DTIC ADA517955: The Missing Components of U.S. Strategic Communications

0.37 MB·English

by  Defense Technical Information Center

The Missing Component of
U.S. Strategic
Communications
By William m. Darley
I
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war that would not only require military D
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ing and conducting an effective, synchronized to create such a system have largely been
program aimed at countering enemy ideas thwarted by interagency disagreement over Why the U.S. Government has had such
is still not in place. Therefore, many observ- what constitutes appropriate and legitimate difficulty conveying its own strategic mes-
ers both in and out of government are now strategic communications activities, with the sages in the current political and social envi-
expressing deep concern that the United States most strident objections coming from the ronment, however, is not explained mainly by
is losing both the global war of ideas against public affairs community, which fears absorp- its failure to develop interagency bureaucratic
Islamic extremists and the war on terror itself. tion into a national propaganda machine. mechanisms, by interagency rivalry, or even
Growing concern that we are losing More importantly, such an innovation has by flawed style. Moreover, failure to create
the war of ideas has led to consternation and met broad resistance by non–Department of a 24/7 global communications system with
fierce debate among many offices of govern- Defense (DOD) agencies in general because appropriately trained public affairs personnel
ment over why progress has been so slow and they are wary of effectively being brought is only symptomatic of the real problem, not
what to do about it. But to date, this debate under DOD control in such an effort. causal. Rather, the principal reason is a failure
has produced little beyond a huge volume of One consequence of this impasse is the at the national level to find interagency agree-
PowerPoint slides, issue papers, and studies, assertion of some government leaders that ment among the various departments and
with few actual measures taken to develop the principal cause of this national failure branches of government on the substance of
a synchronized, coordinated interagency to communicate strategically is the incom- what we want national strategic communica-
national program—and an effort well short of petence of the Government’s professional tions to convey to audiences of interest, and
the robust capabilities the United States pos- communicators. For example, former Sec- with what sense of urgency. This major flaw
sessed in the Central Intelligence Agency and retary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed is specifically noted in the 9/11 Commission
the now-defunct U.S. Information Agency that the failure of strategic communications Report with regard to its communications
during the Cold War, both of which were key was largely due to government public affairs policies: “The U.S. Government must define
to winning the ideological dimension against officers who were not sufficiently trained to what its message is, what it stands for.”4
Marxism/Leninism in the Soviet Union.2 fight the war of ideas on a global scale or not Therefore, national-level failure to agree
Instead, the wrangling has focused sufficiently engaged in proactively develop- on what the United States stands for (that is,
mainly on tinkering with the mechanics of ing the required 24/7 system to match enemy what national values strategic communica-
coordination, attempting to solve the problem initiatives and engagement in the global tions should reflect) is the principal impedi-
by creating an overarching national-level information environment.3 Partly in response, ment to developing a synchronized and effec-
a number of initiatives have been launched tive program of strategic communications.
Colonel William M. Darley, USA, is Director of among many agencies aimed at develop- Moreover, of perhaps greater concern, the root
Strategic Communications for the Combined Arms ing public affairs officers who are more cause of the bureaucratic impasse on strategic
Center at Fort Leavenworth and Editor-in-Chief of sophisticated in dealing with international communications reflects a deeper lack of con-
Military Review. communications. sensus on what our national values in fact are.
ndupress.ndu.edu issue 47, 4th quarter 2007 / JFQ    109
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The Missing Components of U.S. Strategic Communications
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COMMENTARY | The Missing Component of U.S. Strategic Communications
Strategic Values? agreed that English was the “right and proper” and vitriolic values-based conflicts over this
What is a value? Basically, values are language of the United States. So deeply issue in the United States and Western Europe.
