Search

This paper examines strategic communication's important role in countering hybrid threats through early detection, real-time response, and collaboration among government, civil society, and technology sectors. Hybrid threats, such as foreign information interference, disinformation, cyberattacks, and political influence campaigns, present challenges to national security, particularly in the digital age. By fostering societal resilience and enhancing public trust in institutions, strategic communication frameworks are essential to safeguarding national interests. This paper explores how strategic communication frameworks can detect, respond to, and mitigate the impacts of hybrid threats, rapid and coordinated responses. Strategic communication can prevent the spread of disinformation, help build national resilience. By creating collaborative networks and using digital technologies, strategic communication protects national security and underscores their role in safeguarding national resilience. It aligns messaging across agencies, reinforcing government credibility during crises and fostering societal resilience through transparent, accurate information. By engaging with diverse audiences, StratCom adapts messages to influence positive public behaviors and build social cohesion. Additionally, it supports national interests by unifying government and societal efforts under clear objectives, while protecting information channels to secure communication. This proactive, coordinated approach strengthens democratic values and national security against hybrid threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Darbai ir Dienos is the property of Vytautas Magnus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The societal resilience of the Gaza envelope communities in the face of the challenges of terrorism from the Gaza Strip over the past 20 years has been analyzed at length in previous studies. This article examines the activity of the resilience centers in the region, and focuses on the insights that can be gleaned from the experience of the Eshkol Regional Council in the face of terrorist threats from Gaza. The principal contention is that the Eshkol Regional Council and the other resilience centers in the area showed their capacity to grapple successfully with man-made disruptions, and in turn, have provided a model for the rest of Israel of how to cope with terrorist threats. As such, the article recommends adopting the model of these resilience centers throughout Israel, with differential and particularized implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts a systemic view to investigate societal resilience within the whole-of-society framework for crisis preparedness, focusing on best practices, challenges, and solutions. Finland serves as the case study due to its pioneering position in crisis preparedness and its adoption of a comprehensive preparedness model that encompasses relationships and interactions among diverse stakeholders. In this study, the Finnish preparedness system is illustrated and analysed through the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Data are collected through interviews with security actors representing different stakeholder groups, including civil society, businesses, and the public sector. An interpretative approach synthesises insights from literature, reports, and stakeholder interactions to co-create knowledge. The analysis covers the CAS tenets of context, relational constitution, adaptive capacity, emergence, and openness. The study presents an exploratory model anchored in CAS theory, incorporating key practices, processes, and adaptation loops integral to societal resilience from a systemic perspective in the Finnish context. From a theoretical point of view, this study contributes to CAS theory by exploring the role of context as a slow-changing variable, which is often considered a constant in CAS. Furthermore, while emergent behaviour is a critical component of CAS, most studies explore the emergent behaviour of a system within a short time span. However, the findings of this study highlight the importance of long-term emergent behaviour in addition to short-term behaviour. From a practical standpoint, this study not only explores best practices but also identifies the challenges of the Finnish system and provides a benchmark for other countries to develop their own crisis preparedness. However, replicating the system elsewhere may be challenging due to certain unique contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing global challenges like economic crises, political unrest, and public health issues, societies must be resilient. Societal Resilience is the collective capacity to endure and bounce back from such adversities. This study delves into its complexity and its ties to economic, social, healthcare, and political domains, offering insights for decision-makers and academics. A Societal Resilience questionnaire was distributed across eight nations (Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine) in late 2022 and early 2023, with the results compared to international data. Statistical methods revealed significant links between Societal Resilience and four global indicators: urban population and immigrant stock share (both positively correlated), and population growth (negative), as well as perceiving climate change as a major threat (negative). Excluding Ukraine, twelve significant connections emerged, including gender equality and corruption perception. The research underscores the importance of multifaceted, informed approaches to bolster Societal Resilience, providing a policy and practice framework to navigate a complex global landscape. Further studies should expand the country sample to examine more relationships, like those between financial factors and Societal Resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People affected by wars frequently present distress symptoms and varied fears but may also exhibit resolve and resilience. The study aimed to examine strengths and vulnerability factors that predict resilience during the war in Ukraine, among Ukrainian citizens who directly experience military aggression and Polish citizens, who are exposed to the influx of refugees. Using internet panels, samples of people from Ukraine and Poland (N = 1001 and N = 1078, respectively) completed a structured questionnaire, based on validated scales that measured individual, community, and societal resilience, sense of danger, distress symptoms, hope, morale, well-being, and demographic characteristics. Hope was identified as the best predictor, and well-being was the second-best predictor of community and societal resilience in both countries. While higher percentages of Ukrainian versus Polish respondents displayed high levels of sense of danger (61% vs 15%, respectively) and distress symptoms (27% vs 17%, respectively), they simultaneously presented much higher levels of the community (47% vs 22%, respectively) and societal (66% vs 24%, respectively) resilience. The results suggest that strengths factors are better indicators of resilience than vulnerability factors, in a situation of severe adversity. An existential threat to the independence and sovereignty of Ukrainian society may catalyze a high sense of societal