War and Media Operations: The US Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq - Hardcover

Thomas Rid

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415416590 ISBN 13: 9780415416597

Publisher: Routledge, 2007

Synopsis

This is the first academic analysis of the role of embedded media in the 2003 Iraq War, providing a concise history of US military public affairs management since Vietnam.

In late summer 2002, the Pentagon considered giving the press an inside view of the upcoming invasion of Iraq. The decision was surprising, and the innovative "embedded media program" itself received intense coverage in the media. Its critics argued that the program was simply a new and sophisticated form of propaganda. Their implicit assumption was that the Pentagon had become better at its news management and had learned to co-opt the media.

This new book tests this assumption, introducing a model of organizational learning and redraws the US military’s cumbersome learning curve in public affairs from Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, the Balkans to Afghanistan, examining whether past lessons were implemented in Iraq in 2003. Thomas Rid argues that while the US armed forces have improved their press operations, America’s military is still one step behind fast-learning and media-savvy global terrorist organizations.

War and Media Operations will be of great interest to students of the Iraq War, media and war, propaganda, political communications and military studies in general.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Rid worked for the German government's foreign policy think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and the American Academy in Berlin. He is currently Tapir-Fellow at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales in Paris, at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and the Rand Corporation in Washington, DC.

Review:

'War and Media Operations is must-reading for anyone who wants to understand
how modern wars are sold to public opinion.'
Jamie Shea, Director of Policy Planning at NATO, alliance spokesman during
the Kosovo War

'Those who support or oppose 'embedded' journalism will find ammunition here
but Rid himself doesn't take shots.'
Steven Komarow, USA TODAY, embedded with the US Army's V Corps during
the Iraq War

'thought-provoking, insightful, and deeply engaging'
Ikujiro Nonaka, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy,
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, former Xerox Professor of Knowledge, Haas
School of Business, University of Berkeley, author of The Knowledge Creating
Company

'Thomas Rid demonstrates how nimble adversaries such as Al-Qaeda are coming
up with their own information strategy.'
James Mann, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins
University, author of Rise of the Vulcans

'The best analysis I have yet seen of the role of Public Affairs within the wider
context of Information Operations.'
Philip Taylor, University of Leeds, UK, author of Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0415416590
• ISBN 13: 9780415416597
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240