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| Congress balks at DOD's 'strategic communication' plans |
| 2007-08-16 |
| Two key congressional defense committees recommended cutting funds for an effort at the Defense Department to implement what officials call strategic communication. The idea is to “advance national interests and objectives through the use of coordinated information, themes, plans, programs and actions synchronized with other elements of national power.” The military’s vision of strategic communication grew from the findings of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. The review concluded that DOD must develop more effective communication strategies to counter anti-American sentiments capable of turning people into terrorists. The Senate committee said the components of strategic communication -- public diplomacy, public affairs and information operations -- should be practiced separately. According to a definition in [Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon] England’s guidance document, strategic communication includes aspects of information operations -- in particular, the subordinate field of psychological operations. The military uses psychological operations against U.S. enemies to lower their morale and to cause “dissidence and disaffection” within their ranks. During such operations, the military conveys "selected information and indicators" to foreign audiences in an attempt to influence their behavior, the doctrine states. Daniel Kuehl, director of the National Defense University’s Information Strategies Concentration Program, said many military public affairs officers are reluctant to adopt the principle of strategic communication because information operations are explicitly a part of it. But, Kuehl said, erecting a firewall between the two fields makes little sense, because both disciplines are merely a different means to achieve the same outcome -- influencing target audiences. And that influence, he added, “doesn’t need to be malicious.” Kuehl called the notion that psychological operations involve lying a common misconception. In those operations, “99.9 percent is truth,” he said. This, he added, is in contrast to another craft U.S. forces practice -- military deception. Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said the idea of strategic communication -- as envisioned by DOD -- bears some risks. Foreign audiences could conceive the effort as propaganda, he said. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 PRAVDA > artiiickle claims Russian military has PSYCHOTRONIC WEAPONS that can turn people into ZOMBIES??? As for the USDOD - D *** ng it, whats the Penn State Sub Shop and Professor Khalid up to now!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-08-16 02:36 |