4th Generation Warfare Handbook by William S. Lind & Gregory A Thiele

Author:William S. Lind & Gregory A Thiele [Lind, William S. & Thiele, Gregory A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789527065754
Google: ranVjwEACAAJ
Publisher: Castalia House
Published: 2016-05-23T23:14:38.081953+00:00

Fourth Generation War and the Press

State militaries can take two different general approaches to the press, defensive or offensive. In the defensive approach, the objective is to minimize bad press by controlling the flow of news. This was typical of how militaries approached the press in Second and Third Generation wars. The offensive approach seeks to use the press more than to control it, though some control measures may still be in place. Many Fourth Generation entities are highly effective in using the press, including the informal Internet press, for their own ends. If state-armed forces do not also undertake a press offensive, they are likely to find themselves ceding to the enemy a battlefield that is important at the mental and moral levels.

In turn, the key to an offensive press strategy is openness. Few members of the press or media such as the Internet will allow themselves to be so controlled as to present only the good news. Unless state forces are open about mistakes and failures, the press will devote most of their effort to ferreting them out. Worse, state forces will lack credibility when they have real good news to present.

Paradoxically, openness is the key to controlling negative information in the few situations where that is really necessary. Sometimes, openness builds such a cooperative relationship with the media that they become part of your team and do not want to report something that will really hurt you. At other times, you can use the credibility you have built through a general policy of openness to deceive when deception is absolutely necessary. Just remember that when you do so, you may be spending your only silver bullet.

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