Issue ? 48. February 2015

Crisis Communications Response to the Terrorist Attacks: Examples of the 2001 Terrorist Attacks in New York and 2005 in London

Ph.D., Lecturer, Faculty of Philosophy, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Assistant Professor, Sholokhov Moscow State Humanitarian University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: bazarkina-icspsc@yandex.ru

The activities of terrorists all around the world have shown that communication opportunities often compensate for their lack of combat strength in comparison with law enforcement agencies and allows them to easily attract new recruits, and shape the agenda for leading media and public authorities. Today terrorism, for the first time in history, can acquire the status of a full-fledged political actor. This threat to national and international security cannot be underestimated by the Russian academic community.

In this article we analyze the experience of crisis communications in the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and in the UK after the terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005, including the apparent weaknesses in government statements, as well as public reaction to those statements.

Keywords

Terrorism, communication management, USA, European Union, Great Britain, Al-Qaeda.