Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 93

BOOK REVIEWS

PERSUASION AND POWER:

The Art of Strategic Communication

James P. Farewell, Georgetown University Press,
Washington, DC, 2012, 270 pages, $29.95

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MERICANS’ ABILITY TO market everything
from McDonald’s to the latest worldwide fad
is unparalleled in history. Yet, the United States is
challenged when it comes to marketing itself. James
Farewell, an internationally recognized expert in strategic communication and cyberwarfare, has written
an insightful work on what strategic communication
is and why we as a nation are failing at it.
Farewell explores the U.S. government’s vain quest
to engage foreign audiences throughout the world. The
United States often finds itself in “the react mode” in
response to more effective and efficient efforts of state
and nonstate actors. The nation’s inability to communicate strategically reflects a lack of emphasis by our
senior leaders, parochial turf wars between agencies,
and the absence of a single comprehensive approach.
Farewell describes the view held by many in the U.S.
government, especially in the Department of Defense,
that strategic communication is a process rather than
an art. Farewell counters that communication it is
partly a process but we need to think of it more as
an art. The Department, moreover, exacerbates its
strategic communication problems by conceiving of
strategic communication in terms of inform and influence. The author counters that smart public affairs is
about influence. He states that “smart public affairs
always seeks to influence, if for nothing else than to
bolster credibility.”
Farewell proposes viable solutions to maximize
the effectiveness of U.S. strategic communication
efforts. These include centralizing control of strategic
communication for the U.S. government within the
White House, revising current definitions (which are
inconsistent and undercut our creditability), improving
military training in information operations, improving
State Department efficiency, measuring effectiveness
better, holding people accountable, and realizing that
strategic communication equals military strategy.
The strength of Persuasion and Power is its
exhaustive research, demonstrated by vignettes that
MILITARY REVIEW May-June 2014

illustrate successful strategic communication efforts
and their benefits, as well as failures and their consequences. Scholars and strategic communicators
alike will be impressed with Farewell’s extensive
research and proposed solutions to enhance strategic
communication. Persuasion and Power is a must read
for those with an interest in strategic communication
or marketing.
Jesse McIntyre III,
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

THE SECOND NUCLEAR AGE:

Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics
Paul Bracken, Times Books, New York, 2012
306 pages, $29.00

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HE ARMY STOPPED thinking about nuclear
weapons soon after the weapons were
removed from its inventory in the early 1990s.
Few in the ranks regretted this parting. A decade
of humanitarian interventions, followed by another
of counterinsurgency, has further distanced the
military and the nation’s civilian leadership from
the world of nuclear weapons, operationally and
intellectually. This trend alarms Yale professor and
long-time security commentator Paul Bracken. He
reminds us that in spite of appeals to the “better angels
of our nature” and well-intentioned nonproliferation
policies, nuclear weapons have not “gone gently into
that good night.”
This well-structured book flows conversationally as Bracken describes the implications of the
bomb’s comeback and what it portends for the
United States—the only nuclear power that has not
modernized its arsenal. Bracken draws on history
and personal experience to derive lessons related
to U.S. nuclear policy and the role of the bomb
during the Cold War. Several “enduring truths”
remain applicable, but policymakers have failed to
appreciate the meaning behind the emergence of a
new nuclear paradigm.
The distinguishing f eature of the second nuclear
age is multipolarity. Unlike the global contest that
dominated the latter half of the 20th century, the
present drama plays out on a number of regional
stages among diverse, independent actors—some of
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