During the Cold War, the State Department did a great deal of work on what it calls public diplomacy, i.e. creating cultural, political and news material to get other countries to understand (or better yet, like) the United States and its policies. Since 9/11, the U.S. military has also made a big push into this area as well under the framework of "strategic communication." Special Operations Command in particular has been active, and is now looking for a contractor to develop websites to "influence foreign audiences per Government-approved Concepts of Operations (CONOPs), conceptual approaches and previously approved prototypes." Thee Trans-Regional Web Initiative will include six websites in various languages,according to the solicitation, and the contractor will be responsible for establishing a "network of native/indigenous content contributors with backgrounds in politics, academics, security, culture, entertainment, and other aspects of the GWOT, which appeal to identified foreign target audiences."
The U.S. government has not had a good track record (with some small exceptions) of creating cultural and/or news content that appeals to foreign audiences (frankly, it's a little hard to compete with the open market, the entertainment industry, etc.). So, it'll be interesting to see what these new websites look like and what information they provide. And if anybody reads them.
