{"id":389172,"date":"2010-03-04T13:20:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T18:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/guest-blogger-rep-mac-thornberry-r-tx-strategic-communication-40342\/"},"modified":"2010-03-04T13:20:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T18:20:55","slug":"guest-blogger-rep-mac-thornberry-r-tx-on-strategic-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/389172","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger: Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) on Strategic Communication"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 03.04.10 10:00 AM posted by Rep. Mac Thornberry<\/p>\n

\n<ahref="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rep_thornberry100304.jpg"><imgsrc="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rep_thornberry100304.jpg" alt="" title="rep_thornberry100304" width="375" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27994" \/><\/p>On September 11th, 2001, America changed.* Since then the United States has been at war with violent Islamic extremists who plot and plan against us every day.* We have sent American troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to defeat them in combat.* Our intelligence and special operations forces have fanned out across the globe to disrupt terrorist networks and deny them safe havens.* And we have cooperated with friends and allies to reinforce existing counterterrorism resources and build new coordinated capabilities.* While these actions are necessary to defeat the jihadist threat against the United States, they are not sufficient to do so.<\/p>\n

To truly defeat terrorism, we must also wage and win the war of ideas.* Success in the debate between moderate and extremist voices within Islam is necessary if we are ever to secure a lasting peace.* Unlike traditional kinds of diplomacy, such as education and cultural exchanges, the goal of the war of ideas is not to persuade people to like America and its policies.* Instead, the aim is to make sure negative attitudes toward America and its allies do not take the form of violent extremism.* These efforts are often called \u0093strategic communication.\u0094<spanid="more-27993"><\/span><\/p>\n

Winning a war of ideas is an endeavor in which America has traditionally been quite successful. During the Cold War, the United States passed ground-breaking strategic communication legislation like the Smith-Mundt Act, established the U.S. Information Agency, created Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and undertook other measures to fight communism and totalitarianism abroad.* These measures, along with containment and President Reagan\u0092s defense spending, helped bring down the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Today, we are a world away from the fall of the Berlin Wall, especially when it comes to communication. *This is largely a result of the widespread adoption of cellular technology, the proliferation of broadcast, and the advent of the Internet.* Initiatives that once served U.S. interests abroad may now hinder them.* For example, language in the Smith-Mundt Act ties the hands of U.S. strategic communicators to counter online jihadists.* Some on-air contributors to Radio Farda and Radio Liberty are prone to curious assertions that many Americans may be surprised to hear from taxpayer-funded \u0093pro-American\u0094 radio.<\/p>\n

Now is the time to explore and spread creative strategic communication ideas and to revisit existing legislation.* To help reinvigorate the discussion, I have introduced <ahref="http:\/\/frwebgate.access.gpo.gov\/cgi-bin\/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h489ih.tx t.pdf">H.R. 489 a bill to improve how America directly communicates with people across the world.* This bill would establish an independent \u0093Center for Strategic Communication\u0094 that would coordinate America\u0092s message across our government.* It would provide research on attitudes and media trends in foreign countries and build expertise on how we can better communicate around the world.<\/p>\n

There is no one right answer to winning the war of ideas, and any solution requires bipartisan consensus.* A solid first step is establishing the Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy Caucus<\/i> in the House of Representatives, which I have done with Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA).* Our goal is to bring together a bipartisan group of Representatives with an interest in waging and winning the war of ideas.* As the 9\/11 Commission Report reminds us, \u0093If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us.\u0094* America can\u0092t afford for that to happen.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/04\/…communication\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 03.04.10 10:00 AM posted by Rep. Mac Thornberry <ahref="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rep_thornberry100304.jpg"><imgsrc="http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rep_thornberry100304.jpg" alt="" title="rep_thornberry100304" width="375" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27994" \/><\/p>On September 11th, 2001, America changed.* Since then the United States has been at war with violent Islamic extremists who plot and plan against us every day.* We have sent American troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to defeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}