The Post and Gates have used counter-narratives that assert our values and ideals and explain the irreplaceable benefits of freedom, the rule of law, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and expression of opinion, and wage information warfare. He emphasized that we were not on the offensive. This failure weakened national security and emboldened adversaries.
For example, Vladimir Putin’s government brazenly bombards computers around the world with malicious lies every day. Americans are a particular target of false narratives designed to cause confusion and undermine confidence in the United States, including elections.
Once upon a time, we thought of national security in terms of combat on land, sea, and air. The newest battlefield is the human mind. Our enemy is perfectly placed on that battlefield. We are all absent. In this way, we are losing the information war by default to the criminal regimes of Russia, China, and Iran.
What explains this alarming situation? Lack of leadership and lack of means. No one person has the responsibility to tell the world the story of America that continues to inspire. For three years, the U.S. Advisory Council on Public Diplomacy, part of the State Department, has been urging the White House and Congress to name a leading official in information warfare. The recommendations appear to have been ignored. This reflects carelessness at the top.
As for lack of tools, the United States has lacked the ability to fight back with counterarguments since 1999, when Congress unwisely abolished the United States Intelligence Agency (USIA). Of course, we have the valuable Voice of America, but VOA’s product is news. News is not disproven. Telling our story is not about juxtaposing truth and fact. President Putin’s high approval ratings in domestic opinion polls and in some non-aligned countries prove that winning on the battlefield of the human heart requires more than news. We also need counter-narratives.
Joe Biden was one of 49 senators who voted against USIA repeal. It should be easy for the president to take the necessary steps to move us on the offensive.
The President should immediately call on the National Security Council to develop a strategic plan to move us on the offensive, a plan that includes the use of counternarratives. He should appoint an undersecretary of state for foreign affairs and public affairs to be responsible for implementing the plan, and he should ask Congress for strong funding. And he should take a personal interest and stay involved.
It is instructive that President Ronald Reagan was personally involved in using counter-narratives to help win the Cold War. President Reagan appointed Charles Z. Wick, a longtime friend of California and a veteran of the film industry, to head USIA. His access was so great that Reagan later called him “my chief advisor on international intelligence.”
Congress abolished the USIA and created the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Public Affairs. The intention was for the station to continue all of her USIA activities except news broadcasts. Unfortunately, the State Department has treated the office like an unwanted child for the past 24 years, keeping him vacant 40% of the time due to lack of funding and effectively silencing him.
As a measure of the counter-narratives lost when USIA disappeared, its archives include 20,000 films produced by USIA. Some have won Oscars. The movie wasn’t a newsreel. They were documentaries intended to persuade. They served as a counter-narrative to Soviet lies and distortions. Since then, very few modern forms of dissent, videos that can be spread on social media, have been produced.
As a possible example, consider a good video.To the people of Russia”, prepared by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Public Affairs Elizabeth M. Allen. Vivid news clips recall dramatic examples of Russian-American cooperation from World War II to space exploration, undermining President Putin’s hostile stance toward the United States. and supporting anti-war demonstrators in Russia. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow tweeted the video early last year, prompting a harsh and threatening response from the Kremlin.
This video was made over a year ago, and nothing similar has appeared since. The suspension of counter-evidence efforts serves as a metaphor for America’s massive failure to seriously engage in the battle for the human spirit. The president and Congress should take note and act.
