Við vekjum athygli á skýrslu og verkefni í boði British American Security Information Council (BASIC) sem snýr að framtíðarstefnumótun í öryggismálum, þá sérstaklega kjarnorkuvopnum. Hér gefst tækifæri fyrir félaga NEXUS að taka þátt í áhugaverðu alþjóðlegu verkefni þar sem skoðanir og viðhorf ungmanna um kjarnorkuvopn og aðrar öryggisáskoranir eru tekin til greina. Lesið nánar hér að neðan texta frá BASIC.
Meet the Next Generation of Policy Shapers: Focus Group Insights & Findings
BASIC today launches a new report of insights gained through a series of discussion groups hosted with policy students and young professionals based in the US and UK throughout the winter 2014 and spring 2015. Participants had a variety of different interests and areas of expertise from international security to economics and development. The aim of this exercise was to gain insight into how the next generation of policy shapers think about, communicate, and connect with nuclear weapons and other geopolitical issues.
Some of the main conclusions we found:
- Personal experience and academic learning from early childhood is highly influential in shaping opinions
- Personal stories and experience impact levels of interest
- Clearly defined goals inspire active engagement
- Balanced analysis of issues is preferable to biased interpretations
- Convenience is important for engagement with issues
- Respected leaders influence thinking, not celebrities
- Issues that inspire concern for others are the most motivating
- Key actions that are likely to be taken include: learning, building awareness and passing information on. The types of information likely to be passed on include: structured and easy to read articles, short videos, something controversial, or something involving high profile individuals
- Knowledge and interest in nuclear weapons is broadly low, largely because these weapons no longer seem relevant in today’s world
As part of the Next Generation project, BASIC is going to use these findings to help shape the forthcoming activities and engagement among current policy makers and the next generation of policy shapers. We hope others working on the nuclear weapons debate and in peripheral or interrelated fields can use our research to help inform and shape their work too.
Please visit www.nextgenshapers.com for more information about the Next Generation project and this report.