reified (that is, an abstract concept accepted ingrained was learning English that at the Similarly, our government periodically
as if it were concrete reality) social mores turn of the 20th century, new immigrants asserts that we are fighting in Iraq for freedom
inculcated within a social community that often forbade their children to use or learn of speech and expression. In practice, the
serve as communal governors of social behav- the native language so they would rapidly Islamic world frequently interprets this to
ior. Such reified values create the core social become Americanized; learning English was mean that America is sending combatants
compact of agreement that shapes what the regarded as a prerequisite value for becoming to die in the conflict in order to promote the
collective community comes to view as right “a real American.” However, today, with a protection and distribution of graphic Internet
behavior as opposed to wrong. Relative to flood of immigrants who increasingly resist pornography or to promulgate “Hollywood
other factors, values are at once among the surrendering their former language or culture values” that not only countenance but also
most powerful dynamics governing human on arriving in America and who are aided by promote adultery, infidelity, and promiscu-
social behavior, and the most fragile, since various agents in society that promote cultural ity. Or the Islamic world interprets this as
their authority rests entirely on a foundation diversity as opposed to cultural homogeneity an extension of perceived U.S. devotion to
of collective community faith that they are as the preferred national social value, the secularism to promote the environment for
correct and true principles. Consequently, view that English should be the standard establishing an ACLU-equivalent organization
one generation’s values often become another language is rapidly losing status as an accepted in Middle Eastern states that will one day aim
generation’s biases and bigotry. The basi- American value—and in fact is now widely to remove the Koran—as well as Allah—from
cally whimsical foundation of values thus labeled as a form of intrusive bigotry. Islamic public life, public discourse, and public
renders them vulnerable to the shifting sand institutions. The above perspective of prospec-
of cultural change that shapes what becomes tive target audiences for strategic messages
national-level failure to agree
accepted as right behavior. noted, the issue before our government then
on what the United States
The vulnerability of values can easily becomes, “Are these in fact accurate represen-
be seen in the changes to those values that stands for is the principal tations of the national values that we wish to
were regarded as the bedrock of homogenous impediment to developing impart to foreign audiences as justification for
national mores two generations ago. For a synchronized program of fighting in Iraq and elsewhere?”
example, the American populace generally In stark contrast to the confusing scene
strategic communications
of a values system in apparent chaos, our
enemies’ messages are simple and specific
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
Other abstractions once broadly as they describe the normative values that
Affairs Victoria Clarke holds her first Pentagon
press briefing a week before 9/11 accepted as important components of the will prevail with regard to homosexuality,
American values system are similarly being promiscuity, and secular atheism under a
challenged, creating uncertainty with regard new worldwide order governed by a Caliphate
to national consensus on common values. For and Islamic law. Consequently, in contrast to
example, the assertion by our government that our own, the enemy’s strategic messages are
part of our purpose for fighting in Iraq is to clear, unambiguous, and (to many) extremely
help establish personal freedom and protect appealing as compared to the inchoate and
human dignity is evolving to mean something unnerving confusion over what U.S. strategic
different than it did two generations ago. messages actually intend to advocate.
Fighting for personal freedom, for many in The above examples briefly illustrate
the United States, may now mean that we as a that the essence of strategic communica-
nation are fighting the insurgents in Iraq for tions programs and resulting messages is not
the purpose of legitimizing homosexuality psychological trickery, elegant rhetoric, or
and homosexual marriage as appropriate manicured ways to say something persua-
lifestyles and institutions in the Islamic world sively clever—that is, not style. It is first and
as part and parcel of the changes to traditional foremost the actual product of values held by
interpretations of family and marriage that the society. Strategic communications are the
are being championed within America by expression of the fruit that grows from the
many agents and interest groups. Assuming soil of national values. So-called communica-
that tolerance and acceptance of so-called tions that do not convey specific normative
alternative lifestyles eventually do become a expectations rooted in such national values
broadly accepted American national value, the are quickly dismissed as counterfeit by foreign
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DO even as they observe the drama of confusing defining and agreeing on national values.
110 JFQ / issue 47, 4th quarter 2007 ndupress.ndu.edu
DARLEY
Thus, it is the indecisive nature of this strug-
Senators from New Jersey talk to press about
gle that best accounts for the impasse within military response to 9/11 attacks
our national government over a strategic com-
munications system and plan.
