Creating a Department of Defense Strategic Information Support Center

Abstract

Abstract : The U.S. Armed Forces needs a new organization capable of remaining competitive in an ever-expanding global information environment, adapting to reach both illiterate and technologically-savvy audiences of the 21st Century, developing information strategies to shape the global information environment, and responding to positive and negative information within the global information environment. The U.S. military must shed its Cold War organization, policy, doctrine, and equipment and prepare for the 21st Century. If the military fails to adapt, some other non-military organization may take its place. The new organization may have the expertise, but not the loyalty or deployability that a Department of Defense Strategic Information Support Center (D-SISC, pronounced DEE-SIK) could have. Interagency coordination regarding information activities conducted by the military and other government organizations is episodic at best. Currently, there is no standing organization at the military strategic level to conduct interagency coordination and deconfliction between military and other governmental information activities. In an environment of shrinking budgets, increased operational tempo, and continued downsizing, the U.S. Armed Forces must change to meet the needs of the 21st Century and Joint Vision 2010. Recent history demonstrates that the side with the ability to rapidly present its policy, strategy, and position to a variety of audiences in a coherent manner achieves an information advantage. A single organization, such as the DoD Strategic Information Support Center, from which military information activities can be coordinated, integrated, deconflicted, and synchronized is a step in the right direction.