Comments on: Same Old Song from GAO on Strategic Communication

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:10:10 +0000

Well said – especially the last paragraph.

Country strategic PD plans are done annually at the embassy level, and always have been in one form or another. There’s plenty of planning and paperwork with lots of flow charts that comes under the label of “strategic”. Imagine what could happen if the time, effort, and resources that went into these (including the interminable Washington-centered PD reports) went instead into building human relationships in the field. That is, Murrow’s famous last “three feet”.

By: john brown

john brown — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:31:31 +0000

Thank you for these excellent observations.

By: Mark Laity

Mark Laity — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:04:23 +0000

Agree with the thrust of the comments above. The mantra of more coordination as the answer to our problems is too often a form of politically correct displacement activity. The reality is that we have constructed such complex structures that coord is at best mitigation for a dysfunctional system, and at worst an additional massive dissipation of resources with coord almost becoming an end in itself instead of a means to an end.

As Steve implies the real issue is not organisational, but conceptual. We are still struggling to accept that we have lost control and need to engage rather than declare our views. We can’t organise or resource our way out of our current problems, we need to change our attitudes.