The above brings into relief the key
impediment to strategic communications for
the United States. Popular disagreement on
values has translated into stagnant executive
and legislative efforts that are harmful to the
creation of a strategic communications plan
and process since there is no special popular
pressure or yearning for such. This failure Cintron)
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Obviously, the solution would be for the
branches of government and the executive in stark contrast to the confusing scene of a values system in
branch departments in particular to arrive at apparent chaos, our enemies’ messages are simple and specific
hard-consensus agreement on a set of national
values, which would instantly remove the
ideological barriers necessary to foster an consequence of such general agreement was to generate popular support for waging the
interagency sense of urgency and desire for development of a program aimed at promoting war and are probably summarized by the
cooperation and action. domestic support for the war. This program period’s fabled aphorism, “For Mom, apple
Whether agreement on national values produced such popular icons of national unity pie, and the girl next door.”
is even possible in our turbulent and divided as “Rosie the Riveter” and wide support for Though no doubt regarded by many even
society and government is now the key central rationing and the sale of bonds to support the then as sentimental, facile, and ingenuous, this
issue of this national dilemma. Not only does war. It also facilitated support from a histori- concise statement nevertheless encapsulated
lack of consensus agreement directly impact cally unruly and independently minded Hol- a set of values among the American populace
our ability to develop a national strategic lywood, which, holding its nose, nevertheless that justified the purpose of the war: defending
communications process to support agen- shared enough buy-in to prevailing national from fascist aggression the traditional nuclear
cies attempting to fight the current wars, values to mass-produce films that glorified family and preserving peacetime gender
but, more ominously, such agreement also is the Allied cause while ridiculing and vilifying roles, with both of these linked to a sense of
directly relevant to whether we as a nation the Axis in ways that would be viewed today independent culture and national identity
will be able to survive the “Long War” now as culturally intolerant and insensitive. In symbolized by a kind of pastry regarded as
taking shape in the face of withering ideologi- addition, the historically iconoclastic media uniquely American. This is not to suggest
cal challenges we can expect to those basic grudgingly cooperated by allowing both itself that pre–World War II America was an idyllic
national values that have heretofore defined to be censored with minimum grumbling and society. It was deeply flawed by widespread
the United States as a nation and its citizens as its reporters to be enrolled as virtual members poverty and institutional racism, especially
uniquely American. of the military as they embedded with forward with regard to the treatment of blacks, Asians,
deploying forces. and Jews. However, it was a society whose
Values Then . . . What were those shared national values? communities—both majority and minor-
The last time the United States had a A comprehensive description and discus- ity—willingly went to war believing that they
national consensus on values was World War sion of all specific values that might have had an important stake in the outcome.
II. Relative agreement on which national contributed to the unified national mood of In contrast, were anyone in authority
values made up the sociopolitical environment support and cooperation throughout the huge today to suggest that the reason we are fight-
of the country created broad popular demand and diverse United States would be extremely ing in Iraq is to defend “Mom, apple pie, and
and support for institutions that were created complicated to lay out in a taxonomy and the girl next door,” that individual would be
to fight fascism. General popular agreement would be open to vigorous debate. Specific open to accusations of sexism, homophobia,
on national values fostered the environment agreement on each and every expressed value and mean-spirited isolationism opposed to
for interagency cooperation among orga- certainly did not exist among the diverse international trade, including apple imports
nizations created to communicate with not ethnic and minority communities. However, from Chile or Mexico.
only foreign but also domestic publics. One the values of the country overlapped enough
ndupress.ndu.edu issue 47, 4th quarter 2007 / JFQ    111
COMMENTARY | The Missing Component of U.S. Strategic Communications
In view of the above, one begins to see indoctrination through the influence of a host geted audiences in order for a war of ideas to
why Rosie the Riveter is absent today. Against of laws, changes in the educational system, be successful. Yet the assertion of superiority
the backdrop of the enigmatic but palpable and the influence of popular cultural leaders of values as compared to those of an adversary
threat we face from al Qaeda as well as from and institutions that emerged from the 1960s must be, in fact, the essence of strategic com-
potential peer adversaries such as China, the civil rights movement. Because of these munications messages aimed at achieving
reasons why Rosie has not reported for duty cultural changes, many in the U.S. Govern- wartime political objectives.
