by Scott W. Ruston The title of this post is my interpretation of what ADM James Stavridis, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and Commander of United States European Command (USEUCOM), says in a new TED Talk. To be fair, what he actually says is that strategic communication should be the means by which the partnerships of an open source security strategy will be knitted together. I’ve been admirer of ADM Stavridis for a long [...] Read more »
NATO Q&A Highlights Strategic Comm Challenges
by Scott W. Ruston* In December, COMOPS was invited to participate in a question and answer forum with General Stéphane Abrial, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, hosted by Atlantic-Community.org. Atlantic-Community is a leading European online think tank focused on transatlantic relations. The Q&A reveals that General Abrial has an integrative, forward-looking conceptualization of the role of strategic communication in NATO. A close read also suggests that NATO faces both internal, as well as external, strategic [...] Read more »
With bin Laden Dead Let’s Kill the Binary Narrative
by Scott Ruston As details pour in regarding this past weekend’s daring raid in which U.S. Navy SEALs killed elusive al-Qaeda leader and world’s most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the exact details of the events keep changing slightly. The New York Times titled an article covering a recent revision to the sequence of events and details about the operation as “White House Corrects Bin Laden Narrative”. I would argue, however, the “Bin Laden Narrative” [...] Read more »
Predator Video Hack Has SC Consequences
by Scott W. Ruston Recent headlines revealed that video feeds from the Predator, the US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used for surveillance and targeting in both Iraq and Afghanistan, have been intercepted by insurgents in Iraq. Early follow up analysis focuses on whether the intercept of Predator video feeds qualifies as a “hack” or whether that term has over-sensationalized the situation. This attention to semantics strikes me as a repeat of the “how are men [...] Read more »
Understand What Narrative Is and Does
by Scott W. Ruston Admiral Michael Mullen’s recent essay in Joint Forces Quarterly criticizing “strategic communication” lambastes the US government for its failures of strategic communication and the growth of a bloated bureaucracy fueling an agency-funded, contractor-filled cottage industry. We have previously flagged Admiral Mullen as someone who “gets it,” and it is welcome news that a US government official with his level of respect and stature continues to bring attention to the myopia that [...] Read more »