive holiday destination in order to promote inbound tourism, says Pajtinka.189
6.3 History
The roots of the Slovak public diplomacy go back to the period after the First World War when the practice of cultural diplomacy and propaganda, played an essential part in this newly born central European country.
Czechoslovak president Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, who spent many years living abroad, and the foreign minister Edward Beneš, both experienced politicians and diplomats, understood very well the importance of the position building within Europe via its image.
Propaganda of the first Czechoslovak Republic involved formal governmental institutions, like the Third Section of Beneš’s Foreign Ministry, which was charged with gathering intelligence and producing propaganda. But it also consisted of a publishing house (The Social club), and a group of intellectuals, writers (for example Karel Čapek), publishers, and journalists who spread the castle’s vision of Czechoslovakia at home and abroad.190
188 Algayerová, O., 2010. Establishment of Public Diplomacy in SLovakia: An Effective New Approach: University of Malta, p. 1.
189 Pajtinka, E., 2007. Slovak Diplomacy and its dimensions in the 21st century. Bratislava, University of Economics, Bratislava, p. 83.
190 Orzoff., A., 2009. Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe 1914-1948. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 24.
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Orzoff’s argues that “Czechoslovakia was constructed, defined, and sustained in the newspapers and universities of London and Paris as well as in Prague. It was bought by and paid through Czechoslovak government funding of foreign academics and journalists: no less than twenty-six newspapers, press agencies, and radio stations in France alone were on the government’s payroll. Its meaning was debated in literary salons and international writers' congresses. And its ideals were disseminated in books produced by Czechoslovakia’s government-subsidized publishing house and in the genteel quarters of the state’s elite social club. Admiring works of history were kept in print; concerts of music by national composers were given, and social occasions were carefully arranged, both in Great Power and East Central European capitals. The propagandistic stakes were high; the very existence of these states seemed predicated on it.”191
After all, Holly Case proclaims that Czechoslovak propaganda or public diplomacy, as we might call it, was clearly successful in shaping enduring images of the Czechoslovak nation at home and abroad and, according to this historian, Hungarian and Romanian diplomats were also convinced that “Czechoslovak propaganda was a slam-dunk success.”192
After World War II. Czechoslovakia was reunited and it became part of the Eastern Bloc under the Soviet influence for the next forty-five years. As a result, we can characterize the Czechoslovak public diplomacy during this period as a propaganda in service of the communist ideology.
Kenneth G. Olson describes it as follows: “Propaganda was utilized as a technique of power consolidation in every phase of political and economic life. It was used, together with other forms of coercion, in the consolidation of power within the very agencies which
191 Orzoff., A., 2009. Battle for the Castle: The Myth of Czechoslovakia in Europe 1914-1948. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 24.
192 Case, H., 2009. Between States: The Transylvanian Question and the European Idea during WWII. Stanford ed..:Stanford University Press, p.1.
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themselves created propaganda.”193 Olson later adds that propaganda was an act of command in Czechoslovakia, an extension of state policy, with its administrative organization taking two forms: an official group before the public and another group behind the scenes which constituted the highest source of authority.
Not only was Czechoslovakia subjected to Soviet propaganda, but the country itself was its resilient producer, especially in the region of Latin America. When the Cold War competition between the USSR and USA began to play out in Latin America in the 1950s, Czechoslovakia held a key position in bridging the Soviet bloc’s strategic foreign policy interests in the region.194
Aside that the foreign policy was defined, or in the best of the cases co-delineated in a top-down way by Soviet and Czechoslovak Communist ruling classes, a need soon appeared to justify these new foreign policy goals to the general public. An extensive assortment of domestic propaganda methods were employed in this task. The analysis shows that the studied (propaganda) documentary films selectively deployed a set of repeated themes that were manipulating reality by either underlining some of the facts, or by ignoring them. The semiotic analysis presents evidence of highly pragmatic and manipulative nature of the Czechoslovak Communist propaganda, evident for instance in its selective approach to the military regimes.195
Strong propagandistic endorsement of socialism and Marxism-Leninism persevered in Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
193 Olson, K. G., 1949. Development of the Czechoslovak Propaganda Administration. Public Opinion Quarterly, 4(13), p.
607-618.
194 Březinová, K., 2013. Turbines and Weapons for Latin America: Czechoslovak Documentary Film Propaganda in the Cold War Context, in the Cold War Context,. Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, Issue 3, p. 33.
195 Bortlová, H., 2011. Czechoslovakia and Cuba between 1959-1962. Praha: Charles University.
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