A Study Of U.S. Military Public Diplomacy Model

After the September 11^th terrorist attack in 2001,the U.S.government has reconsidered the great importance of public diplomacy.Major countries in the world have been increasingly aware of its importance.Military public diplomacy is a branch of public diplomacy.But the discussion on it is not broad and in-depth enough.The study on military public diplomacy in both academic and military circles,home and abroad,is still relatively few,and there is no book specialized on this topic published till now.Military public diplomacy,however,plays an important role in practice in the United States for more than a decade.Especially in Afghanistan and Iraq,for security reasons,civil officers are inconvenient to conduct public diplomacy.The Department of Defense and the military actually undertook the mission of public diplomacy.This paper links“military”with“public diplomacy”,and selects the United States as an object to study.Combined with the theories of international relations,communication studies and public diplomacy,this paper builds the model of U.S.military public diplomacy.In general,this model takes the Department of Defense and the military as its main body,in which government organs like the state council,and other actors are coordinated to work.Through information dissemination,education and service,and relationships building,messages carrying U.S.national interests are disseminated to foreign military and public,leading to changes of their attitudes and behaviors.Finally,the U.S.military,diplomatic and security strategies are get realized.The major specific measures are as follows:spreading U.S.democratic values,shaping its military image and spreading its spirit,releasing authoritative information and controlling media,conducting foreign military education and training,port calls,military aids and international disaster reliefs,etc.In the process of conducting military public diplomacy,the Department of Defense has carried on the internal management and coordination,and interagency cooperation with the state council and other government departments,as well as with other social actors,to form a resultant force to jointly influence foreign military and public.On this basis,this paper discusses using of the model in the war in Afghanistan,and summarizes the defects exposed in the process.In the war in Afghanistan,three kinds of approaches of the model have been used,and according to the characteristics of Afghan security environment and people,they were changed into different methods,including“Operation of Voices of Moderate Islam”,“Commander's Emergency Response Program”,“Human Terrain System”and“Female Engagement Teams”,etc.The United States successfully carried out media control and defaming against Taliban,and therefore received the support of most public to wage the war.However,because of inadequate understanding of audiences,inappropriate narrative and failure in significantly improving people's living standard,the actual effects of military public diplomacy were impaired.At last,on the basis of discussing U.S.military public diplomacy model and its application in Afghanistan,this paper generalizes the enlightenment of U.S.military public diplomacy on goal setting,approach using and management coordination.For example,tactical and strategic goals should be planed as a whole;appropriate media should be chosen to suit the audience;values should be spread subtly in education;interaction should be increased in courses and everyone should be equally treated;deployment should get extended;the military should make long-term investment and strengthen public diplomatic personnel training;etc.This paper aims to use those study results to contribute a bit for China's military public diplomacy.Chapter ? is an introduction.It introduces paper topic origin,its study significance,study status at home and abroad,main content,research framework and research methods,and focuses on clarification and defining of involving core concepts to lay the foundation of the paper.Chapter ? reviews the development of U.S.military public diplomacy,analyzes the reasons for U.S.military public diplomacy,and discusses the related policies.Combining the theories of international relations,communication studies and public diplomacy with U.S.military public diplomacy practice,Chapter?builds the model of U.S.military public diplomacy and mainly discusses its goals,approaches and management coordination.Chapter ? discusses the application and defects of the model in the war in Afghanistan,and analyses them based on real cases and data.On the basis of discussing the model and its application in the war in Afghanistan,Chapter ? concludes the implications of goal setting,approach application and management coordination based on the discussion of the the model of U.S.military public diplomacy and its application in the war in Afghanistan.Chapter ? is a conclusion,which summarizes the main content of the thesis,and puts forward the ideas for further study.The study of U.S.military public diplomacy model is of big practical reference value and significance to us to understand the general rules and operation process of military public diplomacy.If used properly,military public diplomacy will play an important role in the country's overall public diplomacy.