Putting the strategy back in strategic communications

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 … Read more

Making the world safe for prosperity: State Department needs overhaul to become business-friendly

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 … Read more

‘Weaponizing ridicule’: Breaking ground in Army’s Military Review journal

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 … Read more

At the Atlantic Council, discussing how to combat Russian disinformation

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. … Read more

13 reasons to expand the Russia probes

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 … Read more

Teaching strategic leadership communication at Air War College

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 … Read more

Our NATO Defence Strategic Communications journal is out (Vol. 2)

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 … Read more

Russia’s info war & what to do about it

“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 … Read more

Oxford University publishes Dr Waller’s information warfare strategy

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 … Read more

Helping the Army Special Operations Forces understand subversion in an age of countering violent extremism

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 … Read more