Empowerment and leverage: Key elements of Trump’s National Security Strategy

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 … Read more

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

‘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

New NATO report on Russian ‘robotrolling’ shows value of small allies

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 … Read more

Waller praises DIA for report citing Russian psychological strategy

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,” … 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

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

Teaching at JFK Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg

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, … 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