I published the last original PSYOP Regimental Blog posting in March, 2023 after becoming President of the PSYOP Veteran’s Association (www.usapova.com) on 1 January 2023. After two years on the job, it became clear to me that the Blog was a vital communications tool.
Unlike chicken soup and wine, bad news does not get better with time. Enemies and adversaries are eating America’s information lunch every day and there is neither a strategy, nor a designated single organization responsible for changing this dismal picture.
The US Department of State closed the Global Engagement Center on December 23, 2024. It’s mission was: “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.”
On December 26, 2024 Fox news headline was “State Department’s ‘Global Engagement Center’ accused of censoring Americans shuts is doors” The article quotes nonother than Elon Musk: Elon Musk had deemed the Global Engagement Center (GEC), established in 2016, the "worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation," and its funding was stripped as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Pentagon’s yearly policy bill.
On Jan 2, 2025 The New York Post reported “Biden admin ‘rebranding’ State Dept’s controversial Global Engagement Center under new name – with same employees” see: https://nypost.com/2025/01/02/us-news/biden-admin-rebranding-state-depts-shuttered-gec-under-new-name-with-same-staff-report/
Given the negative impacts of foreign influence, it seems only logical that ‘someone’ has to be monitoring and hopefully mitigating foreign influence.
The U.S. does not have a whole of government Information Strategy as it does for National Security. This leaves a very big void and vulnerability.
On September 26, 2024, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) published GAO-24-107600 on Sep 26, 2024 which proclaimed “The Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Defense are working to define and detect foreign disinformation. This Q&A report describes their efforts. We also discussed their relevant legal authorities. This report is the first of two that examine U.S. agencies' efforts to counter foreign disinformation threats, including identifying and publicizing threats.”
You can find their PDF version here. The reported noted three key takeaways:
“Key Takeaways
State, DHS’s Office of Intelligence of Analysis (I&A), and DOD monitor both public and nonpublic sources of information and use a variety of methods to detect foreign disinformation targeted at overseas or domestic audiences, depending on the agency. For example, State and DHS’s I&A analyze social media to identify disinformation and disinformation actors.
State, DHS, and DOD conduct activities to counter foreign disinformation targeted at audiences overseas or domestically, depending on the agency. Collectively, these activities include identifying, publicizing, and researching disinformation threats as well as educating U.S. and foreign partners and the public on how to recognize and build resilience against disinformation threats.
To define foreign disinformation and related terms, most of the U.S. agencies we spoke to use the National Intelligence Council’s IC Lexicon for Foreign Malign Influence, which aims to standardize terms and add precision to disinformation analysis”
The bottom line is that there is neither a whole of government cohesive information strategy, nor an overall organization responsible for developing, implementing, monitoring, and managing information efforts and counter foreign influence efforts.
Perhaps the Trump Administration can properly address this challenge.
