Cover: Challenges Facing U. S. Government and Department of Defense Efforts in Strategic Communication

Challenges Facing U. S. Government and Department of Defense Efforts in Strategic Communication

Published in: Public Relations Review, v. 38, no. 2, June 2012, p. 188–194

Posted on RAND.org on June 01, 2012

by Christopher Paul

Without entering the debate about exactly what strategic communication is or should be, this article enumerates challenges facing efforts to inform, influence, and persuade in pursuit of national policy objectives first for the U.S. government in general, and then specific to the Department of Defense. With the problem space thus defined, the article then offers a handful of solutions and suggestions, including requiring desired information endstates as part of commander's intent and separating efforts to manipulate and deceive from truthful efforts to inform, influence, and persuade.

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