During the Cold War, the Air Force had a fairly easy time explaining its mission to the American public. It also had a coherent public affairs structure to help execute that mission. The new threat environment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, combined with steep personnel cuts to its public affairs community, have dramatically altered the communication challenge for the Air Force. To effectively operate in this new climate with an emphasis on strategic communication, the Air Force has tinkered with a few organizational models to strengthen the communication function.

The Air Force Research Institute (AFRI) asked the knowledgeable...

“Robot air attack squadron bound for Iraq,” roared the top headline of the 15 July 2006 Drudge Report Web site.¹ The exposure from such a high-visibility placement at the top of one of the most widely viewed Web sites would seem to be boundless.² In fact, the Drudge Report’s collection of Web links is the top referrer of Web traffic to the Washington Post.³ However, it is a Sunday afternoon, on the eve of a week dominated by debate over the Iraq War, when the robotic air squadron story surfaces. The only hardware mentioned during congressional discussions on Iraq that...

As with many of the sweeping initiatives undertaken by the US government in recent years, the sudden desire to drastically improve American communication efforts dates to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Faced with an asymmetric terrorist threat, US officials found they were starting from scratch to reshape their communication capabilities in a brand new strategic landscape. Soon this emphasis on improving the US government’s ability to influence through communication activities was adopted by the military branches, raising important questions about just who the American government should try to reach— only foreign audiences with a message of American friendship, or the domestic...

Historically, the Air Force approach to public affairs has not been radically different from the other services. For the most part, a senior career public affairs general officer led a community of Airmen charged with delivering truthful information to the American people, and sometimes foreign audiences, to enhance understanding of and appreciation for the service’s role in US national security. However, both the leadership of and approach to Air Force communication have changed since the beginning of the Bush administration in 2001 as the service has experimented with different models for public affairs. This section explores Air Force communication efforts...

The only military service right now with a flag-level career public affairs officer running its public affairs community is the Navy. Like the other services, it has been influenced by the DOD-wide push into strategic communication, but it has not been subsumed by it. The community is thriving in numbers and holds many key public affairs jobs throughout the military. The Air Force and Navy are the only services whose public affairs officers predominantly stay in that career field for their entire time in service, but the two services have taken very different approaches to bolstering their capability in recent...

The coming years present a host of communication challenges for the Air Force as well as the other services. The American public and lawmakers eventually will focus on rebuilding the military as the conflict in Iraq settles, and each military branch must be ready to effectively communicate its strategy for the future. Several steps should be taken to put the Air Force on a better course for presenting its case to its key audiences.

The next administration, Republican or Democrat, is very likely to bail from the strategic communication construct soon after taking charge due to persistent confusion over the...