Archive for 'Narrative'
The Narrative Gap in the New PD Strategy
by Steven R. Corman
A new “strategic framework” for U.S. Public Diplomacy has at long last been released. Oddly, it is a slide show rather than a paper, but perhaps that’s because it is to be the basis for a briefing today. My colleague Phil Seib has already expressed disappointment in the new proposal:
It is so lacking [...]
Posted: March 10th, 2010 under Complexity, Diplomacy, Image, Narrative, Sensemaking, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
Comments: none
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 [...]
Posted: December 28th, 2009 under Analysis, Intelligence, Military, Narrative, Strategic Comm..
Comments: none
Obama’s Nobel Speech Opens Narrative Possibilities
by Bud Goodall
In Thursday’s Nobel acceptance speech, President Obama delivered the powerful narrative I had hoped to hear in his previous West Point address on Afghanistan. I was critical of the West Point address due to: “the absence of a compelling narrative that links who we are, as a people, to what we are trying to [...]
Posted: December 14th, 2009 under Analysis, Framing, Narrative, Obama, Politics, Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
Obama’s Speech Didn’t Close the Narrative Gap
by Bud Goodall
Yesterday’s speech by President Barack Obama at West Point about the future of American commitment to Afghanistan contained no real material surprises for anyone paying attention to the news reports that led up to his carefully planned and executed event. It was an Obama speech that lacked his usual rhetorical flair but came [...]
Posted: December 2nd, 2009 under Afghanistan, Analysis, Narrative, Sensemaking.
Comments: 2
Why is Friedman So Mystified?
by Steven R. Corman
Last Friday, Thomas Friedman published and op-ed in the New York Times entitled America vs. The Narrative in which he expressed bewilderment/exasperation that the anti-U.S narrative is getting so much traction in the Muslim world:
Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying [...]
Posted: December 1st, 2009 under Image, Narrative, Sensemaking.
Comments: 5
The Afghanistan Narrative Gap and Its Consequences
by Bud Goodall
One of the important challenges of President Obama’s administration is to sell the continuation of our “overseas contingency operation” (or perhaps FATAVE) in Afghanistan to an increasingly disenchanted audience at home and abroad. But there is a worrisome absence of a good narrative–a coherent collection of stories–about why we are there and what [...]
Posted: October 7th, 2009 under Afghanistan, Defense Dept., Government, Media, Narrative, Obama, Politics, Strategic Comm..
Comments: 3
New White Paper on Extremist Ideology
The Consortium for Strategic Communication has just released a new white paper entitled Out of Their Heads and Into Their Conversation: Countering Extremist Ideology by Angela Trethewey, Steven R. Corman and Bud Goodall. The complete paper can be downloaded at http://comops.org/article/123.pdf
Executive Summary
Ideology is often ignored or deemed irrelevant to strategic communication because it is [...]
Posted: September 13th, 2009 under Counterterrorism, Narrative, Publications, Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
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 [...]
Posted: September 3rd, 2009 under Afghanistan, Analysis, Listening, Narrative, Sensemaking, Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
The Story Behind Obama’s Cairo Speech
by Bud Goodall, Angela Trethewey, & Steven R. Corman
President Barack Obama’s historic speech in Cairo yeserday represents a welcome break from the former President George W. Bush administration’s approach to strategic communication. Bush’s rhetorical strategy was to divide the world into opposing forces of Good and Evil, and then demand that Muslims choose sides. By [...]
Posted: June 5th, 2009 under Analysis, Framing, Islam, Narrative, Obama, Strategic Comm..
Comments: none




