This report was edited by Samantha Custer and commissioned for the December 2022 Gates Forum, which aimed to answer a single overarching question: what concrete actions can the United States take to reimagine its strategic communications capabilities in an era of intensifying great power competition with China and Russia? The complete research volume includes insights from seven background papers and a synthesis report prepared for the Forum to help conferees: (i) assess lessons learned from America’s historical practice of international broadcasting and public diplomacy; (ii) understand blindspots and opportunities for the U.S. in light of the strategic communications’ playbooks used by one of our closest allies, Japan, and its fiercest competitors, Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC); and (iii) weigh the relative merits of policy options to strengthen U.S. strategic communications in future.
School Authors: Samantha Custer
Other Authors: Bryan Burgess, HK Kim, MF Krisnadi, Kelsey Marshall, Divya Mathew, F Patrick, AD Saputra, Jonathan A Solis, Nara Sritharan