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My three-year term as a founding editorial board member of NATO’s Defence Strategic Communications journal is over. Published by NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia, the journal is part of Latvia’s small but outsized contribution to the Atlantic alliance. Like the Centre itself, the journal began as a Latvian initiative. The Centre
by J Michael Waller / Fox News / July 15, 2018 President Trump can have a successful summit Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland and outwit his critics if he takes a tough-love approach to his seeming bromance with the Russian leader. Putin’s hold on power is weaker than it seems. He takes
by J Michael Waller / InFocus / Winter 2018 With global conflicts stretching the United States toward the breaking point, many feared that the world’s only superpower in 2017 was headed over a cliff. Flailing policies in Afghanistan stole hard-fought American military gains and had made the Taliban enemy a player again. Things became even
by J Michael Waller / Town Hall / December 6, 2017 President Donald Trump is going to have to build a bigger wall on the border with Mexico, not because of the Mexicans, but because of the Obama holdovers he has kept in place. Venezuela is on the verge of unleashing a major refugee crisis,
US Army photo by Spc. Zayid Bellesteros
by J Michael Waller / The Daily Caller / October 27, 2017 “American troops are in Niger because the US didn’t listen to a wise African leader who wanted to stomp out regional jihadists before they became a real problem. “If the United States had accepted an offer of strategic partnership six years ago, it
by J Michael Waller / The Daily Caller / October 20, 2017 “New FBI information about corruption in a Clinton-approved uranium deal with Russia raises questions about Clinton’s actions after the FBI broke up a deep-cover Russian spy ring in 2010,” Dr Waller writes in a hard-hitting Daily Caller article that went viral through the
by J Michael Waller / The Daily Caller / September 12, 2017. International community organizers are targeting American companies worldwide for shutdown. Those companies can no longer presume the State Department will help. In some cases, American diplomats are actively allied with local anti-business movements. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s reforms can’t come quickly enough.
By J Michael Waller / Forbes / January 4, 2017. The real scandal about Russian subversion of the American political process is that the nation’s leadership has known about it for years and done nothing. Now is the time to put an end to it. Candidate Hillary Clinton uncharacteristically decried “Russian subversion” during the campaign.
by J Michael Waller / The Daily Beast / September 24, 2016. MORELIA, Mexico — One day in the late spring of 2012, Mexican police pulled over Efrén Olivares Valdez and told him he was delivering his truckload of raw pine resin to the wrong refinery. The grandfatherly driver, a leader of his indigenous tribal
by J Michael Waller / Forbes / August 16, 2016. For the first time since the 1950s, Russian subversion of the American political process has become a presidential campaign issue. The Kremlin’s latest act of espionage-driven propaganda–document dump of Democratic National Committee emails via WikiLeaks–achieved its desired effect of immediate politicization. We should step back to learn two
by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / March 30, 2016. The Obama administration risks giving the Kremlin a pretext to ban inspectors from Russia’s plutonium-breeding fast reactors because of a U.S. budgetary policy change. Lawmakers and diplomats are concerned that the administration’s handling of cost overruns on a controversial U.S. Department of Energy project
by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / March 10, 2016. A Muslim cleric who descends from the Prophet Muhammad’s family says Donald Trump can smash Islamic extremism. “Donald Trump – he is the 45th president of USA,” Ayad Jamal al-Din said Tuesday on Twitter. “I predict the start of the de-Islamization era” if Trump
by J Michael Waller / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / March 7, 2016. Continuation from part 1, published February 25, 2016. CHERÁN, MEXICO – Some rural Mexicans working in the United States are heading home to revive the forests of their ancestral homeland. Among them are illegal immigrants who found that life can be better back home. They
by J Michael Waller / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / February 25 and March 7, 2016. I visited Cherán and walked the mountainside with the guardabosques, writing a two-part series for the American Media Institute that appeared February 25 and 26. Here are the stories, as published in the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal: Part 1: “Green Police: Mexican tribesmen save their forests from
by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / February 24, 2016. Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s leftist president, has a flair for publicity, as he demonstrated again last week in claiming vindication for harboring the fugitive Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. But a separate high-profile case shows just how far he will go to manipulate international opinion. American Media Institute reviewed
by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / February 14, 2016. In an irony that illustrates the contrast in value that Russia and the U.S. place on sound information strategy, the Russian government’s international propaganda service has hired American PSYOP professionals left jobless after congressionally mandated program cuts. RT/Sputnik hired at least four contractors from the US Special
by J Michael Waller / El Tiempo Latino / December 11, 2015. Many foreign governments target U.S. companies with hostile propaganda for political and financial reasons. A cache of secret emails among a South American strongman and his inner circle show how even small countries can run propaganda campaigns against some of the largest U.S. corporations. These