should be cause for great alarm both within ment today are used to instinctive rejection of In contrast, examining the propaganda
the military and throughout the citizenry as anything that might subject them to accusa- produced by our insurgent and terrorist
a whole. tions of ethnic insensitivity, racism, or lack of enemies, one is struck not by the enemy’s
multicultural tolerance. As a result, many now
. . . and Now have a virtually instinctive impulse to avoid
in contrast to the overtly
Not surprisingly, in contrast to the challenging any religion or culture, no matter
nationalistic and even racist
overtly nationalistic and even racist messages how openly organized or threatening and bel-
strategic messages of World
characteristic of the U.S. Government’s stra- ligerent such a cultural movement might be to
tegic communications during World War II, American interests. War II, the messages of
the messages of the U.S.-led coalition today The major consequence of these two the U.S.-led coalition today
are abstract, obsessively inoffensive, and tepid. factors means that U.S. Government officials are abstract, obsessively
Some of the main reasons are fairly clear: cannot now come to any agreement among
inoffensive, and tepid
first, because we live in a world where glo- themselves regarding what foreign cultural
balization has created an extremely complex values we are willing to openly challenge as
web of interdependent economies, the U.S. inferior or counterproductive to the promo- skill for devising shrewd programs of inge-
Government avoids challenging the ideologies tion of the kinds of liberal society we previ- nious persuasion but rather by the simplicity
of many nations upon whose resources our ously championed as a matter of national and concrete expression of specific policy
economy depends, especially Islamic views values. In other words, we cannot agree among objectives the enemy wants its audiences to
(though Islam is clearly the ideological soil ourselves as to what we view as those cultural internalize. Also, these messages unabashedly
from which most of the world’s current insur- values of our own we are willing to openly claim moral superiority to the values of the
gencies and terrorist movements are spring- assert are superior United States and its allies. This simplicity
ing). Among these reasons is that the United and preferable to stands in glaring contrast to the enigmatic
States is utterly dependent on Islamic oil. those championed and abstruse content of what usually passes
But just as importantly, Americans have by our enemies as for strategic communications messages on
been subjected to government-sponsored a reason for engag- behalf of the U.S.-led coalition.
ing in war, which The upshot is that the single major
Clockwise from below: Uncle Sam poster by
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tions process is now possible no matter what
Challenge, a Navy-sponsored event in Boston
interagency reorganization occurs, or how
during Navy Week
superbly trained the personnel may be to man
them, or how sophisticated and polished our
style of communication is manicured to be.
Consequently, until there is consensus on
national values among all segments of the
government and a revival of national moral
courage by the government leadership to
adopt a much needed measure of cultural
intolerance for ideologies that threaten those
values, the likelihood of cogent strategic com-
munications in the near future is not great.
And recognition of the reasons for the small
likelihood brings into relief what should
provoke the greatest concern to the military,
the people, and government, greater than
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112 JFQ / issue 47, 4th quarter 2007 ndupress.ndu.edu
DARLEY
and it is aligning with increasing intensity As a result, after almost 6 years, it is jobs and clogging public services, but as a
as an ideological conflict of values within apparent that the agendas of the domestic mortal challenge to the national value of gov-
America itself as a fourth revolution. political parties have evolved to a point where ernment by law itself.
In its history, the United States has they view the outcome of the war in Iraq less With the above in mind, it is clear
experienced three clear revolutions. The as an issue of homeland security than as a key that no strategic communications effort can
first not only involved breaking away from a factor in the success of their own parochial succeed unless it grows out of national values
mother culture but also introduced the notion struggles to wrest domestic political power as that are honored and protected. It should be
that government should serve the people at a means to shape national values. To this end, elementary that a government that wishes
their pleasure and that the people had natural domestic political opponents increasingly to spread the flame of its values to others
rights that the government could not take appear to view the war as more about control- must first demonstrate regard for its own,
away. However, by failing to abolish slavery, ling future nominations to the Supreme Court while avoiding the perception that it treats
the first revolution failed to adopt the values than about defending American citizens or disdainfully the constituency whose society
articulated in its basic declaration. Within a improving Middle Eastern stability. is underpinned by such values. To do this, it
fairly short time, these unresolved issues led The upshot of the dilemma is that in is essential that the Government take action
to the second revolution, the American Civil terms of national values, the last general to articulate national values by defining them
