A Cartography of Strategic Communications Philip M Taylor Professor of International Communications University of Leeds

A Cartography of Strategic Communications

Philip M TaylorProfessor of International

CommunicationsUniversity of Leeds

TERRORISM

The 21st CENTURY GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

Global Warming +/ Ecological disaster +

Creeping Deserts =

POPULATION GROWTH +RESOURCE SCARCITY =

War over Food, Water, Fish

Virtual States

WEAPONS OFMASS DESTRUCTION

‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’

More GNP = More Defense Spending

GLOBAL ECONOMICGLOBAL ECONOMICINTERDEPENDENCEINTERDEPENDENCE

ASYMMETRICWARFARE

DISEASE(AIDS PANDEMICMALARIA, EBOLA)

ETHNO-Religious

PAN-NATIONALISM

Changing ALLIANCES: IMPACT OF THE EURO

ECO-ASIA

INFORMATIONWARFARE

Sub-National Groups: Russian Mafia,Russian Mafia, FARC,

IMPACT OFTECHNOLOGY

UNCERTAINFUTURE

UNCERTAINFUTURE

The 21st century Global Info-sphere

24/7 rolling news

‘citizen journalists’/Digital eye-witnesses

New regionalplayers

The Internet

Blogs, twitter Web 2.0

TERRORISM

Global Warming +/ Ecological disaster +

Creeping Deserts =

N GROWTH +RESOURCE SCARCITY =

War over Food, Water, Fish

Virtual States

WEAPONS OFMASS DESTRUCTION

‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’

More GNP = More Defense Spending

GLOBAL ECONOMICGLOBAL ECONOMICINTERDEPENDENCEINTERDEPENDENCE

ASYMMETRICWARFARE

DISEASE(AIDS PANDEMICMALARIA, EBOLA)

ETHNO-Religious

PAN-NATIONALISM

Changing ALLIANCES: IMPACT OF THE EURO

ECO-ASIA

INFORMATIONWARFARE

Sub-National Groups: Russian Mafia,Russian Mafia, FARC,

IMPACT OFTECHNOLOGY

UNCERTAINFUTURE

UNCERTAINFUTURE

Making ‘order’ out of apparent ‘chaos’..

New regionalplayers

The Internet

Blogs, twitter

Web 2.0

‘citizen journalists’/Digital eye-witnesses

24/7 rolling news

…is the job of Strategic Communications

• It is a very NOISY info-sphere• Lots of competing voices are shouting for

attention• Those voices are fast, disparate, difficult to

regulate/control, sometimes anarchic (e.g. viruses, Trojans, worms) sometimes terroristic

• They have a potential global reach• They are now interactive (=Web 2.0)• They challenge the traditional, dominant, top-

down, hegemonic, governmental ‘spokespeople’

Governments have to compete too• Not with a whisper but with a clear voice

that can and will be heard…• …because it is credible, reliable,

consistent, honest and truthful• Silence is not an option; the resultant

info-vaccuum will be filled with adversary ‘chatter’ (including misinformation and disinformation)

• Direct to Target Audiences because democratic free media are ‘unreliable’ as mediators of what is needed to be said

Communication is….• From the Latin word ‘communicare’ = to share• … to the 21st century what gas and oil were to the 20th

• … the fuel that drives political, economic, social, culturaland military engines• … networking and to defeat a network, you need a network• … changing rapidly, especially amongst young people• … increasingly conducted in virtual environments

Strategic Communication – the new US definition

• ‘The coordination of Statecraft, Public Affairs, Public Diplomacy, [Military] Information Operations and other activities, reinforced by political, economic and military actions, in a synchronized and coordinated manner.’

(National Security Council definition of Strategic Communication, February 2005, approved by Condoleezza Rice before her transition to the State Department.)

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

INFORMATIONOPERATIONS

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Foreign Office/State Department(USIA closed 1999)

Military/MoD: IO has replaced IW in the lexicon since mid 1990s

Government: political/strategicrelationship withmedia

‘Public Diplomacy – the open exchange of ideas and information – is an inherent characteristic of democratic societies. Its global mission is central to … foreign policy. And it remains indispensable to … [national] interests, ideals and leadership role in the world’. (US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 1991 Report).

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY DEFINTION

‘Soft power …is the ability to get desired outcomes because others want what you want. It is the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than coercion. It works by convincing others to follow or getting them to agree to norms and institutions that produce the desired behaviour.