resilience. • High levels of resilience and distress can exist simultaneously during adversity • Strengths indicate resilience better than vulnerability factors, in severe crises • Existential threats to society may serve as catalysts for societal resilience • Hope best predicts social resilience among both Ukrainian and Polish residents [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes to governance introduced during the response and the recovery following 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes and discusses how post-disaster “time compression” can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of disaster management processes and governance frameworks. The paper focuses on some of the fundamental principles of sustainable risk management and societal resilience, namely integrated planning and creation of empowering settings for affected communities, and analyses the effectiveness of the newly introduced arrangements in respect to those principles. The paper concludes that large scale disasters challenge decentralised, integrated planning environments based on bottom-up approaches. Disasters can overwhelm local capacity whilst putting intense pressure on central government to deliver. This may generate creative solutions for known weaknesses, but at the same time the need for immediacy can jeopardise practice that fosters resilience. The paper concludes that the question of central control versus local empowerment remains as yet unanswered in New Zealand. Understanding the implications of large scale disasters on devolved, bottom-up approaches based on integrated planning merits further study. In particular, understanding the mechanisms for integration and empowerment of local communities is essential for effective recovery and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results from a longitudinal study of the process of developing and implementing a method for risk assessment in a public sector organisation over a period of 3.5 years. The study explores how people involved in this process viewed factors influencing the implementation and what effects the risk management process gave rise to. While a large share of previous research on this topic has been confined to analysing the final product in terms of the documented risk assessment report, this study explores factors affecting the process leading to such outcome. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire used on five occasions during the study period. The results from this questionnaire were complemented with an interview study to gain deeper insights and understanding of factors shaping the risk management process. The findings show a maturing process over time where the most clearly visible impact from the risk management process includes an increased risk awareness among persons involved. However, the results also indicate that the outcomes from the risk management process were only to a limited extent spread to the rest of the organisation and persons at the management level showed a declining commitment to the risk management process over the 3.5-year period. Methodologically, the paper underlines the value of adopting a longitudinal research design in the area of risk management to allow for an exploration of trends and patterns arising over time, which contributes to a deeper and more contextualised understanding of a risk management process compared to studies that only rely on capturing snapshots of an organisation's current work practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccine hesitancy threatens COVID-19 pandemic management. Increasing vaccine uptake is important to containment of the virus, and achievement of herd immunity. To identify factors of resilience, distress, and well-being that impact vaccine hesitancy and uptake. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the pandemic's fourth wave. The data were collected by an internet panel company. A representative sample of Israeli residents (N = 2002) answered an online questionnaire. A stratified sampling method was employed regarding geographic distribution, gender, and age. As vaccine hesitancy poses a threat to the effective management of the pandemic, the outcome measures included vaccine hesitancy and uptake (dependent variables), and resilience, distress, and well-being (independent variables). 24% of respondents reported a high level of vaccine hesitancy; 68% received 3 vaccines; 5% did not receive any vaccine. Six predictors together explained 22% of vaccine hesitancy and 15% of vaccine uptake. Path analysis indicated that: (a) Societal resilience was the best predictor of vaccine hesitancy and uptake: the higher the societal resilience, the lower vaccine hesitancy, and the higher vaccine uptake. (b) The higher sense of danger, the higher vaccine hesitancy, and the lower vaccine uptake. (c) The higher level of religiosity, the lower vaccine uptake. (d) The higher the family income, the lower level of vaccine hesitancy. Findings suggest that public attitudes are primarily influenced by the degree of trust in the leadership and other components of societal resilience. Further research should investigate the impact of transparency concerning COVID-19 decision-making on vaccine hesitancy and uptake. • Societal resilience is the best predictor of vaccine hesitancy and uptake. • Public's attitudes on COVID-19 are influenced primarily by trust in leadership. • Higher sense of danger negatively associated with vaccine uptake. • Higher family income negatively associated with vaccine hesitancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters have greatly threatened people's lives and properties. In recent years, disaster management has become a key issue for the sustainable development of a society. In this regard, understanding how people perceive disasters is needed to formulate better disaster management strategies and enhance the resilience of the society. This research seeks to study risk perception and relevant attitudes, which are the fundamental factors of human behavior under the threat of disaster impact. A stated preference survey is conducted to investigate people's willingness to pay for earthquake risk reduction, where the effect of information is also the concern and incorporated in survey design. Thereupon, a multiple-bounded dichotomous choice model and an ordered probit model are estimated to quantify risk attitudes toward earthquakes as the monetary value. Results suggest that factors, such as higher socioeconomic status, more family members, and the residence aged above 40 years old, have positive effects on risk perception. In addition, presenting previous earthquake disaster damage information may increase individuals' risk perception. The prospect theory is employed in the study to establish a theoretical model to capture people's risk-seeking and/or risk-averse behavior, thereby more sophisticatedly reflecting the behavioral realism related to disaster preparedness. Based on the improved understanding of risk perception and relevant attitudes, the associated authorities may be able to develop solid resilience-enhancement programs and more effectively strengthen disaster response efficiency, thereby minimizing the damages and injuries caused by earthquakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]