by J Michael Waller / Kyiv Post / Ukraine, April 7, 2015. Ukraine has a secret weapon that it can deploy to defend itself against Russian aggression and subversion, and to deter further Russian hybrid hostilities against other countries. I discuss “Ukraine’s Secret Weapon” in a guest piece published April 7 in the Kyiv Post. Here’s the text: Like no
by J Michael Waller / Investor’s Business Daily / April 7, 2015 The private email server of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, set up for personal secrecy purposes, was a “spy magnet” for foreign intelligence services. I wrote about the problem in Investor’s Business Daily, and scooped the story that the FBI by that time still had not
by J Michael Waller / Forbes / September 3, 2014. “A once-feared KGB general now sits on suicide watch in a Vienna jail, a tawdry end to terrible tale. His strange story is a case study of how the former KGB uses forged documents to influence Western reporters, diplomats and politicians.” That’s the lead of my piece in Forbes,
by J Michael Waller / The Daily Caller / May 19, 2014. After Russia cut off the sole supply of first-stage booster engines to the U.S. Air Force’s Atlas V rockets – the rockets that place our military and intelligence satellites in orbit – I wrote a piece for The Daily Caller to alert the public to the problem, and to
Russia is using a not-so-secret weapon that has flipped Western notions of strength and weakness on their head. If trends continue, the U.S. could be faced with the terrible choice of losing its credibility as a conventional ally and a strategic nuclear power or overreacting in order to prevent such a loss. Kremlin strongman Vladimir
by J Michael Waller / inFOCUS / Winter 2014 As it continues its spiraling, across-the-board decline, the Russian Federation is becoming more relevant as a world power. This development became most visible when President Barack Obama effectively placed Vladimir Putin in the driver’s seat to resolve the crisis in Syria. The Russian strongman quickly used
by J Michael Waller / Investor’s Business Daily / December 21-23, 2013. The bloody birth of the most murderous secret police in history occurred 96 years ago and is being celebrated across Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Always feared, the KGB is now revered. “In the past, the services worked for the Communist Party and the party
by J Michael Waller / Investor’s Business Daily / September 5, 2013. US meekness in the face of Russian assertiveness is a danger to international stability and American security, because it can be misunderstood and unwittingly invite a mistaken response. “Provocative weakness is a state in which you look weak, and you inadvertently provoke Russia, and others who
by J Michael Waller / New York Times / May 19, 2013. Comment: Decades after losing to Ronald Reagan’s line-in-the-sand in the 1980s, Latin American Marxist revolutionaries continue their fight in a different battlespace: the legal system. Prosecutions of former military officers and dictators, as I argue in the New York Times, aren’t about justice. They’re about winning a
by J Michael Waller, BigPeace / Breitbart.com – Some people will never believe the facts, no matter how effectively presented. But for those of us who are convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead, it’s still imperative that the U.S. government show the forensic evidence. Evidence is important for several reasons. Survivors of al Qaeda
by J Michael Waller, BigPeace/Breitbart.com – One of the nation’s highest-ranking former spy hunters says that the individuals responsible for the theft and publication of tens of thousands of secret military documents should be prosecuted under federal espionage laws. The Obama Administration is pursuing the disclosure of more than 90,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks.org as merely the mishandling
by J. Michael Waller / Debut on BigPeace.com’s first week – An elaborately planned strategic influence effort went awry for the former KGB last month when the FBI busted 11 Russian agents after a decade-long investigation. Many of the Russian spies, who had spent years assuming American and other western identities, were emplaced to influence
Testimony of J. Michael Waller, Ph.D. Annenberg Professor of International Security Affairs, Institute of World Politics; Vice President for Information Operations, Center for Security Policy Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight March 4, 2010 Introduction Chairman Carnahan, Congressman Rohrabacher and other members of the panel, I
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / February 2, 2009. Out-of-control wildfires out West show the severe limits on government’s ability to protect society from one of nature’s weapons of mass destruction. Federal and state officials waited for more than a half-million acres to burn last June and July before calling the National Guard for
by J Michael Waller, Serviam, January 2, 2009. Privately owned warships are so deeply at the heart of American maritime tradition that a reference to them is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. With their own contract crews who rushed to the fight for independence during the American Revolution and in defense of the nation during
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / January 2, 2009. First Sergeant Roland Williston lay on a gurney in the 100-degree Virginia heat, with gangrene consuming the amputated stumps of his shattered left hand and leg. The 26-year-old barber from Holyoke, Mass., had been among the first volunteers to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call to save the
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / December 30, 2008. After a successful if rather uneventful career as a U.S. Army artillery officer, Capt. Robert Parker Parrott went into the private sector. That’s where his real contribution to American national defense began. Thanks to his West Point education and his 12 years as a commissioned officer, Parrott amassed
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / November 15, 2008. When American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, private security and military contractors will have guarded the convoys bringing the turkey and gravy. If not for the private security contractor (PSC) business, there would have been no Thanksgiving at all. For it was
