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Prerequisites:
Graduate standing. Additional prerequisites may vary with the topic.
Description:
Critical examination of conflicts and trends in information policy in private organizations and in federal, state, and international public-sector organizations.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.Instructor: Alan Kessler
Cross-listing of P A 388K, offered by the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Topic description from Public Affairs:
This seminar will examine the history and modern practice of strategic communications, focusing on how government agencies use information campaigns to shape foreign perceptions of national security issues. Through selected readings, lectures, class discussions, and research, participants will examine how the U.S. government and, to a lesser extent, foreign governments develop and implement information campaigns to support strategic communications objectives. Using case studies that include Cold War crises, 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the seminar will identify factors that contribute to successful, and less than successful, efforts to inform, influence, and persuade foreign publics to support—or at least not actively oppose—U.S. national security objectives. The seminar will also consider the limitations of communications and public diplomacy as instruments of “soft power” and examine how new technologies such as social media affect policymakers’ ability to influence the attitudes of foreign audiences.Topic Description:
Strategic Communications For National SecurityOriginal Article