Soft power can rest on the appeal of one's ideas or culture … and … depends largely on the persuasiveness of the free information that an actor seeks to transmit. If a state can [do this] it may not need to expend as many costly traditional economic or military resources.’ (Keohane & Nye)

SOFT POWER

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

CULTURALDIPLOMACY

INTERNATIONALBROADCASTING


PUBLIC AFFAIRS


PUBLIC DIPLOMACY‘Soft Power’

CULTURALDIPLOMACY


Long-term;Elites are main target audience

Short-term;Mass Communication(radio, TV, internet)

• Reciprocal (two-way)• Mutual• Development of mutual trust and understanding• Talking AND Listening• ‘To know us is to love us’

• One-way (point-to-multipoint)• Counter-propaganda with ‘news’ and ‘facts’• Needs to be fast (but not ‘real-time’) and CREDIBLE• ‘Truth is the best propaganda’

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY‘Soft Power’

CULTURALDIPLOMACY


Long-term;Education

Short-term;News & Views

• British Council• Alliance Française• Dante Alighieri Society• Goethe Institute• Carnegie Foundation• Confucius Institute

• BBC World Service• Radio France International• RAI International• Deutsche Welle• Voice of America• China Radio International

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


PUBLIC AFFAIRS


Information Operations definition - UK JWP 3-80

• ‘Co-ordinated actions undertaken to influence an adversary or potential adversary in support of political and military objectives by undermining his will, cohesion and decision making ability, through affecting his information, information based processes and systems while protecting one’s own decision-makers and decision-making processes’

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


Computer Network Operations

HumanFactors

PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS (PSYOPS)

CIVIL-MILITARY CO-OPERATION (CIMIC)

MEDIA

PUBLIC AFFAIRS


INFORMATION ASSURANCEOPERATIONAL SECURITYELECTRONIC WARFARE

DECEPTION

SIGINT HUMINT

US DoD JP 3-13 2006

• The integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network operations (CNO), psychological operations (PSYOP), military deception (MILDEC), and operations security (OPSEC), in concert with specified supporting and related capabilities, to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting our own.

INFORMATION OPERATIONS‘Soft information support to hard power’

HUMAN FACTORS‘HUMINT’

COMPUTER NETWORK OPERATIONS

‘SIGINT’

• CIMIC• DECEPTION• PSYOPS---------------------------• PUBLIC AFFAIRS

• COMPUTER NETWORK ATTACK• COMPUTER NETWORK DEFENCE• ELECTRONIC WARFARE• OPSEC

NATO Definition of Psychological Operations (PSYOPS):

‘Planned psychological activities using methods of communications and other means directed to approved audiences in order to influence perceptions, attitudes and behaviour, affecting the achievement of political and military objectives’

HUMAN FACTORSThe Influence (People) Piece in IO

PSYOPS• White• Grey• Black

Leaflets, TV, Radio,Posters, websites,Loudspeakers etc

- Talks directly to TA- Relationship to CIMIC

PUBLIC AFFAIRS• Press• Radio & TV• Internet

Press briefings &Conferences, releases,Off-the record?

Talks to TA via Media (reliability?)

IO HUMAN FACTORS &THE ‘WAR’ ON TERROR

PSYOPS• White• Grey• Black

PUBLIC AFFAIRS• Press• Radio & TV• Internet

‘ATTRIBUTABLE’ &‘NON-ATTRIBUTAL’

WHITE = ANHONEST SOURCE

GREY = IDENTIFIESNO SOURCE

BLACK – PRETENDSTO BE A DIFFERENT

SOURCE TRUTHFUL, ATTRIBUTABLE AND ‘OFF THE RECORD’

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

CULTURALDIPLOMACY



CNOHUMANFACTORS

PSYOPSCIMICMEDIA

PUBLIC AFFAIRS


INFO ASSURANCEOPSEC/EW DECEPTION

US INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING ‘FAMILY’

VOICE OF AMERICABroadcasting Board of Governors

RADIO FREE EUROPERADIO FREE ASIA (1996)

Targets China, North Korea,Burma, Vietnam etc

RADIO & TV MARTI

Cuba

RADIO SAWA & AL HURRA TV‘Together’ & ‘The Free One’

Middle East

RADIO FARDA (2002)‘Tomorrow’

Iran

CUBA NEWS The Miami HeraldBy Nancy San Martin, Fri Jun. 24, 2005.

Martí a priority, state official says

The U.S. military aircraft broadcastingTV and Radio Martí's signals to Cubawill not be diverted to Iraq, at least until a replacement plane is bought and equipped, a senior State Departmentofficial said Thursday.

''The president has made the decision that we would do what we could to break through the information blockade imposed by the Castro regime,'' the official said after El Nuevo Herald and The Herald reported concerns raised by Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that the Pentagon's C-130 Commando Solo plane could be sent to the Middle East.

''As far as we know . . . until the permanent platform is available, the C-130 is flying,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity surrounding the issue.

If you are at the receiving end of these broadcasts, it looks likePSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

Commando Solo

And you thought the Cold Warhad ended !!!

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

CULTURALDIPLOMACY



CNOHUMANFACTORS

PSYOPSCIMICMEDIA

PUBLIC AFFAIRS



National Media Image vs National Official Image

Cultural Diplomacy or ‘Cultural Imperialism’?