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / September-October 2008 Serviam’s person of the year, Project HOPE President and CEO John P. Howe III, MD, champions the military’s new humanitarian partnerships with businesses and charities, and comments on the role of health NGOs in global stability operations. Serviam Editor J. Michael Waller interviewed Dr. Howe in September 2008. Download
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / March-April 2008.* With war raging on the other side of the world, Charlie Meyers left his home in Brooklyn and headed for Canada’ Not to avoid a military draft, but to go and fight. The United States had not yet entered World War l, and Meyers, a young flier during
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / March 1, 2008. Download PDF: Contractors_Afgh_Serviam Kabul, Afghanistan—“I used to wear a burqa. I will never wear one again. Except to fight drug traffickers.” That’s what a female police officer of Afghanistan’s Narcotics Interdiction Unit (NIU) says with a shy smile. The bad guys can’t recognize a heavily armed cop under
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / January-February 2008. Al Qaeda has identified one type of enemy that it can’t fight against: Muslim rock stars. U.S. intelligence discovered evidence that the terrorist group had considered murdering top Egyptian performing artists for being “infidels” but decided against it for fear of creating a youth grassroots backlash from Arabs.
by J Michael Waller / Serviam / November-December 2007, When a private contractor for the U.S. government abides with the letter of the law, but the law is so flawed that it doesn’t correspond with reality, whose fault is it? The contractor’s, of course. That’s the apparent reasoning of critics in Congress and the press who blame private
Big Data search engine and social media companies have recklessly deputized a malicious organization as a “political police” to destroy the reputations of people and groups with whom they disagree, Dr Waller told PJ Media. Partnerships between Twitter, Facebook, and Google with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) come “as no surprise to J. Michael
New intelligence reports on China’s global threat to the United States are welcome and long overdue, Dr Waller tells Elizabeth Prann on Fox News. (http://video.foxnews.com/v/5812131802001/) Discussing senior CIA official Michael Collins’ statement at the Aspen Institute about China’s new “Cold War” against us, Waller said the intelligence executive “nailed it,” and that the US should
“I did not see Trump taking an ‘America First’ approach” to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Dr Waller told Lifezette after the Helsinki summit. Brendan Kirby reported, “J. Michael Waller, vice president of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, downplayed the significance of some of Trump’s policies. He said the arms sold to Ukraine, for instance,
“Disclosures by the Justice Department inspector general of political bias among FBI agents is focusing new attention on problems within the FBI’s once-storied counterintelligence division,” Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Free Beacon. Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Randall Coleman and Dr Waller spoke with Gertz for the story. “The United States is the No.
It’s always a happy occasion to be back at Fort Bragg, teaching psychological operations courses to our special operations forces. Recently I was at the John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School for a two-day PSYOP session for officers and senior NCOs. Our PSYOPers keep getting better and better. Over the years, I’ve seen
Senator Marco Rubio and I discussed the dangers of “deepfakes” – artificial intelligence-powered fake videos that can impersonate real people. Bill Gertz broke the story in the Free Beacon. “Michael Waller, an information warfare expert, said deepfakes also could be used by U.S. intelligence agencies for offensive information warfare operations against hostile states or terrorist
Charles Payne had me on his “Making Money” show on Fox Business, to talk about the newly reported Russian cyberattack on our nation’s electrical grid and critical infrastructure. The show aired live on March 16. The American grid is extremely vulnerable to foreign cyber attack. Government and industry have wanted to avoid the issue
The BBC hosted Dr Waller to explain Russia’s illegal chemical weapons program that was apparently used to try to assassinate a former GRU officer who had taken refuge in Britain after a 2010 spy swap. In the early 1990s, Waller worked with three former Soviet chemical weapons scientists at the heart of the illegal Novichok
Acclaimed defense and security journalist Bill Gertz reports from CENTCOM that the US might have to negotiate peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But Gertz quotes former White House aide Sebastian Gorka and Dr. Waller as saying that such a strategy is doomed. “Sixteen years after invading Afghanistan, we find ourselves considering a way out
A new report on Russian trolling against NATO shows the important contributions that small frontline allies are making to the alliance, Dr Waller tells Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon. Gertz reports: “‘While we provide the real military might, our smaller frontline allies focus on Russian information operations and psychological ops that we often
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s latest report on Russian military power is “a vital development in American military intelligence analysis,” Dr Waller told the Washington Free Beacon. “This is an important development, because the U.S. military has not adequately addressed the fact that Russia has a global psychological strategy to compensate for its relative military weakness,”
The proposed cut of Mandarin-language radio broadcasts into China will aid Chinese Communist Party censors, Dr Waller tells Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon. The cuts are intended to reach a larger Chinese audience via online media. But government censorship is powerful online in China, and many millions of Chinese still listen to radio.
