Communications Principles in the Military

Principles, Credibility, and Trust in Military Strategic Communications

The purpose of this section is to study a communications principles model to help military leaders, planners, communications practitioners, and all military personnel to establish, preserve and strengthen public trust in and the credibility of the U.S. military (U.S. Joint Forces Command, 2010).
The Strategic Communications Principles Model triangle depicts the main elements of trust, credibility, and the principles of: timeliness, accuracy, delegation of voice, privacy, unity of voice, free flow of information, and security.

Strategic Communications Principles Model
As you can see, maintaining a balance of all principles is not an easy task. It is a challenge for national militaries. Therefore, it is crucial for Strategic Communicators to recognize the three categories of the population.
Populations can be broken down into those:

1. who oppose the U.S. military activities
2. who support the U.S. military activities
3. who have yet to decide to oppose or to support the U.S. military activities
   Similarly, there are those:
4. who will never trust the military
5. who will trust without fail
6. whose trust might still be earned
   The first group, understandably, becomes the traditional target of military plans and combat operations. The key publics with which the military must establish its credibility and build trust are drawn from the third and generally largest groups. In other words, strategic communicators must target and focus their efforts on the groups that are undecided about whether to trust and support the military, while directing combat operations upon those who will never support or trust the military (U.S. Joint Forces Command, 2010).
   Understanding the role of all instruments of power is crucial to assess how each element contributes to the achievement of national objectives. While most people are familiar with the role of the military, often people do not recognize the importance of other elements of power. The first discussion will allow us to look closely at all of the elements of power.
   References
   Dempsey, M. (2013). Joint Publication 1, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States. Department of the Defense [PDF, File Size 1.03MB]. Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp1.pdf
   U.S. Joint Forces Command. (2010). Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy [PDF, File Size 3.4MB]. Appendix P. Principles, Credibility, and Trust. Washington, D.C.: US Joint Forces Command. Retrieved from http://dtic.mil/doctrine/doctrine/jwfc/sc_hbk10.pdf (L