Robert Reilly, member of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) Advisory Board has published an analysis of U.S. government’s international media outreach: “Information Operations: Successes and Failures.”
Reilly wrote:
“From my experiences in the Cold War and since 9/11, I have formulated a few brief principles for the conduct of wars of ideas. First, do not go into a war of ideas unless you understand the ideas you are at war with. Second, do not go into a war of ideas unless you have an idea. Third, wars of ideas are conducted by people who think; people who do not think are influenced by those who do. Try to reach the people who think.”
Robert R. Reilly served in the Office of The Secretary of Defense, where he was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006). He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 as Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of information. Before that, he was director of the Voice of America, where he had worked the prior decade. Mr. Reilly served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President (1983-1985), and in the U.S. Information Agency both in D.C. and abroad. In the private sector, he spent more than seven years with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, as both national director and then president. He was on active duty as an armored cavalry officer for two years, and attended Georgetown University and the Claremont Graduate University. He has published widely on foreign policy, the “war of ideas”, and classical music. His latest book is The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis.
Read More: Information Operations: Successes and Failures By Robert R. Reilly, Westminster Institute.