This week has Dr Waller back down at Fort Bragg, teaching at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Dr Waller is a frequent teacher and trainer for American special operations forces and others at Fort Bragg, and this week he is providing military officers and their interagency civilian counterparts with a historical,
A US federal appeals court handed down another victory to Dr Waller’s colleagues who are defendants the Devincci Hourani lawsuit. The 3-judge panel summarily rejected plaintiff Devincci Hourani’s appeal of a rejected federal court case against PsyberSolutions, its CEO Allison Blair, and two other defendants. “The court has accorded the issues full consideration and determined that
Veterans of the 1991 Soviet collapse met at Harvard University to mark the 25th anniversary of their disparate efforts to take down the USSR. Gennady Burbulis (right) was Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s right-hand man who was instrumental in arranging for Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia to secede from the Soviet Union on December 8, 1991, thus
WikiConference North America, an annual gathering to discuss the future of Wikipedia and other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, took place this year in San Diego. Dr. Waller attended to see how defense and security experts could participate more effectively in the Wiki movement, and how the Wiki movement could benefit. The 300 or so
‘Islamism in America: State-of-the-art political & psychological warfare” was Dr Waller’s presentation at the 58th meeting of The Military Conflict Institute. The hour-long, conversational-style lecture focused on the Muslim Brotherhood and its infiltration national security and defense policymaking, as well as training of professionals throughout government. Documented with primary source material, the October 3 presentation
The FBI’s failure to stop jihadists in America before they kill is proof that the Bureau is not training its agents to recognize the threat before innocent people die. Bill Gertz interviewed Dr. Waller and others in the Washington Free Beacon after a mass shooting at a Seattle-area mall. “This policy began under the previous FBI director,
Returned from two days at Fort Bragg to teach a great group of officers and senior NCOs about psychological operations (PSYOP), still confusingly called military information support operations (MISO). There is no shortage of critical thinkers among the special operations soldiers in these units, a very encouraging thing to see, even though overall training doctrine
Political Warfare & Strategy was the title of Dr. Waller’s presentation at the Kennan-Donovan Initiative at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. The January 21 event, chaired by COL Dave Maxwell USA (Ret), involved about 40 civilian and military participants from the unconventional warfare field who focus on the “gray zone.” See the presentation slides
The Westminster Institute hosted Dr. Waller to give a presentation on how to use psychological warfare to defeat ISIS/Daesh and other jihadist movements. The October 21, 2015 presentation, titled “Defeating ISIS: The Missing Psychological Warfare Dimension,” demonstrated the low-cost, high-impact opportunities at hand to wipe out Daesh. Dr. Waller’s presentation also discussed how to retaliate
We just launched NATO’s new Defence Strategic Communications journal, a publication of the alliance’s new STRATCOM Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia. Our first editorial board meeting occurred during the inauguration of the Centre of Excellence, with the participation of civilian and military leaders from the entire NATO alliance and interested countries like Finland and
In the face of unprovoked danger from Moscow, NATO’s front-line states should exploit Russia’s internal weaknesses to deter external aggression. Visiting Lithuania as a guest of the foreign ministry, Dr. Waller urged the country’s leaders and its growing online community to be assertive in the face of Russian subversion of their small country. Moscow has
A team of veteran national security practitioners and scholars authored a Plan for Victory Over the Global Jihad Movement. The authors modeled the plan after President Ronald Reagan’s historic National Security Decision Directive 75, which laid out a strategy to defeat the Soviet Union without going to war. Published under the auspices of the Center
Ashleigh Banfield of CNN invited Dr Waller to appear on her show to discuss a segment on US propaganda efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. The US State Department seems very proud of its “Just Say No”-style videos designed to persuade prospective ISIS recruits from joining the cause. [September 5, 2014] Ashleigh seemed very skeptical –
As a collective defense alliance, NATO is made up of members with their own strengths and weaknesses – mostly weaknesses. However, where NATO as an organization is terribly weak – defense against hostile propaganda and subversion – there is one ally that can add value far beyond its small size. That ally is Lithuania. Dr.
