Evolution of Military Public Affairs in the 21st Century

Abstract

Throughout military history, civil-military relations have been good and bad and one of the main reasons military public affairs programs were designed was to improve these relations. For the last 40 years, military public affairs has drastically improved and has culminated for the first time in American history with a military public affairs officer appointed as the official spokesman for the civilian-led Department of Defense. It appears that by having a uniformed officer act as the Department of Defense spokesman that civil-military relations are the closest and most seamless ever, however, this position has set a dangerous precedent when considering the requirements and doctrine that military professionals and public affairs officers are bound to. As a result, joint public affairs doctrine should be changed to reflect this ultimate transparency of policy decisions from the civilian leadership directing the use of its military.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 27, 2015
Accession Number
AD1176019

Entities

People

  • Hayley C. Sims

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Civil War
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Doctrine
  • Employment
  • Foreign Policy
  • Governments
  • History
  • Information Operations
  • Instructions
  • Law
  • Maryland
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Personnel
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Operations Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Social Media
  • United States
  • United States Naval Academy
  • Universities

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Political Science/ International Relations/ European Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design