In his 2019 book, Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About it, Richard Stengel detailed the Department of State’s (DoS) struggles in this burgeoning space. Stengel leaves the reader with a view of the United States Government (USG), where individual departments and agencies resist collaboration and tackle disinformation as individual departments and agencies. The result is a poorly integrated effort with limited awareness of parallel activities, significant challenges to cross-department and inter-agency collaboration, and the inability to evaluate and describe success or failure. Rather than accept Stengel’s description as the only way the USG can function, this article posits counterpoints derived from direct involvement with multiple USG departments and agencies during both the Obama and Trump administrations. The counterargument is an understanding of cross-governmental authorities combined with collaborative implementation leads to greater success in combating disinformation.
FULL ARTICLE HERE