May 2, 2018
Continue reading “Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #91
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The discussion on whether to classify the broadcasters RT, formerly Russia Today, and Sputnik as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act is full of nuance, most of which is absent in the public debates over the topic. The fundamental question at issue is whether these two broadcasters are under both the direction and receiving funding from the Kremlin. There is no debate over the latter, while management of both unconvincingly disputes the former. But as we ask the question, we should know not just why we are asking, but what is the outcome we seek to achieve. Continue reading “Don’t do it: why the Foreign Agent designation is welcomed by RT and Sputnik
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Earlier this week, Yahoo News reported the FBI is looking into whether Kremlin-funded and directed media agency is operating in the U.S. as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Ironically, the FBI obtained a cache of internal Sputnik email and documents that will assist the bureau in its investigation. The timing of the probe coincides with interest by some in Congress to update the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA, to deal with modern operations such as Russia’s Sputnik and RT, the media outlet formerly known as Russia Today.
Over two years ago, May 2015, I wrote about FARA as it related to RT. The article has not aged and applies equally to Sputnik today. I suggest you read it if you haven’t already as it includes the relevant history of the creation, implementation, and evolution of FARA. Today, as it has been for over two decades, the application of FARA to foreign media activities in the U.S. has been neutered as a direct result of watering down the impact of FARA on information created and distributed by the Canadian government in the United States designed to influence public opinion and U.S. policies.
Continue reading “Sputnik and the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) “John Kuehn briefly opines on how the South lost the “conventional military context from 1861-1865” but turned that defeat into a cultural victory.
Continue reading “Why the South Won (by John Kuehn) “
June 6, 2017
Intended for teachers of public diplomacy and related courses, here is an update on resources that may be of general interest. Suggestions for future updates are welcome.
Bruce Gregory
Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication
George Washington University
BGregory@gwu.edu
Continue reading “Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #85
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On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, the Emerging Threats & Capabilities subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee convened a hearing entitled “Crafting an Info Warfare & Counter-Propaganda Strategy for the Emerging Security Environment .”
I recommed watching the worthwhile conversation. Below are my prepared remarks given at the top of the hearing.
Continue reading “A Strategic Perspective on “Information Warfare” & “Counter-Propaganda”
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March 19, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1521-1570
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotable’s No. 59.
March 12, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1461-1520
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotable’s No. 58.
March 11, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1394-1460
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No. 57.
March 5, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1365-1394
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No. 56.
March 2, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1335-1364
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotable No. 55.
February 26, 2017
Seen on the Web 1305-1334
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No. 54
February 20, 2017
Seen on the Web, 1252-1304
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas flow and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by: Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University; Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s Quotable’s No. 53.
February 7, 2017
Seen on the Web 1166-1251
This newsletter provides a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports of interest to practitioners and scholars of strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. “Quotables” are gists of articles and reports available on the website of the Public Diplomacy Council. “Seen on the Web” entries provide key quotes and links. They:
Edited by
Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University
Jeffery W. Taylor, University of Mary Washington, Assistant
Download Don Bishop’s “Seen on the Web” No. 52.
The myth of the United States Information Agency as America’s defense against political warfare lives on. Just last month, the Director of National Intelligence repeated calls for a muscular USIA. Others have declared that the absence of USIA has left us vulnerable.
In November 2015, I wrote that these and similar invocations of USIA are coded laments that “we lack a strategy, an organizing principle, and empowered individuals to execute information warfare today.” These calls also ignore the role our actions have in influencing the minds and wills of others. Informational activities — whether public affairs, public diplomacy, strategic communication, or psychological operations — is not “pixie dust” that will magically transform a mind when actions contradict the words. This is not merely an issue of values versus interests, though that is a factor. No, whatever psychological or information instrument we employ cannot compensate for absent or ill-conceived policies and plans.
Last month, in The Past, Present, and Future of the War for Public Opinion, I expanded the look back into the environment which gave rise to USIA. But USIA was a public affairs bullhorn and never charged or prepared, structured, or properly equipped, including training, to deal with the realities of political warfare, defensive or offensive, despite the mythology. It’s notable that examples given to support arguments that USIA was responsive to the Soviet Union’s nonmilitary aggression are not from the “cold war” period marked by political and ideological conflict waged before borders the walls went up. Instead, they come from the “Cold War” bipolar order marked my military confrontation between two superpowers and proxy battlefields.
As I wrote in The Past, Present, and Future of the War for Public Opinion, the Congress essentially re-established a USIA with regards to its coordinating function. It’s named the Global Engagement Center. The other components, the elements of great substance and impact, exist in the State Department. The Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), for example, continues to languish under a lack of direction, poor support, and self-marginalization as successive unit leaders chased resume-building initiatives rather than national security requirements or supporting inter- and intra-department needs.
We need to focus on the people, organizations, and tools we have before wasting more money on new toys. Money cannot buy a solution. There needs to be leadership, a purpose, training, accountability (as well as tolerance for experimentation and failure), and an overall a strategy. What does success or “victory” look like? Knowing what we are attempting to achieve, followed by how we can achieve the goal or goals, helps define the methods and never is the solution a bigger bullhorn.
I closed the latest article with a quote from 1963 that fits today as much as it did then: “Someday this nation will recognize that global non-military conflict must be pursued with the same intensity and preparation as global military conflicts.”
Read the whole article here: The Past, Present, and Future of the War for Public Opinion.
February 1, 2017
Intended for teachers of public diplomacy and related courses, here is an update on resources that may be of general interest. Suggestions for future updates are welcome.
Bruce Gregory
Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication
George Washington University
BGregory@gwu.edu
Continue reading “Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #84
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January 31, 2017
Quotable 538-540 & Seen on the Web 1092-1165, compiled by Donald Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University.
This newsletter provides a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports of interest to practitioners and scholars of strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. “Quotables” are gists of articles and reports available on the website of the Public Diplomacy Council. “Seen on the Web” entries provide key quotes and links. They:
Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No 51.
The American public has been losing confidence in the media for some time. A causal factor may be the now-decades-old reversion of the news as a profit center, and away from the “public good” that it had been for most of the 20th Century. Another factor surely is the democratization of information gathering as the former gatekeepers, whether a newspaper or wire service or TV network, were displaced by the “friends and family” plan of acquiring, sharing, and commenting on news events. Continue reading “Inaccuracies of Christian Science Monitor’s Moscow Correspondent
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January 24, 2017
Quotable 533-537, Seen on the Web 963-1091, compiled by Donald Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University.
This newsletter provides a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports of interest to practitioners and scholars of strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. government international broadcasting, and information operations. “Quotables” are gists of articles and reports available on the website of the Public Diplomacy Council. “Seen on the Web” entries provide key quotes and links. They:
Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No 50.
Quotables, Seen on the Web, and Essays (#49) was compiled by Donald Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University.
January 9, 2017, Quotables 530-532, Seen on the Web 809-962
