Strategic Communication Of The United Kingdom During The Second World War

The Second World War was an epoch-making war in world history.It’s unprecedented both for its scope and its impact on the modern world order.Over the years,scholars have never stopped their research on World War Ⅱ.When discussing the factors that determine the outcome of the war,scholars often attribute the victory to factors such as strategy and tactics,weapons and armaments,economic sanctions,and international cooperation,but few of them focus on the role of communication in war.In fact,communication in the form of wartime propaganda,political warfare,and psychological warfare almost ran through the entire World War Ⅱ.The participating countries,represented by the United Kingdom,incorporated their wartime communication into the national strategy.Strategic communication was planned and deployed systematically.Countries also mobilized resources from all parties,and implemented strategic communication in a coordinated manner,developing and perfectizing their communication mechanisms,which has largely influenced the situation of the war.Taking Britain as the research object,this paper aims to explore a systematic research path of government-led communication during World War Ⅱ,focuses on the formation of the British strategic communication mechanism,and then explores how strategic communication played a role in World War Ⅱ.Generally speaking,there is no doubt that the communication of the warring countries played a positive role in World War Ⅱ,while seldom did scholars take it as a decisive factor that contributes to the victory of the war.Here comes the question:what role did communication play,how did it influence the war,and to what extent did it contribute to Britain’s victory in World War Ⅱ?These questions remain to be further researched,and thus become the core problems this paper tries to solve.In order to answer the questions above,this paper starts from the perspective of British national strategy during World War Ⅱ,and on the basis of clarifying the formation,evolution and operation mechanism of the British strategic communication system,examines whether and how the British strategic communication indirectly contributed to the victory of the war through employing its impact on its determinants.The first chapter of this paper mainly sorts out the strategic goals and the construction of the strategic communication system of the United Kingdom during World War Ⅱ.The second chapter focuses on how the United Kingdom strives for war aid through the implementation of strategic communication to the United States,the Soviet Union,France and other countries,and then promotes the anti-fascist alliance.The third chapter focuses on how the British used strategic communication methods to disrupt the enemy’s sight,damage the enemy’s morale,and cause strategic misjudgments in the battle against the Axis powers,thus helping Britain win important battles.The fourth chapter focuses on the homefront communication,and explores the means of strategic communication used by the UK to maintain the stability of its homefront and its ability to supply front-line military forces.The research methods adopted in this paper include historical literature research,content analysis,case study,and research from an interdisciplinary perspective.Strategic communication research is essentially an interdisciplinary research.Therefore,in terms of research paradigm,this paper draws on the research methods of International Relations,science of strategy and International Communications,and proposes four dimensions of strategic communication research,namely,strategic goals,strategic deployment,coordination mechanism,and the integration of all resources and communication channels.After research,it was found that as early as World War Ⅰ,the British propaganda system already possessed certain characteristics of strategic communication.After continuous development and improvement,during World War Ⅱ,Britain had formed a strategic communication system led by the war cabinet,managed by Foreign Office,Ministry of Information,various combat departments,intelligence departments,and the Ministerial Coordination Committee.The implementation of communication is not only highly goal-oriented,but also pays attention to the top-level design of communication tactics and the coordination of multiple subjects.Strategic communication has long been an important part of Britain’s wartime national strategy.It has played an irreplaceable role in promoting anti-fascist international cooperation,supporting operations on the battlefield,and stabilizing the homefront.Therefore,it is more like a "hero behind the scenes" that helps Britain win the Second World War.It can be concluded that although strategic communication did not directly determine the outcome of World War Ⅱ,it is indispensable for the key factors affecting the victory of the war.It can be said that strategic communication indirectly affected the situation of the Second World War and helped Britain win the war in a more covered way.The innovations of this article are mainly reflected in two aspects.First,the topic selection is relatively new.Previous research on strategic communication mostly focused on the United States,while few scholars took the United Kingdom as the research object.And the research on Britain’s strategic communication during the Second World War is almost a vacuum.Second,new research materials are employed.This paper excavated nearly 2,000 historical archives from the British Foreign Office,Information Department,War Department,Economic Operations Department and other departments,collected by the British National Archives,the Imperial War Museum and other institutes.Some of the materials are employed for the first time in China.