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.

1 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 

 

1

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
Page 2 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

the Broadcasting Board of Governors to understand their role in DOD’s approach to 

strategic communication.

We conducted this performance audit from November 2011 to May 2012 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we 

plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a 

reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We 

believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Summary

DOD officials are seeking to approach strategic communication as a process that leaders, 

planners, and operators should follow to integrate foreign audience perceptions into policy

making, planning, and operations at every level. However, descriptions of strategic 

communication in several key documents—including the Quadrennial Defense Review 

and the National Framework for Strategic Communication—characterize it differently. For 

example, the Quadrennial Defense Review describes strategic communication as the

coordination of activities such as information operations2 and public affairs, among other 

things. According to DOD officials, these varying descriptions of strategic communication 

have created confusion within the department. To address this confusion, DOD is drafting 

an instruction to clarify the steps of the strategic communication process, which DOD 

officials expect to be completed in late spring or early summer 2012 (see fig. 1 here; fig. 1 

also appears in encl. I).

Figure 1: DOD’s Strategic Communication Process

DOD has taken some initial actions toward integrating the strategic communication 

process into its policy making, plans, and operations at every level, such as ensuring that 

top leadership is driving the effort. DOD officials acknowledge that DOD staff across the 

department do not currently integrate the process into their efforts in a consistent manner. 

To address this condition, DOD is taking some preliminary actions to transform the 

 

2

Information operations are the integrated employment of electronic warfare, computer network operations, 

military information support operations, military deception, and operations security, to influence, disrupt, 

corrupt, or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting U.S. interests. 
Page 3 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

department’s culture. Our prior work has identified some key practices for implementing 

successful transformations, some of which DOD is demonstrating, as follows.

3

• Ensure top leadership is driving the effort. The Secretary of Defense directed the 

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Public Affairs to clarify the strategic communication process so that policy making 

and communications planning are better integrated.4

• Establish a purpose for the transformation. According to senior officials, DOD 

needs to transform how its personnel view strategic communication because 

communicating the right message to the right audience is crucial to the success of 

DOD’s policies, plans, and operations. To ensure that this transformation occurs, 

senior officials said DOD personnel must understand that audience perceptions 

and reactions are integral to the department’s policy making and planning 

activities. According to DOD officials, to help achieve this change in thinking, the 

draft DOD instruction clarifies that strategic communication should be used by all 

leaders, planners, and operators and establishes that strategic communication is 

different from capabilities such as information operations. If the instruction is 

approved by the Secretary of Defense, it would be the formal guidance document 

for all entities within DOD to follow for strategic communication policy.

Based on this direction, a 

senior advisor within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy is 

tasked with guiding the draft DOD instruction through the department’s internal 

review and initiating the culture change needed to ensure that leaders, planners, 

and operators understand how actions and messages are aligned and how they 

may be perceived. 

Officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff have also 

identified some subsequent actions to implement once the DOD instruction is completed. 

Specifically, the officials said they will need to update DOD documents, perform outreach, 

and augment existing training. For example, the Guidance for the Employment of the 

Force and the combatant commands’ theater campaign plans will need to be updated to 

reflect the completed instruction. In addition, the officials recognize the need to engage 

various entities within DOD that are responsible for training personnel to ensure that these 

entities appropriately incorporate strategic communication into their curriculum. 

DOD officials stated that the department plans to initially focus inward on clarifying its 

approach to strategic communication and then update guidance documents to reflect the 

roles of its interagency partners. The draft instruction that DOD is developing does not 

include references to interagency partners because, according to DOD officials, the 

 

3

GAO, Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and Transformation: Lessons Learned for a Department of 

Homeland Security and Other Federal Agencies, GAO-03-293SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 14, 2002). Other 

key practices that GAO identified include setting implementation goals and a timeline to build momentum and 

show progress, and using performance management to assure accountability for change.

