A Cartography of Strategic Communications

Philip M Taylor Professor of International Communications University of Leeds

The 21st CENTURY GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

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

The 21

st

century Global Info-sphere

24/7 rolling news New regional players ‘citizen journalists’/ Digital eye-witnesses Blogs, twitter The Internet Web 2.0

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

Changing ALLIANCES: IMPACT OF THE EURO ECO-ASIA TERRORISM N GROWTH + RESOURCE SCARCITY = War over Food, Water, Fish Virtual States Sub-National Groups: New regional players INFORMATION WARFARE ‘citizen journalists’/ Digital eye-witnesses

UNCERTAIN

Global Warming +/ Ecological disaster + Creeping Deserts = WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ETHNO Religious PAN-NATIONALISM IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY The Internet ‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’ More GNP = More Defense Spending Blogs, twitter DISEASE (AIDS PANDEMIC MALARIA, EBOLA ) ASYMMETRIC WARFARE GLOBAL ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE Web 2.0

…is the job of Strategic Communications

• • • • • • I t 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

needed to be said of what is

Communication is….

• • • • • •

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

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.)

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

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).

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 that produce the desired behaviour.

to follow or getting them to agree to norms and institutions 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)

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

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ‘Soft Power’ CULTURAL DIPLOMACY Long-term; Elites are main target audience

• • • • •

Reciprocal (two-way) Mutual Development of mutual trust and understanding Talking AND Listening ‘To know us is to love us’ INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING Short-term; Mass Communication (radio, TV, internet)

• • • •

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’ CULTURAL DIPLOMACY Long-term; Education

• • • • • •

British Council Alliance Française Dante Alighieri Society Goethe Institute Carnegie Foundation Confucius Institute INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING Short-term; News & Views

• • • • • •

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

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

• • • •

COMPUTER NETWORK ATTACK COMPUTER NETWORK DEFENCE ELECTRONIC WARFARE OPSEC HUMAN FACTORS ‘HUMINT’

• • • •

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

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 FACTORS The 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 WHITE = AN HONEST SOURCE GREY = IDENTIFIES NO SOURCE

• • •

PSYOPS White Grey Black BLACK – PRETENDS TO BE A DIFFERENT SOURCE ‘ATTRIBUTABLE’ & ‘NON-ATTRIBUTAL’

• • •

PUBLIC AFFAIRS Press Radio & TV Internet TRUTHFUL, ATTRIBUTABLE AND ‘OFF THE RECORD’

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

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

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

And you thought the Cold War had ended !!!

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.

Commando Solo ''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 like PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

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

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 STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS INFORMATION OPERATIONS PUBLIC AFFAIRS DOMESTIC FOREIGN

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.”

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

Are these pillars appropriate?

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PD IO PA IS THIS REALLY ME?

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 International Broadcasting Old & New Media Public Diplomacy Public Affairs Influence Operations

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?

LOCATION TARGETED INFORMATION ISLAMIC & NON ISLAMIC WORLD STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIC (GLOBAL) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MIDDLE EAST IRAQ AFGHANISTAN OPERATIONAL (REGIONAL) TACTICAL (THEATRE OF OPERATIONS) INFORMATION OPERATIONS/ PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

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

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