Obama as Information Operations Game-Changer
Noah has a great quick post up about Obama as a game changer in information operations (or strategic communications, or whatever term you want to use).
While OSD focuses on strategic thinking and policy analysis (and, as such, partisanship represents an optimal way to confuse ourselves), I think this is a dramatic and important dimension of yesterday’s historic election. It demonstrates, through clear action, what we mean when we say that we are a country founded on an idea, not an ethnic identity. America is a set of values, and if someone chooses to accept those and play by the rules, then they will be permitted to succeed. That is an ideal we stand for. We don’t always live up to it, and our critics in the world will quickly remind of those times we fell short. But the fact that our failures are transparent should not be overlooked. This is why this election has such strategic potential - because the successes of our system are also transparent (and, due to the publicity of our failures, all the more credible).
These sorts of actions are the most compelling answer to the cynical narratives used against the United States. Ultimately, that is the most compelling strategic communications campaign one can have - to faithfully live up to one’s own principles. Foreign policy benefits are emergent effects from following this path.
