Strategic Communications and Public Diplomacy “Seen on the Web” (#52)

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:

  • bring to busy overseas practitioners some of the academic and policy ferment in Public Diplomacy and related fields.
  • from long speeches, testimonies, and articles, flag the portions that bear on Public Diplomacy.
  • provide a window on armed forces thinking on the fields that neighbor Public Diplomacy —  military public affairs, strategic communication, information operations, inform-influence-engage, and cultural learning, for instance.
  • introduce the long history of Public Diplomacy by citing some of the older books, articles, reports, and documents that are not available on the internet.  These are labeled “Classic Quotables.”

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 Past, Present, and Future of the War for Public Opinion

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.

Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #84

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

Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy “Quotables” and “Seen on the Web” (#51)

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:

  • bring to busy overseas practitioners some of the academic and policy ferment in Public Diplomacy and related fields.
  • from long speeches, testimonies, and articles, flag the portions that bear on Public Diplomacy.
  • provide a window on armed forces thinking on the fields that neighbor Public Diplomacy–military public affairs, strategic communication, information operations, inform-influence-engage, and cultural learning, for instance.
  • introduce the long history of Public Diplomacy by citing some of the older books, articles, reports, and documents that are not available on the internet.  These are labeled “Classic Quotables.”

Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No 51.

Inaccuracies of Christian Science Monitor’s Moscow Correspondent

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

Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy “Quotables” and “Seen on the Web” (#50)

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:

  • bring to busy overseas practitioners some of the academic and policy ferment in Public Diplomacy and related fields.
  • from long speeches, testimonies, and articles, flag the portions that bear on Public Diplomacy.
  • provide a window on armed forces thinking on the fields that neighbor Public Diplomacy–military public affairs, strategic communication, information operations, inform-influence-engage, and cultural learning, for instance.
  • introduce the long history of Public Diplomacy by citing some of the older books, articles, reports, and documents that are not available on the internet.  These are labeled “Classic Quotables.”

Download Don Bishop’s Quotables No 50.