IN-DEPTH BRIEFING // #44 // MARCH 23
‘RICOCHETS & REPEATERS’ WHY THE PUBLIC RELEASE OF INTELLIGENCE WORKS AS A MEANS OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND WHY IT IS INSIDIOUSLY DANGEROUS AUTHOR Maj Luke Turrell The author gained a Masters degree in Strategic Communication as a Chief of the General Staff scholar and is now the Executive Officer of CHACR
The Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research is the British Army’s think tank and tasked with enhancing the conceptual component of its fighting power. The views expressed in this In Depth Briefing are those of the author, and not of the CHACR, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Ministry of Defence or the British Army. The aim of the briefing is to provide a neutral platform for external researchers and experts to offer their views on critical issues. This document cannot be reproduced or used in part or whole without the permission of the CHACR. www.chacr.org.uk
‘A real stroke of genius’: US leads efforts to publicise Ukraine intelligence – Financial Times headline, 6th April 2022
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HE release of intelligence by the USA and UK prior to the invasion of Ukraine was quite rightly deemed to be a masterly use of strategic communication. At a stroke it not only neutralised dangerous Russian false flag disinformation in Europe but also planted the seeds of a coherent and largely unified NATO response; a response Russian strategic and military planners may not have anticipated from a ‘brain dead’ organisation. But why does public release of intelligence work as a means of strategic communication in the 21st century? The answer includes understanding the development of globalisation, long standing democratic calls for transparency in government and the implications of mass and social media. It also incorporates something called ‘inoculation theory’. This widely
accepted theory works like a vaccine; it ‘pre-bunks’ dis- and misinformation in advance rather than trying to disprove a message after it has landed. In a world of cognitive overload and fake news, our prehistoric brains are seeking something we can trust.
yet the 2021 Integrated Review indicated defence intelligence would “become more agile in exploiting its knowledge for impact and effect”1 so there are real cultural dangers for intelligence and strategic communications professionals.
The danger is the use of intelligence for strategic communication creates insatiable demand from politicians and expectation from the public for a product. A product that is by its nature incomplete, out of context and intended to highlight a certain truth rather than tell the whole story. In a Western world characterised by performative social power, repeated use to promote rather than inform policies is fraught with danger. It’s not only unsustainable but, as the Iraq War in 2003 proved, risks damaging the very integrity which gives it its strategic communication power. And
For readers of this CHACR In-Depth Briefing, there are two messages. Strategic communication that uses the public release of intelligence is effective in ways and for reasons you probably hadn’t considered. And dangerous in ways you might not have anticipated.
CP. 411, Defence in a Competitive Age, (March 2021): 65.
1
Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford Essential quotations, 4th edition, (2016): 538 Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford Essential quotations, 4th edition, (2016): 538. 2
1 // IN-DEPTH BRIEFING // CHACR
CONTEXT The context is important. Globalisation has democratised information in the Western world. This coupled with the growth of mass and social media produced an explosion of information, far too much for people to fully comprehend. E O Wilson said we’ve stumbled into the 21st century with “palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and god like technology”.2 This god like technology, especially when employed by social media, is especially challenging to our