Reimaging a post-conflict country through events – lessons from Northern Ireland

War can have an instant and far-reaching negative effect on the image of a country. Gilboa [(2006). Public diplomacy: The missing component in Israeli’s foreign policy. Israel Affairs, 12(4), 715–747] discusses how a country involved in a prolonged violent conflict will acquire an undesirable, hard image that has to be softened. To try and achieve this, an increasing number of governments have, or are considering including events as part of their post-conflict recovery strategy. This paper focuses on Northern Ireland and how it has strategically used major events as a policy tool to help remove stereotypical images of its troubled past. The paper also highlights the risks of using events in a post-conflict environment. The authors recommend that if a government of a post-conflict country does decide to invest in events for reimaging purposes, it must do so with caution. Events and the media attention they attract help project the image of the place. However, if there are still political tension and entrenched problems within the country, then a negative image may be portrayed.