The United States Army Public Diplomacy Officer: Military public affairs officers' roles in the global information environment.

摘要

Globalization and the rapid emergence of technology have created a new domain in which friendly and enemy information sources operate: the global information environment (GIE). This new domain is a departure from the historical military-domestic media relationship because now Army Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) cannot address only the American people with their communications. They currently address both domestic and international audiences---especially during war. With public relations roles theory as its basis, this thesis contains qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the extent to which PAOs are performing diplomacy through their interaction with foreign media and publics. Furthermore, this thesis provides two options for transforming all or some PAOs into Public Diplomacy Officers (PDOs.)