Fox News hosted Dr. Waller as a guest to comment on terrorism threats in a year’s-end episode of the O’Reilly Factor. With Laura Ingraham as guest host, Waller addressed the possibility of jihadist or other forms of terrorism at the upcoming Sochi Olympics in Russia, and the iron hand of Vladimir Putin to maintain order.
US policy toward Putin’s Russia is one of provocative weakness that plays into Russian pretensions of great power status and will diminish the power of the United States. That’s what Dr. Waller said in a Fox News interview with Bill O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor.” The program aired September 13. American waffling on Syria provided Putin with
The US Capitol building was the venue for Dr. Waller to speak on the Muslim Brotherhood and the power of ideology as part of a Westminster Institute program. The September 6, 2013 event brought together a panel of distinguished speakers on a range of topics to battle Islamist aggression: Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, The Role of Religion in the
Iran’s elections are illegitimate because all candidates are approved by the mullahs who control the regime, an IWP professor tells a US public diplomacy TV channel. (Institute of World Politics news release) “It doesn’t matter who wins the presidential elections in Iran,” IWP Provost J. Michael Waller says on Alhurra, an Arabic-language satellite TV channel broadcast to the
(Institute of World Politics news release) On Sunday, June 2, the Professional Advancement for Security Strategists: Program on Reducing Threats (PASS:PORT) celebrated the completion of its inaugural year. Through the course of the May 31 to June 2 weekend, participants prepared and presented their capstone project. The project was the culmination of the nine-month series of evening seminars
The Wall Street Journal quoted Professor Waller in an article about a Guatemalan court’s decision to overturn the genocide conviction of a former Guatemalan dictator. The rushed trial of 86 year-old Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala for 17 years in 1982-83, resulted in a verdict of crimes against humanity and genocide. The trial was controversial from
In an announcement that promises accelerated change amid strategic continuity, IWP founder and president John Lenczowski appointed Professor J. Michael Waller to serve as Vice President and Provost of the school. The interim position will give the IWP board time of find a professional to manage the school. “I am delighted that Dr. Waller will be helping
The Heritage Foundation sponsored a great talk on January 24, in which we discussed the international public opinion battlespace and how to operate within it. Helle Dale was our host, who invited Dr Amy Zalman, Department of Defense Chair of Information Integration at the National War College; Dr Ariel Cohen, of Heritage, Dean Cheng of Heritage,
After a decade of war, with many military victories to its credit, the United States continues to struggle with defining and combating ideological adversaries. It has been unable to dominate the psychological battlespace in which America’s enemies – both those practicing violence and those not presently violent – flourish. Dr. Waller outlines a strategic solution
(Institute of World Politics news release) Dr J. Michael Waller discussed “Foreign Propaganda, Perceptions and Policy: Countering Information Designed to Mislead or Persuade” at the 3rd Annual Irregular Warfare Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit is organized by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. Dr Waller spoke as part of the summit’s Psychological Warfare Focus Day.
(Institute of World Politics news release) IWP students and alumni are competing with their counterparts at some of the top academic institutions around the world in Wikistrat’s 2011 International Grand Strategy Competition. This simulation exercise, which is by invitation only, is taking place throughout June 2011, and is managed by former Pentagon strategist Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett. IWP
[IWP News Release] Publication Date: February 1, 2011 The brigade commander of an Army force being deployed to South Korea invited IWP Professor J. Michael Waller to Fort Hood, Texas, to brief his officers and senior enlisted personnel on the propaganda war in the Korean peninsula. Waller spent the week before the first days of spring semester at
[IWP news release] An IWP professor is part of the now-famous ‘Team B’ report on enemy threat doctrine and operations, including the Muslim Brotherhood penetration of the United States. Annenberg Professor of International Communication J. Michael Waller joins a range of noted defense, intelligence and security experts as a contributor to Shariah: The Threat to America, a new
(Institute of World Politics news release) COLORADO SPRINGS – Sitting among the officers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division, IWP Professor J Michael Waller marked teaching the three thousandth Army officer about influence operations. “Three thousand Army officers – it’s a pretty humbling experience to work among them,” noted Waller, who holds
[IWP news release] Professor J Michael Waller was part of a Heritage Foundation panel on “Public Diplomacy and the Private Sector: The Power of Individual Initiative.” He joins Marc Ginsburg of Layalina Productions, Inc., David Nassar of the Alliance for Youth Movements, and Helle Dale of the Heritage Foundation. When: Thursday, April 29, 2010, from 10:00 –
