Strategic Communication Meets Public Diplomacy: DoD-DoS Collaboration at the Operational Level

In a world in which Americas enemies have become adept at exploiting the information environment to overcome American superiority in conventional weapons, logistics, strategy and tactics, the U.S. government finds itself faced with the possibility of winning the battle and losing the war because of our inability to effectively engage with foreign publics and influence international public opinion. Within the interagency, debate continues over a national strategy and appropriate command and control structure to best coordinate government-wide strategic communication SC programs. At the operational level, both the Departments of Defense and State have robust programs in place to promote U.S. policy, values and objectives. This paper posits that States Public Diplomacy PD program has many characteristics of use to a Combatant Commander, especially during Phase 0 shaping of the environment operations, and that a formalized relationship between the two departments at the COCOM level would be mutually beneficial. The paper provides recommendations for DoD and DoS to implement to improve coordination and effectiveness within a CCDRs AOR.