STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND THE INFORMATION DOMAIN on 04 Mar 2022

REPORT

A joint ARTRAC-United Service Institution of India (USI) Seminar was held on 04 March from 1000 hours to 1700 hours at USI. The theme of the Seminar was “Strategic Communications and the Information Domain”. The welcome address was given by Maj Gen B K Sharma, AVSM, SM** (Retd), Director, USI and the keynote address  was delivered by Lt Gen Raj Shukla, PVSM, YSM, SM, ADC, GOC-in-C, ARTRAC.

The Seminar had two panel discussions. The first panel discussion was on the topic “Strategic Communication” and was moderated by Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh, VSM (Retd). The speakers included Maj Maroof Raza (Retd) who spoke on the topic “A suggested Approach for Strategic Communications in India”. Further, Mr. Nitin Gokhale spoke about “the Global Metrics and Trends” and Mr. Shekhar Gupta spoke about “Indian Infosphere: A Status Audit”.

The second panel discussed the topic of “Information Domain” and was moderated by Lt Gen Sanjiv Langer, PVSM, AVSM (Retd). The speaker, Dr Herb Lin spoke about “The Military and Social Media Leveraging” which was followed by a presentation by Prof (Dr) Sreeram Sunder Chaulia on “Technology and Information Dominance”. The final speaker was Lt Gen S A Hasnain, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM** (Retd) who spoke about “A possible Strategy/Road Map in India”.

This was followed by a question-answer session and the vote of thanks was given by Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh, VSM (Retd).

Key Takeaways

• Strategic communications campaign is an important component, in the future multi-domain operation that is being witnessed in all phases of operations. The ability to plan and integrate information campaign activities in coordination with other joint operations is critical for the future.

• Winning the perception of people has far greater effect than a success at a particular battle.

• The role of non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown in importance. In many cases this has exceeded the power of the force of weapons. The effectiveness of strategic communications targeting perceptions should be viewed as a force multiplier.

• Strategic communications and the power of the information domain should be termed as an element of national power and as such, we need to have a synchronized holistic approach to deal with media. Also, while the Services and Media have their own divergences which are often contradictory, there needs to be a synergy between the two.

• The contrasting styles of handling Media and giving out a strategic narrative can be seen during Balakot and the way; the Government of India projected issues during the COVID-19 Pandemic under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

• India needs to be more proactive while handling Media, and also while explaining its narrative on strategic issue. For example both Pakistan with its ISPR and China with its Public Works Department are extremely focused on spreading their own narratives.

• The spread and extend of global interconnectivity brought about by the information revolution is fundamentally changing the world and also the way, we fight wars.

Maj Gen B K Sharma, AVSM, SM** (Retd), Director of USI.

Lt Gen Raj Shukla, PVSM, YSM, SM, ADC, GOC-in-C, ARTRAC

Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh, VSM (Retd)

Lt Gen Sanjiv Langer, PVSM, AVSM(Retd)

Maj Maroof Raza (Retd)

 Mr.Nitin Gokhale

Prof (Dr) Sreeram Sunder Chaulia

Lt Gen S A Hasnain, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM**(Retd)

Seminar Report prepared by Gitanjali Sinha Roy, Research Assistant, CS3, USI.