IWP news release / Publication Date: April 12, 2010. IWP Professor J Michael Waller spent a week with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, teaching a module on strategic communications under combat conditions to help prepare troops for deployment to Afghanistan. The 4th BCT of the 101st is the last major unit scheduled to deploy under the
Publication Date: February 24, 2010 The US Special Operations Command has requested an IWP professor’s assistance with a major assessment project to design military psychological operations capabilities for the next decade. Professor J Michael Waller is part of a US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) team to develop the Department of Defense PSYOP Capabilities-Based Assessment. The objective of the
TAMPA – As the wrapup speaker at the 22ndannual NATO Joint Senior Psychological Operations Conference, IWP Professor J Michael Waller outlined a range of new opportunities for the military and intelligence communities in the area of psychological warfare. The conference topic was “Psychological Operations Support to Counterinsurgency.” Waller proposed reviving an alliance-wide psychological strategy worldview and doctrine. The US
[IWP news release] Anti-democratic movements win when they have outside support and when the US stands aside as a disinterested “neutral” party. That’s Professor J Michael Waller’s conclusion after he returned from witnessing the historic March 15 presidential election that brought a former Communist guerrilla group to power. The ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party
A team consisting of a former Moscow correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, a current Wall Street Journal columnist and editorial board member, and Dr. J Michael Waller won an Oxford-style debate in New York on National Public Radio. An audience of 300 people voted on the winner. The debate topic was, “Russia Is Becoming Our Enemy Again.”
A team consisting of a former Moscow correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, a current Wall Street Journal columnist and editorial board member, and Dr. J Michael Waller won an Oxford-style debate in New York on National Public Radio. An audience of 300 people voted on the winner. The debate topic was, “Russia Is Becoming Our Enemy Again.”
At a Young Americas Foundation conference in Santa Barbara, California, Professor J. Michael Waller gave a seminar to college students on how to combat Islamist extremism on the campuses. Waller used examples from fighting the Soviets and Soviet front organizations that can be adapted to expose, discredit, document and uproot terrorist support groups at American universities. He specifically
The Armed Forces Journal has published a review of Dr. Waller’s new book Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War. “The book is packed with action points that could be implemented rapidly and at little cost,”writes Armed Forces Journal editor Karen Walker. “We could, for instance, stop feeding the terrorist’s self-esteem and confirming his status as a martyr
[News release] Annenberg Professor of International Communication J. Michael Waller was a participant at a conference on international broadcasting sponsored by the Hudson Institute and the McCormick Tribune Foundation. The April 25-27 event brought together former directors of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, former government officials, current military information operations officers, and other professional communicators to discuss
by J Michael Waller / Center for Security Policy / May 31, 2018 Thirty years of hard work paid off in January when President Donald Trump issued his America First National Security Strategy. In cooperation with others and often alone, Center for Security Policy had promoted most of the elements that President Trump has embraced
Volume 3 of our Defence Strategic Communications scholarly journal is out, published by NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia. This is an excellent, truly international journal containing a surprising range of original perspectives. I’m happy to be a founding member of the editorial board. Subjects for Volume 3 range from the eclectic
Credit: Mining.com
by J Michael Waller, PhD / Georgetown Research Summary. The State Department’s shift toward building “civil society” abroad has clashed with the mission to promote traditional US national interests. Occasionally it has harmed legitimate American business interests abroad. To illustrate the problem, this paper describes how international NGOs operated in a single country to target
The U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, asked Dr. Waller to expand on his pioneering work in 2006 to use ridicule as a weapon. Waller’s article, “Weaponizing Ridicule,” is published in USACAC’s bimonthly intellectual journal, Military Review, September-October 2017. It looks out of place in Military Review‘s table of contents, but that’s
The Atlantic Council sponsored an innovative and badly needed #DisinfoWeek to pay serious attention to Russian disinformation and how to combat it. The event, featuring speakers and experts from North America and Europe, wound up on Friday, June 30, with an off-the-record discussion about what to do next. Dr. Waller was among the invited participants.
