It is the enemy's will to resist that is the true objective of war. Destruction of his armed forces is a means and not necessarily mandatory to achieve this objective. To save the precious resources of blood and treasure and to assure the continuance of policy, United States military commanders should focus their attention on overcoming the enemy's will to resist through effective influence operations. Current deficiencies in influence activities often compel the United States to resort to an inappropriate use of military force. Often this use of force is counterproductive and reinforces the negative perceptions of the United States. Instead of applying strategic communication, the Joint Force Commander should focus on the influence of foreign populations in pursuit of national security objectives and to do this the Joint Force Commander should borrow from the methods of political campaigning and business marketing. Preeminent to this concept is overcoming an audience's natural resistance to an idea. In fact, overcoming resistance is an often overlooked facet of any influence activity. All too often, the construction and execution of messaging is the central focus of influence activities, yet the conditions for the positive reception of messages has not been obtained. The monograph conducts a practical examination of current problems of joint force influence activities and examines the term strategic communication to make the argument for the development of an influence strategy central to the theater strategy. The monograph examines communication theory as it relates to an influence strategy and conducts a comparative research analysis of political campaign and marketing models. By comparing the major aspects of both these models, appropriate aspects of influence activities can be identified for use by the joint forces integrated into the assessment, planning and execution functions of the command. Massive reorganization efforts and substantial increases in budgetary resources are not required to make positive changes to the Joint Force Commanders efforts in strategic communication and influence. But progressive measures of engagement and adjustments to how to effectively influence are in fact required to encourage change. Additionally, a more accurate use of the conceptual terms of strategic communication and influence are also warranted. This will enable Joint Force Commanders to describe what is actually trying to be accomplished. By using the proven methods of political campaigns and business marketing, the Joint Force Commander can efficiently confront the problems of contemporary conflicts and establish effective strategies for the future. This monograph makes recommendations that cover changes to how the Joint Force Commander and staff assess the environment, synchronize their current capabilities, change their operating concepts and incorporate the proven principles to overcome resistance to an idea. Current assessment capabilities and structures must be modified to measure effectiveness of current influence efforts. They must incorporate methods for determining progress of influence operations through the synthesis of audience behavior. Additionally, influence planning must be an essential component of the theater strategy as it is developed. This planning must be based on the Joint Force Commander and staff strategic estimate which is informed by political and marketing methods of assessment. Finally, the Joint Force Commander and staff must evaluate the performance of a message and/or action through multiple techniques that are based on the same principles as political and marketing models.

ADA 523963 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)