Information operations and core values

  • Published
  • By Maj. Keith Bland
  • USAF Band of the Golden West commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  I recently attended an Information Operations course at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and I've been thinking about the relationship between information operations and our Air Force core values. 

While I found the entire course enlightening, what interested me most was the briefing that dealt with a subset of influence operations called "cohesive propaganda." 

The briefer described cohesive propaganda as influence operations that "create goodwill, promote friendship, raise morale, stress common interest and gain cooperation." Nothing in that description sounded particularly insidious to me. In fact, the briefer was describing the kinds of activities that motivated me to join the Air Force in the first place -- to execute missions that enhance relationships between the Air Force and supporting communities as well as our international partners. 

However, in a free society, there's an inherent (and healthy) mistrust of any information that resembles propaganda or psychological operations, because people are leery of being manipulated. I think the key to understanding information operations is that everything we do as an Air Force including such diverse missions as dropping munitions on an adversary, conducting surveillance from space or defending our information networks from malicious hackers has, aside from its "kinetic" effect, effects in the information domain as well. 

While the kinetic effects of an operation may subside in a matter of days or weeks, the information effects can last for decades or longer. As we learned the hard way from the abuse cases at Abu Ghraib prison, failure to live up to our nation's standards of behavior can have immense, cascading negative effects at strategic levels. It will take years to re-establish the public trust and credibility lost in that ignominious episode. 

So, how does this affect each of us here at Travis -- after all, none of us could contemplate replicating the type of behavior that occurred at Abu Ghraib. I'd affirm that each of our individual actions has a cumulative "information domain" effect that speaks to the public about the credibility and competence of our United States Air Force. 

As General Patton said, "The influence one man can have on thousands is a never-ending source of wonder to me. You are always on parade." That philosophy places a tremendous responsibility on every member of our service, but it rings especially true today in an era when Facebook, YouTube and MySpace can immediately broadcast our behavior on and off duty to a worldwide audience via someone else's cell phone. 

I try to remember that everything I do each day has an effect, not just on me, but on squadron members, my family, civilians I interact with off base and so on. Why is that important? Well, Air Force public affairs doctrine cites President Lincoln's famous assertion, "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed." So, if any of my actions are perceived to be less than embodying our core values of "Integrity First, Service Before Self and Excellence In All We Do," I've damaged the public's perceived trust of our Air Force. 

That's a dangerous example to set -- we may individually risk eroding our Air Force's position as the world's finest air, space and cyberspace force. So, I remind myself that I am an "information warrior" and that every action I take has consequences in the information domain. 
Hopefully, those consequences will contribute to long-term peace, security and greater freedom for our world.