From strategic communication to communication synchronization: new doctrines of the US Department of Defense in the field of information activities

Strategic communication is one of the most efficient instruments of information influence in US toolkit. At the same time, the term ‘strategic communication’ has long been vague and of primary concern to the key US government departments. The Department of Defense was most significantly affected by this problem; therefore, it made every effort to solve at least internal terminological conflict. The result was the shift in concepts from ‘strategic communication’ to ‘commander’s communication synchronization’ in strategic documents. The author concluded that this change of terms was an important step to solve the problems in performing US coordinated information activities on the global stage. Moreover, the analysis shows that this change of concepts is to accomplish the main purpose of such terminological evolution that is to remove misunderstanding at different levels of military activity, distinguish communication efforts on strategic, operational and tactical levels, and give working conceptual construct to specialists.