4

The Secretary of Defense initially directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Assistant 

Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to develop a DOD directive. However, upon reviewing the draft 

directive, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that the language of the directive would reinforce 

the existing misunderstanding of strategic communication. According to DOD officials, the Chairman, Under 

Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs then agreed to explain 

strategic communication through an instruction, which could be longer and provide more detailed guidance 

than a directive.
Page 4 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

issuance of the instruction would result in updating other guidance documents, such as a 

potential manual on strategic communication or the combatant commands’ theater 

campaign plans. These updated documents would, in turn, explain the roles of DOD’s 

interagency partners. DOD officials noted that the department currently uses audience 

analysis conducted by State and the intelligence community, and they added that this type 

of interagency coordination could be applied throughout DOD to support the strategic 

communication process—for example, by identifying likely audiences for DOD’s 

communication. 

For additional information on the results of our review, see enclosure I.

Agency Comments 

We provided DOD, State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the 

Broadcasting Board of Governors the opportunity to comment on a draft of this report. 

State provided technical comments that we incorporated, as appropriate. DOD, the U.S. 

Agency for International Development, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors had no 

comments. 

- - - - - 

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents of this report 

earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the report date. At that time, we 

will send copies to the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretaries of Defense 

and State, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the 

Executive Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and other interested parties. 

In addition, the report also will be available at no charge on the GAO website at 

http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff members have any questions concerning this report, please contact 

either Michael Courts at (202) 512-8980 or courtsm@gao.gov or John Pendleton at (202) 

512-3489 or pendletonj@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional 

Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors 

to this report are listed in enclosure II.

Michael Courts

Acting Director, International Affairs and Trade

John Pendleton

Director, Defense Capabilities and Management

Enclosures - 2
Enclosure I

Page 5 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Strategic Communication

DOD Strategic Communication: 

Integrating Foreign Audience Perceptions 

into Policy Making, Plans, and Operations

May 2012

Page 1
Enclosure I

Page 6 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Objectives

1. Describe the Department of Defense’s (DOD) approach to 

strategic communication. 

2. Identify initial steps that DOD has taken to implement this 

approach. 

3. Discuss DOD’s plans to reflect the role of its interagency 

partners in strategic communication.

Page 2
Enclosure I

Page 7 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Scope and Methodology

To conduct this engagement, we

• reviewed DOD documents defining and describing strategic 

communication, such as the DOD Report on Strategic Communication and 

the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review; 

• 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, to include the Office of the Under 

Secretary of Defense for Policy (OUSD-P), Office of the Assistant 

Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Joint Staff, Special Operations 

Command, and Central Command; and

• interviewed officials from the Department of State (State), U.S. Agency for 

International Development (USAID), and Broadcasting Board of Governors 

(BBG) to understand their role in DOD’s approach to strategic 

communication. 

Page 3
Enclosure I

Page 8 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Summary

• DOD officials are seeking to approach strategic communication as a 

process that leaders, planners, and operators should follow to 

integrate audience and stakeholder perceptions into policy making, 

planning, and operations at every level.

• DOD has taken some initial steps toward integrating the strategic 

communication process into its policy making, plans, and operations 

at every level, such as ensuring that top leadership is driving the 

effort.

• DOD officials stated that the department plans to initially focus 

inward on clarifying its approach to strategic communication and 

then update guidance documents to reflect the roles of its 

interagency partners.

Page 4
Enclosure I

Page 9 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

The National Framework for Strategic Communication 

Defines Strategic Communication Governmentwide

• Section 1055 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

2009 required the President to submit a report on a comprehensive interagency strategy 

for public diplomacy and strategic communication. 

• In response, the President submitted the National Framework for Strategic 

Communication in March 2010, which referred to strategic communication 

governmentwide as:

• the synchronization of words and deeds and how they will be perceived by selected 

audiences, as well as

• programs and activities deliberately aimed at communicating and engaging with 

intended audiences, including those implemented by public affairs, public 

diplomacy, and information operations1professionals.

• Moreover, the National Framework for Strategic Communication emphasizes the 

interagency nature of strategic communication and identifies the roles and 

responsibilities of various federal government departments and offices that work to 

coordinate communications and engagement programs and activities. 