• Free media products give negative impressions of a society (news media interested in ‘bad news’; Hollywood interested in sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll’)

• Governmental CD & SC tries to correct this with ‘good news’ and cultural achievements

• If you are on the receiving end, CD CAN look like Cultural Imperialism, Coca-colonialism, McDomination of another form of psychological war of ideas and values

• It therefore HAS to be TWO-WAY: mutual and reciprocal

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


PUBLIC AFFAIRS

DOMESTIC FOREIGN


Public Affairs – US Public Affairs – US DefinitionDefinition

Public Affairs – US Public Affairs – US DefinitionDefinition

““Those public information and Those public information and community relations activities community relations activities directed toward the domestic directed toward the domestic general public by various elements general public by various elements of the USG, as well as those of the USG, as well as those activities directed to foreign publics, activities directed to foreign publics, including the media, by official U.S. including the media, by official U.S. spokesmen abroad.”spokesmen abroad.”

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

CULTURALDIPLOMACY



CNOHUMANFACTORS

PSYOPSCIMICMEDIA

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

DOMESTIC FOREIGN



Office of Strategic Influence (OSI)

Office of Special Plans (OSP)

IMPACT = UNDERMINED CREDIBILITY OF ALL THE OTHER PILLARS

Are these pillars appropriate?

IS THIS REALLY ME?


PD IO PA

Legacy of the Cold War

• They become bureaucratic stovepipes, slow and reactive

• They cause ‘turf wars’• They were designed to win an

ideological battle against communism as a political system

• They were built before the age of the internet and Al Qaida as an ‘idea’

Is there a better solution?

• A Dedicated Department/Ministry of Strategic Communication?

• Answerable to President/Prime Minister’s Office – it is STRATEGIC

• Close liaison with all other ministries• A long-term Grand (Information)

Strategy is required

Influencing Attitudes

DEPARTMENT OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Public Diplomacy

Influence Operations

Public Affairs

Old & NewMediaInternational Broadcasting

Why is this necessary?• To bring order to the chaos generated by

terrorism and AQ in internet-age asymmetric information warfare

• Terrorists know that their activities are 10% violence and 90% propaganda

• The western (US) response to 9/11 has been 90% violence (war) and 10% strategic communication

• NATO countries still tend to regard ‘information’ as a support weapon or tool

• For AQ, it is THE CENTRAL weapon and tool

Obama vs. Osama?

• Iraq, Afghanistan and the ‘war’ on terror have made ‘winning’ the information war harder and longer

• ‘Terror’ cannot be defeated with tanks, planes, armies, missiles and ships – in fact it makes it worse (e.g. Palestine)

• Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and a whole host of SC ‘own-goals’ have undermined the credibility of the west as a ‘force for good in the world’ (global polls reflect massive anti-Americanism, anti-western sentiment)

Western information ‘own goals’• The label of ‘war’ empowers terrorists with the

status of ‘warriors’• ‘Crusade’, ‘Infinite Justice’ and numerous other

semantic and cultural insensitivities (Danish Cartoons, Saudi female drivers, Sudanese Teddy Bear names, Afghan soccer balls)

• In themselves, not serious but in the long-term – and fixed on the internet – they provide adversaries with ‘proof’ of a clash of civilisations

AQ’s SC advantages

• Doesn’t need to ‘play by the same rules’ (e.g. lies, Katrina) and exploits openness of democratic systems

• Has a vision of what victory looks like (Caliphate) but draws on the past (final battle of a 1000 year crusade against the infidel)

• AQ’s kinetic acts are designed to win political information effects, not winning militarily

Conclusions• Intelligence Services and police are the

most effective tools to defeat terrorists WHO ARE CRIMINALS

• To fight an idea, you need to wage an INFORMATION WAR at the tactical, operational and STRATEGIC (i.e. POLITICAL) levels

• Restoration of western credibility is possible – but you need a Grand Strategy

Where to wage ‘information war’ in the real world?

STRATEGIC(GLOBAL)

OPERATIONAL(REGIONAL)

TACTICAL(THEATRE OF OPERATIONS)

IRAQAFGHANISTAN

MIDDLE EAST

ISLAMIC & NON-ISLAMIC WORLD

INFORMATIONOPERATIONS/PSYCHOLOGICALOPERATIONS

PUBLICDIPLOMACY

STRATEGICCOMMUNICATIONS

LOCATIONTARGETEDINFORMATION

Where to wage ‘information war’ in the virtual world?

WebsitesSecond life

Facebook/BEBOBlogs

Chat-roomsEmail

podcastsServersYouTube

On-line gamesInternet-linked Wii

Internet cell phones

All tacticalinformationhas strategic potential &vice versa

Anonymity/disguise ofUsers & Locations

‘To fight a networkYou need a network’

Users aged 13-35:The key targetaudience for terrorist recruiters

Info-bombers,Hackers, bloggers

Broadbandrevolution increasesspeed of downloads/uploads

Documents

A Cartography of Strategic Communications Philip M Taylor Professor of International Communications University of Leeds