Back to the Future: The Expanding Role of Strategic Communcations within the Bush Administration
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computer and Information Science
RAS ID
1363
Abstract
Would you recognize a revolution if you were in it?' It is a whole new world out there. The manipulation and employment of information is now the most useful element of power at all political levels, including the systemic structure of international relations in the post Cold War era. The power of information has radically changed the way that nations communicate with each other in this new era. Previously it was the diplomats and their cables that represented the majority of the official government-to-government traffic. However today in the world of 24/7 news cycles, the world wide web, e-mail, cellular telephones and blanket news coverage, it is more often than not, the opinions and view of the population of a country that matter perhaps more importantly than their foreign policy leaders. It is rapidly becoming the case, where it is not enough that a nation's leadership agree on a particular foreign policy or operation, but now instead those details must also be 'sold' to not only a domestic audience but world-wide as well. This 'selling' of foreign policy can also be called public diplomacy, because not only is it conducted out in the open, but because it also involves the general public as well.
Comments
Armistead, E.L. (2002). Back to the future: the expanding role of strategic communcations within the Bush administration. In: Hutchinson, W. (Ed.). Protecting the infrastructure: 3rd Australian information warfare & security conference 2002. Churchlands, Australia: We-B Centre, School of Management Information Systems, School of Computer & Information Sciences, Edith Cowan University.