Page 5

Background

1Information operations are the integrated employment of electronic warfare, computer network operations, military 

information support operations, military deception, and operations security, to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp 

adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting U.S. interests.
Enclosure I

Page 10 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Joint Operational Planning Defines Strategic 

Communication for DOD

• According to Joint Publication 5-0, Joint Operational Planning,

DOD 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.2

Page 6

Background

2Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Publication 5-0, Joint Operational Planning (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 11, 2011).
Enclosure I

Page 11 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Is Seeking to Approach Strategic 

Communication as a Process

• DOD officials are seeking to approach strategic communication as 

a process that leaders, planners, and operators should follow to 

integrate audience and stakeholder perceptions into policy 

making, planning, and operations at every level.

• However, descriptions of strategic communication in the 

Quadrennial Defense Review and the National Framework for 

Strategic Communication characterize it differently. For example, 

the Quadrennial Defense Review describes strategic 

communication as the coordination of activities such as 

information operations and public affairs, among other things.

Page 7

Objective 1
Enclosure I

Page 12 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Varying Descriptions of Strategic 

Communication Have Created Confusion in DOD

• According to officials in OUSD-P, the varying descriptions of 

strategic communication have created confusion within the 

department.

• The widespread misunderstanding and misapplication of the 

term strategic communication was described in a June 2011 

memo by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

• Officials added that strategic communication should not be 

considered the coordination of information operations and

public affairs but rather the process of integrating issues of 

audience and stakeholder perception into policy making, 

planning, and operations at every level. 

Page 8

Objective 1
Enclosure I

Page 13 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Is Drafting an Instruction on Strategic 

Communication to Address Confusion 

• DOD is drafting an instruction on strategic communication meant to clarify 

DOD’s approach to strategic communication and help initiate a culture change 

throughout the department to view strategic communication as a process. 

• According to officials, when the instruction is finalized, it will be directed to 

every leader, planner, and operator within DOD and will include mandatory 

actions for updating strategic planning documents, outreach, training and 

education. The instruction will explain the following concepts:

• Strategic communication is not analogous to the mission of public affairs or 

information operations (or their coordination and deconfliction); 

• Leaders, planners, and operators should ensure that actions, words, and 

images are coordinated to avoid or diminish the gap between words and 

actions; and,

• Key audience beliefs, perceptions, and reactions are crucial to the success 

of any strategy, policy, plan, operation, or activity, and must therefore be 

identified, understood, and, when appropriate, actively addressed. 

Page 9

Objective 1
Enclosure I

Page 14 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD’s Draft Instruction Would Clarify the Strategic 

Communication Process

Page 10

Objective 1
Enclosure I

Page 15 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Is Drafting an Instruction on Strategic 

Communication to Address Confusion

• According to DOD officials, the draft instruction, when completed, 

would clarify the steps of the strategic communication process.

Page 11

• DOD officials responsible for coordinating the draft instruction’s 

internal review and approval estimate the instruction will be 

completed in late spring or early summer 2012.

Objective 1
Enclosure I

Page 16 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Has Taken Initial Actions Toward Integrating 

Strategic Communication into Its Policy Making, Plans, 

and Operations

• DOD has taken some initial actions toward initiating a culture change to 

integrate the strategic communication process into its policy making, plans, and 

operations at every level.

• Our prior work on federal agency transformations identifies several key 

practices characteristic of successful agencywide transformation efforts, to 

include culture changes.3These practices can provide a framework to help 

agencies transform themselves to be better prepared to meet twenty-first 

century challenges. 

• DOD is demonstrating some of these practices, such as: 

• ensuring top leadership is driving the effort, and

• establishing a purpose for the transformation.

Page 12

Objective 2

3

GAO, Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and Transformation: Lessons Learned for a Department of 

Homeland Security and Other Federal Agencies, GAO-03-293SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov.14, 2002). 
Enclosure I

Page 17 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

Senior DOD Officials Are Responsible for 

Initiating and Driving the Culture Change 

• In January 2011, the Secretary of Defense directed the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Policy and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to 

clarify the strategic communication process.

• In response to this direction, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy 

assigned a senior advisor responsibility for global strategic engagement. 

