www.MountainRunner.us

A Blog on Understanding, Informing, Empowering, and Influencing Global Publics, published by Matt Armstrong

Monthly Archives: May 2009

Recommended Reading: Kilcullen Doctrine

The Kilcullen Doctrine by Mark Safranski, ZenPundit.com, May 28, 2009

Tribal and even “civilized” rural people, often find ways of making social status distinctions that relate to behaviour and character rather than or in addition to the mere accumulation of material possessions (Col. Pat Lang has a great paper on this subject, “How to Work with Tribesmen“). We can shorthand them as “honor” cultures and they provide a different set of motivations and reactions than, say, those possessed by a CPA in San Francisco or an attorney in Washington, DC. People with “honor” are more obviously “territorial” and quick to defend against perceived slights or intrusions by unwelcome outsiders. This is a mentality that is alien to most modern, urbanized, 21st century westerners but it was not unfamiliar all that long ago, even in 19th and early 20th century, Americans had these traits. Shelby Foote, the Civil War historian, quotes a captured Southern rebel, who responded to a Union officer who asked him, why, if he had no slaves, was he was fighting? “Because you are down here” was the answer.

Mark draws from John Nagl’s superb review at RUSI and Mark’s own brilliance and deep knowledge of history.

Read Mark’s whole review of Dave Kilcullen’s The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. Also, buy Dave’s book.

See also:

Using Video to Tell a Story

Briefly, two examples of encouraging and empowering individuals to tell the story of a mission in their own way, one from Afghanistan and the other from US Southern Command.

First up is Afghanistan with Why Afghanistan Matters. Run by NATO Joint Forces Command HQ at Brunssum, Netherlands, it asks NATO military members who are or were deployed to Afghanistan to answer the question why what NATO is doing in Afghanistan is important. The video must be under 3 minutes and candidates will be uploaded to the contest YouTube channel.

Second is SOUTHCOM. Adopting an idea from the private sector (possibly UPS or FedEx), the goal is to “Tell the SOUTHCOM Story through Video”. The Command is distributed Flip Video recorders with basic rules: under 3 minutes, no nudity and no profanity (and a few others). The top 3 will be posted on the Commander’s blog.

A shared attribute of both: neither was initiated by Public Affairs.

More on these later.

Related:

Updating the Resume

I’m proud to say that as of June 1, 2009, I will be a member of the National Press Club. This interesting and welcome addition to the resume is thanks in large part to several reporters at “old” media who gave me recommendations based on the value of this blog plus sponsorship by a Director of Communication at DHS who is an NPC member.

This is probably a good time to mention that I am also proud to be a member of The Public Diplomacy Council and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

Company’s ‘ATM For Books’ Prints On Demand

On National Public Radio this morning, Company’s ‘ATM For Books’ Prints On Demand by Rob Gifford:

"Our technology now makes it possible for the printed page to move as rapidly as the electronic page," he says. "The printed book still remains overwhelmingly the dominant way books are read. I mean, I think the last statistic I saw worldwide, the electronic book is still less than a half percent. I think it will grow, but I still think the printed book will be the dominant way people consume literature."

I can think of another application.

Guest Post: Engaging Opinion Leaders for Social Change

By Nina Keim

Word of mouth has always been central to documentary films. Whether in the 19th century where the Lumière brothers needed publicity for their innovative films or in 2004 when Michael Moore got people talking about his controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. And yet, documentary films advocating for social issues often struggle to mobilize a public around an issue. One major problem is that documentary films attract audiences that are already highly interested in the issue while failing to attract non-engaged audiences. This is specifically true in today’s media environment where the number of news outlets rises every day and people can tailor their media exposure to their individual interests. Moreover, there is an increased need for specialized promotion tactics for social-issue documentaries to actively engage the audience and ultimately impact social change. Documentary filmmakers are challenged to find an adequate strategy to communicate their issue to those who are not active, engaged and interested.

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Event: 8th Annual Information Operations Europe

8th Annual Information Operations Europe
Delivering Effects through Influence Activity

June 22 – 24, London

The human terrain has proven hugely important in current conflicts and the capabilities required to influence an audience have seen major developments in recent years. The employment of private sector expertise and new media tools such as online social networking have opened up new opportunities for the IO community, yet the challenges of developing a coherent and culturally astute message remain. Messages must also be coordinated in an often complex, coalition environment and the issue of Measurement of Effect still represents a significant obstacle to progress.

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