Office of Global Communications

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In February 2002, the White House decided to "transform the administration's temporary wartime communications effort into a permanent office of global diplomacy to spread a positive image of the United States around the world and combat anti-Americanism."

The temporary offices which comprised the Coalition Information Center had been established shortly after September 11, 2001, as "a temporary effort to rebut Taliban disinformation about the Afghan war." [1]

The Office of Global Communications (OGC) was established in July 2002 by the Bush administration "to formulate and coordinate messages to foreign audiences." It was fully staffed to "coordinate the administration's foreign policy message and supervise America's image abroad." [2][3]

The OGC was made official January 21, 2003, by President George W. Bush through Executive Order: Establishing the Office of Global Communications. The office was to be headed by a Deputy Assistant to the President for Global Communications. [4]

Background

The "1999 reorganization that placed the previously independent USIA within the U.S. Department of State and cut loose international broadcasting efforts ha[d] not been effective in addressing th[e] challenge" of nurturing "positive long-term relations with foreign publics and opinion leaders." It was equally unsuccessful at reversing "America's declining image abroad." [5]

Good Intentions

The Office of Global Communications, a component of the Executive Office of the President, is "revving up a global effort to defuse its image as arrogant and overbearing," Reuters journalist Randall Mikkelsen wrote January 24, 2003. The OGC is organizing "daily telephone conference calls to coordinate foreign policy messages among U.S. government agencies and representatives of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. This is supplemented by a 'Global Messenger' e-mail of talking points sent almost daily to administration officials, U.S. embassies, Congress and others." However, the Bush administration's effort to overcome its arrogant image suffered a blow in February 2003 when Europeans responded negatively to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of French and German opposition to U.S. war talk as an example of "old Europe" out of touch with the world.[6]

Contact details

URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ogc/

Related SourceWatch Resources

External links

Documents & Info

Web Series

  • Gar Smith, "America's Ministry of Propaganda Exposed", WorldNewsstand.net, December 2003:
Part 1: "A Strategy of Lies: How the White House Fed the Public a Steady Diet of Falsehoods"
Part 2: "Transforming Language to Market the 'Big Lie'"
Part 3: "Targeting Critics, Spreading Lies, and PSYOPS"
Part 4: "Black Programs and the Future of Propaganda"

Articles & Commentary