This advisor also heads the Global Strategic Engagement Team and is 

responsible for initiating the culture shift needed to ensure that leaders, 

planners, and operators understand how words and actions are aligned 

and how they may be perceived.

• According to DOD officials, the Secretary continues to fully support the 

finalization of the draft instruction and implementation of the culture change 

associated with it.

• In addition, the Global Strategic Engagement Team is responsible for guiding 

the draft DOD instruction through internal review and for acting as a liaison with 

other DOD components, as appropriate, to ensure that they are aware of their 

responsibilities for integrating the strategic communication process. 

Page 13

Objective 2
Enclosure I

Page 18 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Has Taken the Initial Action of 

Establishing a Purpose for the Transformation

• According to senior officials, DOD needs to transform how its personnel 

view strategic communication because communicating the right 

message to the right audience is crucial to the success of DOD’s plans, 

policies, and operations. 

• DOD has drafted the instruction that, according to officials, clarifies that 

strategic communication should be used by all leaders, planners, and 

policy makers to identify key audience perceptions and is different from 

DOD capabilities such as information operations. 

• If the instruction is approved by the Secretary of Defense, it would be 

the formal guidance document for all DOD entities to follow for strategic 

communication policy.

Page 14

Objective 2
Enclosure I

Page 19 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Also Identified Some Subsequent Actions to 

Implement Once the DOD Instruction Is Completed

• Specifically, officials said they will need to update documents, augment existing 

training, and perform outreach.

• DOD officials have identified key DOD documents that will need to be 

updated or revised to reflect the final strategic communication instruction, 

including the Guidance for the Employment of the Force, the Quadrennial 

Defense Review, the combatant command theater campaign plans, and 

many other operational and tactical level planning guidance documents.

• DOD officials recognize that they must engage the various entities within 

DOD that are responsible for training, including the military services and 

the combatant commands.

• DOD officials have also begun considering the stakeholders they will need 

to brief on its new strategic communication instruction, including DOD 

components that have not been involved in the review and approval of the 

draft instruction and DOD’s interagency partners.

Page 15

Objective 2
Enclosure I

Page 20 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Plans to Reflect the Role of Interagency 

Partners in Future Guidance 

• According to DOD officials, the DOD instruction represents DOD’s effort 

to focus inward and establish how the department approaches strategic 

communication.

• More guidance will follow the instruction after it is finalized that will 

explain implementation of the strategic communication process, to 

include coordination with interagency partners. 

• DOD officials plan to prepare a manual or handbook on strategic 

communication that will, among other things, describe the role of 

DOD’s interagency partners. 

• The DOD instruction will influence updates to Joint Staff 

publications, combatant commands’ theater campaign plans, and 

operational plans.

• Changes to these documents may not happen immediately because 

each document has its own review cycle and is owned by various 

components across DOD.

Page 16

Objective 3
Enclosure I

Page 21 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

DOD Officials Recognize Interagency Partners Play an 

Important Role in the Strategic Communication Process

• According to DOD officials, coordinating with interagency partners is 

an important component of the strategic communication process. 

• For example, State and the intelligence community conduct 

audience analyses that DOD could use to support the strategic 

communication process, such as identifying likely audiences for 

DOD’s communication.

• Officials we spoke with at DOD, State, USAID, and BBG discussed 

the importance of interagency coordination.

• For example, Special Operations Command officials noted that 

they benefit from close coordination with State’s Bureau of 

Intelligence and Research and told us they meet with State to 

coordinate foreign audience polling and other resources. 

Page 17

Objective 3
Enclosure II

Page 22 GAO-12-612R Strategic Communication

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts

Michael Courts, (202) 512-8980 or courtsm@gao.gov

John H. Pendleton, (202) 512-3489 or pendletonj@gao.gov

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the individuals named above, key contributors to this report include Jason Bair, 

Assistant Director; Marie Mak, Assistant Director; Ashley Alley; Erin Behrmann; Debbie Chung; 

Martin de Alteriis; Susan Ditto; Nick Jepson; Valérie Nowak; Jodie Sandel; and Amie Steele.

(320881)
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