A Cartography of Strategic Communications

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

2. UNCERTAIN FUTURE UNCERTAIN FUTURE The 21st CENTURY GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT POPULATION GROWTH + RESOURCE SCARCITY = War over Food, Water, Fish Changing ALLIANCES: IMPACT OF THE EURO ECO-ASIA TERRORISM Virtual States Global Warming +/ Ecological disaster + Creeping Deserts = Sub-National Groups: Russian Mafia, FARC, INFORMATION WARFARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ETHNO- Religious PAN-NATIONALISM ‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’ More GNP = More Defense Spending IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY GLOBAL ECONOMICINTERDEPENDENCE DISEASE (AIDS PANDEMIC MALARIA, EBOLA) ASYMMETRIC WARFARE

3. The 21st century Global Info-sphere New regional players ‘citizen journalists’/ Digital eye-witnesses 24/7 rolling news The Internet Blogs, twitter Web 2.0

4. Making ‘order’ out of apparent ‘chaos’.. UNCERTAIN FUTURE UNCERTAIN FUTURE TERRORISM N GROWTH + RESOURCE SCARCITY = War over Food, Water, Fish Changing ALLIANCES: IMPACT OF THE EURO ECO-ASIA Virtual States Global Warming +/ Ecological disaster + Creeping Deserts = New regional players Sub-National Groups: Russian Mafia, FARC, 24/7 rolling news ‘citizen journalists’/ Digital eye-witnesses INFORMATION WARFARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ETHNO- Religious PAN-NATIONALISM ‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’ More GNP = More Defense Spending IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY The Internet GLOBAL ECONOMICINTERDEPENDENCE Blogs, twitter DISEASE (AIDS PANDEMIC MALARIA, EBOLA) ASYMMETRIC WARFARE Web 2.0

5. …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’

6. 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

7. 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, cultural • and military engines • … networking and to defeat a network, you need a network • … changing rapidly, especially amongst young people • … increasingly conducted in virtual environments

8. Strategic Communication – the new US definition • ‘The coordination of Statecraft, Public Affairs, Public Diplomacy, [Military] Information Operationsand 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.)

9. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS Military/MoD: IO has replaced IW in the lexicon since mid 1990s Government: political/strategic relationship with media Foreign Office/ State Department (USIA closed 1999)

10. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY DEFINTION ‘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).

11. SOFT POWER ‘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)

12. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS CULTURAL DIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING

13. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ‘Soft Power’ CULTURALDIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 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’

14. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ‘Soft Power’ CULTURALDIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 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

15. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

16. 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’

17. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS Computer Network Operations Human Factors PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS (PSYOPS) CIVIL-MILITARY CO-OPERATION (CIMIC) MEDIA INFORMATION ASSURANCE OPERATIONAL SECURITY ELECTRONIC WARFARE DECEPTION SIGINT HUMINT

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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’

21. HUMAN FACTORS The Influence (People) Piece in IO • PUBLIC AFFAIRS • Press • Radio & TV • Internet • PSYOPS • White • Grey • Black Leaflets, TV, Radio, Posters, websites, Loudspeakers etc Press briefings & Conferences, releases, Off-the record? - Talks directly to TA - Relationship to CIMIC Talks to TA via Media (reliability?)

22. IO HUMAN FACTORS & THE ‘WAR’ ON TERROR WHITE = AN HONEST SOURCE GREY = IDENTIFIES NO SOURCE • PUBLIC AFFAIRS • Press • Radio & TV • Internet • PSYOPS • White • Grey • Black BLACK – PRETENDS TO BE A DIFFERENT SOURCE TRUTHFUL, ATTRIBUTABLE AND ‘OFF THE RECORD’ ‘ATTRIBUTABLE’ & ‘NON-ATTRIBUTAL’

23. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS CULTURAL DIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING HUMAN FACTORS CNO PSYOPS CIMIC MEDIA INFO ASSURANCE OPSEC/EW DECEPTION

24. US INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING ‘FAMILY’ VOICE OF AMERICA Broadcasting Board of Governors RADIO FREE EUROPE RADIO 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

25. CUBA NEWS The Miami Herald By Nancy San Martin, Fri Jun. 24, 2005. Martí a priority, state official says The U.S. military aircraft broadcasting TV and Radio Martí's signals to Cuba will not be diverted to Iraq, at least until a replacement plane is bought and equipped, a senior State Department official 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. And you thought the Cold War had ended !!! Commando Solo If you are at the receiving end of these broadcasts, it looks like PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

26. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS CULTURAL DIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING HUMAN FACTORS CNO PSYOPS CIMIC MEDIA INFO ASSURANCE OPSEC/EW DECEPTION

27. National Media Image vs National Official Image

28. 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

29. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS DOMESTIC FOREIGN

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

31. STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS DOMESTIC FOREIGN CULTURAL DIPLOMACY INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING HUMAN FACTORS CNO Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) Office of Special Plans (OSP) PSYOPS CIMIC MEDIA INFO ASSURANCE OPSEC/EW DECEPTION IMPACT = UNDERMINED CREDIBILITY OF ALL THE OTHER PILLARS

32. Are these pillars appropriate? STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS IS THIS REALLY ME? PD IO PA

33. 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’

34. 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

35. Influencing Attitudes DEPARTMENT OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS Old & New Media International Broadcasting Public Diplomacy Public Affairs Influence Operations

36. 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

37. 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)

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. Where to wage ‘information war’ in the real world? TARGETED INFORMATION LOCATION ISLAMIC & NON- ISLAMIC WORLD STRATEGIC (GLOBAL) STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OPERATIONAL (REGIONAL) MIDDLE EAST INFORMATION OPERATIONS/ PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS TACTICAL (THEATRE OF OPERATIONS) IRAQ AFGHANISTAN

42. Where to wage ‘information war’ in the virtual world? Websites Second life Facebook/BEBO Blogs Chat-rooms Email podcasts Servers YouTube On-line games Internet-linked Wii Internet cell phones All tactical information has strategic potential & vice versa Info-bombers, Hackers, bloggers Broadband revolution increases speed of downloads/ uploads Anonymity/ disguise of Users & Locations Users aged 13-35: The key target audience for terrorist recruiters ‘To fight a network You need a network’