GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication
May 24, 2012
The Honorable Carl Levin
Chairman
The Honorable John McCain
Ranking Member
Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
Subject: DOD Strategic Communication: Integrating Foreign Audience Perceptions into
Policy Making, Plans, and Operations
The Department of Defense (DOD) recognizes that everything it does communicates a
message, from having soldiers distribute soccer balls in conflict zones to scheduling joint
exercises off the coasts of foreign nations. However, DOD officials stated that the
department has struggled for several years to strategically align its actions with the
messages it intends to communicate to foreign audiences—an effort that is also referred
to as strategic communication.
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With the growth of global communications, these
messages are quickly transmitted around the world and can affect not only military
operations, but also perceptions of the United States by foreign audiences. Other
agencies, such as the Department of State (State), also directly engage foreign audiences
and therefore DOD recognizes it can benefit from acting in concert with interagency
partners.
You requested that we review DOD’s various efforts to engage foreign audiences. Our
objectives for this report are to describe (1) DOD’s approach to strategic communication,
(2) the initial actions that DOD has taken to implement this approach, and (3) DOD’s plans
to reflect the roles of its interagency partners in strategic communication.
Scope and Methodology
To address our objectives, we reviewed DOD documents defining and describing strategic
communication, such as the DOD Report on Strategic Communication and the 2010
Quadrennial Defense Review. We interviewed DOD officials involved in developing the
initial actions that DOD has taken to implement its approach to strategic communication
and in conducting information operations, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
Joint Staff, and Special Operations and Central Command combatant commands. We
also interviewed officials from State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and
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DOD formally defines strategic communication as “focused U.S. government efforts to understand and
engage key audiences to create, strengthen, or preserve conditions favorable for the advancement of U.S.
government interests, policies, and objectives through the use of coordinated programs, plans, themes,
messages, and products synchronized with and leveraging the actions of all instruments of national power.”
See: Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Publication 5-0, Joint Operational Planning (Washington, D.C.:
Aug. 11, 2011).
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548
