EU armed forces and social media: convergence or divergence?

Abstract

This article explores how armed forces in EU member states work with and view social media in national and international settings, and what the patterns of convergence/divergence are on these issues. To that end, a questionnaire targeted at EU armed forces was constructed. An index of qualitative variation was calculated to explore the relative convergence among respondents (n = 25) on issues of risks and opportunities with using social media nationally and internationally. Consistent with previous research on European armed forces, we found higher levels of divergence than convergence. Contrary to our expectations that similar challenges, joint international standards, and membership in international organizations would foster convergence with regard to social media use in areas of deployment, we found that convergence appeared foremost pertaining to the domestic level. Policy divergence was strongest in areas of deployment.

Keywords:

• Social media
• armed forces
• communication
• policy convergence

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Rickard Blomstrand for research assistance and Defence Studies reviewers for their insights.

Notes

1. The concept of policy convergence attracts scholars from the fields of political science, public administration, and public policy among others. Similar debates, however, are supported by concepts such as policy transfer, policy diffusion, isomorphism, or Europeanization. There are subtle differences between these concepts. Policy transfer and diffusion signify processes that might, but not necessarily will lead to convergence. Isomorphism, on the other hand, is distinguished from policy convergence as it is empirically focused on organizational rather than national processes (Dimaggio and Powell 1983, Holzinger and Knill 2005, p. 779).

2. There has been extensive research conducted in the last decades on policy convergence in Europe foremost as a result of the many scholars focusing on Europeanization as a result of the widening of the EU (Holzinger and Knill 2005, Britz 2008). Europeanization is in this regard commonly understood as an institutionalization process signified by “the emergence of new rules of the game that will structure the policy process at the European level and the domestic level” (Mörth 2003, p. 159).