Ample evidence exists of illicit and/or damaging Russian efforts involving the Kremlin’s interference in American governmental operations, domestic politics, the U.S. economy and often to the detriment of America’s national security. Dr Waller explains in this Center for Security Policy memo (download PDF: Broadening Russia probe) Whatever activities Vladimir Putin’s regime undertook in this regard with
The Air War College, which prepares US and allied Air Force officers with a solid graduate education, invited Dr Waller teach a class in its Strategic Leadership Communication course. Dr Waller’s April 25 class was a contrarian approach to strategic communication. Frank B. Kalupa, Director of the Center for Strategic Leadership Communication, hosted him to
The second issue of NATO’s Defence Strategic Communications journal is out, and we’re already having a surprisingly good impact. Published from the fortresslike former Red Army recruitment center that’s now NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia, the journal’s big focus is on information warfare pertaining to Russia. Dr Waller is a founding
“Russia’s New Information War: What It’s Like and What to Do About It,” by J. Michael Waller, Ph.D., in Fred Fleitz, ed., Putin’s Reset: The Bear Is Back and How America Must Respond (Washington: Center for Security Policy, 2016), is a policy essay that examines Moscow’s information and propaganda warfare against the West, with a list
Oxford University Press is republishing Dr Waller’s strategy to design an information warfare campaign against global jihadists. Dr. Waller wrote the strategy for the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, with Dr. Sebastian Gorka of the Threat Knowledge Group. The plan is titled “Designing an Information Warfare Campaign Against the
Subversion: Non-Violent Warfare in an Age of Countering Violent Extremism By J. Michael Waller, Ph.D. John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center, Fort Bragg, NC, September 12, 2016 Abstract Subversion is an ambiguous form of conflict in war and peace that does not rely on violence. From the perspective of the target, subversion is so ambiguous
by J Michael Waller / Westminster Institute / 2016. Want to discover the vulnerabilities of the Muslim Brotherhood? Study its doctrine, strategy and operations worldwide. That’s what we set out to do in “The Muslim Brotherhood: Doctrine, Strategy, Operations and Vulnerabilities,” a chapter in the newly published book, Meeting the Ideological Challenges of Islamism: How to
Sebastian Gorka’s Threat Knowledge Group has published Dr. Waller’s chapter, “Designing an Information Warfare Campaign Against the Global Jihadi Movement,” as part of the Threat Knowledge Group’s special report, The Islamic State and Information Warfare: Defeating ISIS and the Broader Global Jihadist Movement. The report, written in 2014, was prepared for the John F. Kennedy Special
chapter in Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda, and Political Warfare (Crossbow, 2010). In this vital book, thirteen experts in public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare lay out the components of what the U.S. and its allies need to win the war of ideas around the world. Revised in 2009. Strategic influence is much more than strategic
Strategic Influence is the work of 13 scholars and practitioners in the fields of public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare. The book surveys the subjects from the American Revolution, through the Cold War, to present-day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We strove to make the book the best single volume on the subject. It’s a combination
Chapter in Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda, and Political Warfare (Crossbow, 2010). In this vital book, thirteen experts in public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare lay out the components of what the U.S. and its allies need to win the war of ideas around the world. Revised in 2009. Strategic influence is much more than strategic
by J. Michael Waller, editor (IWP/Crossbow Books, 2010/2011), 367 pp. Download PDF of full text here: Founding Political Warfare Docs 3 Public diplomacy and political warfare have been an American tradition since before the founding of the republic. The Continental Congress made its case to the world when it was founded in 1774. In this course
By J Michael Waller / Journal of International Security Affairs / December 2009. A decade has passed since the Clinton administration and the late Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) joined hands in destroying America’s public diplomacy machinery. The shocking development occurred for a combination of reasons: a turf-conscious State Department that wanted total control of public diplomacy
The Heritage Foundation hosted the official launch of The Public Diplomacy Reader, Professor J. Michael Waller’s 500-page compendium published by IWP Press. The event, held September 20, was organized by Helle Dale, Deputy Director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at Heritage. Dr. Waller gave a presentation about the book and its purpose, explaining that he
This ground-breaking monograph by J Michael Waller departs from the conventional view of public diplomacy and international communication in time of war and argues for deploying messages as weapons of attack against the terrorists and other extremists. Proposing an immediate-term strategy that requires no bureaucratic reorganization or major budgetary changes, Fighting the War of Ideas like
by J. Michael Waller, Public Diplomacy and Political Warfare White Paper No. 1, The Institute of World Politics, 2006. This article is the first in a series of White Papers about the transformation of American public diplomacy and strategic communication. Introduction One of the most contentious debates in the war on terrorism centers on the “hearts
Introduced by the moderator as “the only panelist who can say, ‘I told you so,’” Professor J. Michael Waller took part in a panel discussion on Russian politics as part of the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS, pronounced “triple-A, double-S”). The question put forth before the November 18 panel was, “Is the
by J. Michael Waller, The Institute of World Politics, Occasional Paper, May 2006 Introduction The United States must draw the line when its foreign military suppliers endanger US national security interests. This is especially true when foreign defense companies aid and abet regimes that subvert their democratic neighbors and align with state sponsors of terrorism.
