SCERU initiates its own research but also conducts commissioned research on Strategic Communications and counterdisinformation/FIMI. Relying upon its global network of scholars and experts, SCERU produces policy-relevant and conceptually agile research to inform policy communities.
SCERU’s research also forms the basis of its advisory work.
Below are examples of past and ongoing research.
Strategic Ambiguity
SCERU initiated a research project entitled: “Strategic Ambiguity as a Strategic Communications Praxis”. The project examined the nature of ambiguity in politics and international political life; its use by China and Russia in their authoritarian playbook; and the language of ambiguity and its roles in Strategic Communications. SCERU hosted an authors’ meeting for this project in September 2022 where authors presented plans for their articles and received editorial advice. This conference was followed by a Public Seminar, inviting prominent experts as speakers from Japan, Hong Kong, and Europe.
The research was successfully concluded and published as a special issue of Defence Strategic Communications, the official peer-reviewed academic journal of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (“Special Issue: Strategic Ambiguity” Defence Strategic Communications, Vol. 12 (Spring 2023)).
An international comparative research project launched with JSPS funding
One of the profound questions about Strategic Communications is whether Strategic Communications is a prerogative of democracies. This raises many questions including if there are, or should be, “democratic’ ways for the conduct of strategic communications and related activities to counter disinformation and FIMI (foreign information manipulation and interference) that distinguishes them from authoritarian ways of communications.
The three-year research project funded by JSPS is to conduct a cross-national comparison of Strategic Communications and FIMI policies, structures and institutions of democratic countries and organisations. The collaborative research will rely upon a common analytical framework that examines systemic, normative, organisational and strategic cultural factors.
The countries and organisations covered will be from Europe, the Indo-Pacific region, Oceania and South Korea.
The research project has been awarded a JPY144.4 million grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for a three-year period.
Comparing Japan and EU-level initiatives to tackle disinformation and foreign information and manipulation
SCERU is conducting a project that will produce a research paper on Japan’s policy initiatives to counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). Separately examining the domestic space and regional activities, the paper will assess the FIMI threats to Japan, as well as efforts at governmental and civil-society levels to tackle these issues.