Say Anything Blog

What is the role and responsibility of a military member in communicating with domestic & foreign audiences?

That question is currently the subject of discussion in Blog Policy Flawed? and other posts on the Combined Arms Center (CAC) blogs at Fort Leavenworth, KS. A few highlights from the discussion:

A Fort Lee student (Army Major) originally wrote:

In addition to possibly violating DoD and Army guidance on public release of official information, mandating that private individuals make public blog postings also threatens ILE students’ privacy interests.

Chris Paparone (Associate Professor, Fort Lee) offered:

While I would agree that telling the “Army story” is important in terms of public relations and recruitment, I am concerned that this top-down “forcing” of communicating to the “outside” may backfire, producing the opposite effect that well-intended senior leaders meant.

These discussions include a response from BG Cardon (Deputy Commandant, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College):

Many OSD and Army policies have not yet caught up with these changes, but the intent of these same senior leaders is clear [….] Gone are the days of centralized communication – both the environment and recent experience has taught us that waiting for high level centralized approval undermines the potency of the information and often delays critical information engagements beyond the point of any utility.

Also, LTC Shawn Stroud (Director of Strategic Communication, CAC) weighed in with:

Perhaps we should stop considering this as a requirement and instead embrace it as our duty as members of this time honored profession… a duty to continue to share the stories of our Soldiers and their families. Once we see it in that light, the rationale and reasoning behind the program becomes obvious.

For background on CAC’s strategic communication initiatives, read At Fort Leavenworth, officers are marching on a new target: the blogosphere. (The Pitch, 3 Feb 2009) In that issue’s cover story, Nadia Pflaum writes about how:

Each war-college student must complete a course of “strategic communication” in order to graduate. It’s an extracurricular activity — no class covers it exclusively. Officers must participate in an interview with a television, print or radio reporter, publicly address a community group, write an article or opinion piece for publication (it need not actually be published), and blog under his or her real name.

Disclaimer: The author of the above blog post is an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.