by J. Michael Waller / Occasional Paper / Center for Security Policy, April 2006 Every country has the right – and duty – to restrict the quality and quantity of foreign immigrants entering or living within its borders. If American policymakers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and
by J. Michael Waller / Occasional Paper Series No. 6 / Center for Security Policy, May 2005. Among the more troubling legacies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has inherited is one of neglect towards the Western Hemisphere, a legacy that has seriously diminished the United States’ stature and influence in most of the Americas This is due, in
Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council and J. Michael Waller edited a series of articles on the legacies of totalitarian secret police systems. Those articles were published in August, 2004, in Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. Berman and Waller co-wrote the following introduction to the series: When a totalitarian group seizes power, whether by parliamentary maneuver or
by J Michael Waller, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Vol. XII, No. 3, 2004, pp. 333-355. The George Washington University is the repository of Demokratizatsiya journal. The roots of all of the most efficient political police systems in modern his- tory can be traced to December 20, 1917. On that day, the new Bolshevik
by J. Michael Waller Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Summer 2004 As a revolutionary regime, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) that overthrew strongman Anastasio Somoza in 1979 swept away all vestiges of the old order. Virtually every single government structure, including the constitution, judiciary, legislature, and all instruments of security and force, was
J. Michael Waller, Annenberg Professor of International Communication Testimony before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs Subcommittee International Relations Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, November 5, 2003. Text TK
Testimony of J. Michael Waller, Ph.D. Annenberg Professor of International Communication Before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security Senate Committee on the Judiciary 14 October 2003 Thank you, Chairman Kyl, and members of the Subcommittee for holding this important series of hearings. Thank you also for inviting me to testify on the subject
[IWP news release] A year-long series of conferences, dedicated to the memory of former Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey, is a major IWP forum from which to discuss ways to improve U.S. intelligence capabilities. The series was convened in light of the intelligence and policy failures that led to the September 11, 2001, terrorist
By J. Michael Waller, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, 2002. Twenty-five years ago, Stefan Possony posited the then-radical thesis that the Soviet Union was behind much of the world’s growing terrorist problem, and that otherwise independent terrorist organizations operated in international networks. Possony’s book, International Terrorism: The Communist Connection, published in 1978,[1] blazed a trail that other scholars, journalists,
by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), Vol. 2, No. 1, September 2001. “The KGB is everywhere, in everything, and that itself frustrates democracy.” Former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin(1) “We have had as much democratization as we can stomach.” KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov(2) In trying
by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University), Vol. X, No. 3, February 25, 2000. Why is so little known about the KGB career of Russia’s acting President Vladimir Putin? Most reporting on both sides of the Atlantic is thinly sourced, if sourced at all, and often conflicting. Was Putin a professional foreign intelligence cadre officer whose
“Troubleshooting U.S. Policy Toward Russia” Testimony of J Michael Waller before the Committee on International Relations, US House of Representatives October 6, 1999 United States policy toward Russia has been tailor-made for exploitation by the gangster-bureaucrats, oligarchs, military revanchists and secret police officials ruling Russia today. Administration suppression of warnings and analysis about deteriorating conditions
by J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University, Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), Vol. VII, No. 1, September-October 1997. Protection of human rights, according to Russian law, is the first duty of the security and intelligence services of the post-Soviet state. Even more, the “special services” or “organs,” as they are called,
By J Michael Waller, Perspective (Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy), January-February 1997. Russian foreign policy has become more consistent and predictable since Yevgeni Primakov succeeded Andrei Kozyrev as foreign minister in January 1996. Moscow’s diplomacy today shows a tendency toward greater integration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
By J Michael Waller / Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization (American University and Moscow State University), Winter 1997. With rebuttals from the US Department of State and Department of Defense PDF originals: (1) Demok 97a Waller Delay; (2) Demok 97b State Dept; (3) Demok 97c Waller State; (4) Demok 97d DoD; (5) Demok 97e Waller DoD Introduction Many supporters of U.S. assistance
In 1995-96 we published the only translated transcripts of the Russian parliamentary investigation hearings on the 1991 putsch. To our knowledge, the transcripts were never published in Russia. Dr Waller edited a selection of the transcripts for Demokratizatsiya. The journal, then published in cooperation with the American University and Moscow State University, is now housed
by Victor Yasmann and J Michael Waller, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, December 1995. Summary Russian law enforcement agencies, security organs, and intelligence services, far from being reliable instruments in the fight against organized crime and corruption, are institutionally part of the problem, due not only to their co-optation and penetration by criminal elements, but to
