{"id":962,"date":"2004-12-07T23:46:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-07T23:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2004-12-07T23:46:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-07T23:46:00","slug":"962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

DESIGNING A STRATEGIC INFLUENCE PROGRAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States has not handled the memetic aspect of the GWOT particularly well – “We are losing a public relations war in the Muslim world to people sawing the heads off other Muslims.” <\/a>as Tom Friedman put it. Yet we need more than just better communication or ” on message” talking heads from the White House, the country needs a comprehensive, long-term, Strategic Influence program – something the current Intelligence Reform bill <\/a>does not address.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon attempted to set up – and this has precedent as a wartime measure<\/a> – a black propaganda <\/a>office to plant stories in foreign media before a political uproar forced the closure the proposed Office<\/a> of Strategic Influence. Despite the name, the OSI, from what information was available was really not strategic in scope but mostly tactical and concerned with the usual psychological warfare <\/a>and propaganda operations germane to modern military campaigns. A genuine Strategic Influence program would be more akin to what is happening with the Intelligence Community and with Homeland Security – a tight interagency coordination effort directed by an official close to the President. This would make sense because there are a number of facets to Strategic Influence, both overt and covert:<\/p>\n

OVERT<\/span><\/strong>…………………………………………………………….COVERT<\/span><\/strong>
\n
<\/span><\/strong>
\n
Diplomacy…………………………………………..Agents of Influence<\/span><\/strong>
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Public Diplomacy………………………………….Black Propaganda<\/strong>
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Government Contracts…………………………..Bribery<\/strong>
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Lobbying………………………………………….Recruitment of Assets<\/strong>
\n
Foreign aid……………………………………………Black Operations<\/strong>
\n
Op-Eds…………………………………………….Counterintelligence<\/strong>
\n
Political Consultation<\/strong>
\n
Military Aid and Training Programs<\/strong>
\n
Project Development Grants<\/strong>
\n
USG Media\/VOA\/USIA<\/strong>
\n
Trade Policy<\/strong>
\n
Macroeconomic Policy<\/strong>
\n
Monetary Policy<\/strong>
\n
Scientific, Cultural and Educational Exchange<\/strong>
\n
Think Tank\/Friendly NGO programs<\/strong>
\n
<\/strong>
\n
Covert activities actually would play a relatively small, if vital, part in a Strategic Influence program one role being the identification of future foreign leaders to be cultivated as friends or diverted\/distracted from politics by other attractive opportunities if hostile. The IC would also develop the psychological and cultural-historical expertise staff to help devise and craft context specific ” messages” appropriate for different societies.<\/p>\n

At this juncture in the GWOT though, the task is primarily organizational – getting the manifold agencies, departments, bureaus, services and offices of the USG working toward a set of common strategic goals, each in their own field with their particular skill-sets. Rather than build a new, attention-getting, megabureaucracy, the National Security Adviser should quietly assume the coordinator role, assisted by a strongly disciplined interagency process established by an executive order. A section of career staff, lodged somewhere in the IC in a permanent office, would be required to monitor and maintain the longitudinal aspects of Strategic Influence operations to assure continuity and success.<\/p>\n

No time like the present to get started.
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<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DESIGNING A STRATEGIC INFLUENCE PROGRAM The United States has not handled the memetic aspect of the GWOT particularly well – “We are losing a public relations war in the Muslim world to people sawing the heads off other Muslims.” as Tom Friedman put it. Yet we need more than just better communication or ” on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}