War, which settled the issue of slavery and national election showed that a clear majority and, once they are defined, by sustaining
established Federal sovereignty as supreme. of citizens, even at opposite sides on the politi- them with forceful application of laws aimed
However, doing away with slavery did not cal spectrum, apparently had concluded that at preserving and promoting them. Values
do away with institutional racial injustice or more than a decade of Republican-dominated thus defined, and then supported by establish-
preclude the passing of laws and the establish- branches of government had produced little ment and enforcement of policies that they
ment of institutions aimed at keeping blacks more than an increasingly predictable pattern reflect, are the necessary bedrock for fostering
and other minorities in a de facto state of of callous disregard for the public’s priorities the desire and willingness among agencies
involuntary servitude. In time, the illogic of (that is, the party in power had treated the of government to cooperate in developing
this situation produced the third revolution, electorate as chumps). To many, this percep- strategic communications. Without such a
led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., tion was aggravated by the nagging disparity foundation of national core values supported
which resulted in the end of legal segregation in the rhetoric of those in office who spoke by policy and enforcement, any national
and helped establish those national values about expanding and protecting American strategic communications program will be
articulated in the first revolution. Each of interests and traditional values, but whose impossible. JFQ
these revolutions was primarily a conflict efforts seemed most often in practice to focus
NoTeS
over the direction and substance of national on promoting international business interests
values. And the sociopolitical conditions that and international military expeditions that
1 Anthony J. Blinken, “Now the U.S. Needs
fostered each came about in large measure mainly benefited non-Americans.
to Win the Global War of Ideas,” International
by the social friction produced by a war—the Moreover, for both the legal citizen
Herald Tribune, December 8, 2001; Anthony J.
third created in large part by the social unrest standing in a long line at the hospital to pay Blinken, “Winning the War of Ideas,” The Wash-
stemming from the Vietnam War. an expensive medical bill, as well as the many ington Quarterly (Spring 2002), 101–114; Harry
Similarly, today, the broader war that illegal immigrants in front of them whose bills Binswanger, “America vs. Death-Worship: The
President George W. Bush initiated by invad- are being paid by the Government, neither Moral Meaning of the Coming War,” speech deliv-
ing Iraq has opened up a Pandora’s box of still can be blamed for not only doubting the seri- ered at Columbia University, October 2, 2001.
unresolved and long-simmering political and ousness and legitimacy of the administration 2 See William P. Kiehl, America’s Dialogue
with the World (Washington, DC: The George
social tensions about the substance of national and Congress in power but also questioning
Washington University, 2006); Wilson P. Dizard,
values. The social pressure of a seemingly American-style democracy itself as it has
Jr., Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the U.S.
intractable war is polarizing in increasingly evolved. This is an ominous ideological road,
Information Agency (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner,
dangerous ways an already ideologically but one that the Government has fostered.
2004); Walter L. Hixon, Parting the Curtain: Propa-
divided society, moving it toward another Such trends are clearly evident in polls
ganda, Culture, and the Cold War, 1945–1961 (New
virtual domestic civil war among advocates over both recent administrations that show York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997); David Chute, The
of conflicting ideologies. So advanced is this that a majority of U.S. citizens share a convic- Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Suprem-
path of revolutionary movement that the tion that the Government has ignored their acy During the Cold War (New York: Oxford Uni-
red state versus blue state divide apparent priorities and has been more focused on versity Press, 2003); Frances Stonor Saunders, The
in the last two Presidential elections may be serving special interests in a systematic and Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts
interpreted no longer as a quarrel within the even programmatic way. Those who have and Letters (New York: Free Press, 2002).
3 Council on Foreign Relations, “New Realities
American family, but instead as the harbinger interpreted the public desire to enforce laws
in the Media Age: A Conversation with Donald
of actual war between irreconcilable camps against illegal immigration as a matter of
Rumsfeld,” transcript, February 17, 2006.
of ideological enemies who are increasingly white racism simply miss the point regard-
4 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
gravitating to, if not openly rallying around, ing why the vast majority of the American
Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission
two inimical and antithetical sets of values electorate wants the Government to take
Report: Final Report of the National Commission on
as distinct as those that divide the Shia and action to stop the flow: it sees it not mainly as Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (New York:
Sunni factions in the Islamic world. a problem of undocumented workers taking Norton, 2004), 376.
ndupress.ndu.edu issue 47, 4th quarter 2007 / JFQ    113