Strategic Communications & Public Diplomacy

c. 520 BCE · about 2,545 years ago

Darius I of Persia had the Behistun Inscription carved to proclaim his legitimacy

Cut into a cliff face in three languages recounting his suppression of rebellions, the inscription was designed for maximum reach across a multi-ethnic empire, an early instance of a ruler deliberately engineering a multilingual public record of victory.

c. 5th century BCE · about 2,500 years ago

Sun Tzu's The Art of War theorised deception and morale as tools of statecraft

The Chinese military text argued that subduing an adversary's will to fight, including through deception and the management of perception, could be as decisive as battle itself, a principle later echoed in modern strategic communications doctrine.

c. 51 BCE · about 2,077 years ago

Julius Caesar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War

Circulated in Rome while he was still campaigning, the account presented his conquest of Gaul in terms favourable to his political standing, an early example of a leader authoring his own strategic narrative for a domestic audience.

1206 onward · 820 years ago

Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire cultivated a reputation for terror as a weapon in itself

Accounts of Mongol destructiveness, sometimes exaggerated by both the Mongols and their enemies, were allowed to spread ahead of advancing armies, inducing some cities to surrender without a fight and functioning as an early form of psychological warfare.

1815 · 211 years ago

Simón Bolívar circulated the Jamaica Letter to rally support for independence

Written from exile, the letter set out a vision for a unified, independent Latin America and was distributed and republished widely, exemplifying the use of a single authored text as a deliberate tool of continental political persuasion.

1868 onward · 158 years ago

Meiji-era Japan ran a coordinated national messaging campaign around modernisation

The new government used slogans, textbooks and state ceremony to build support at home for rapid industrialisation while working to present Japan abroad as a modern power deserving revision of the unequal treaties imposed by Western states.

• Full treaty revision was not achieved until 1911

1923 · 103 years ago

Edward Bernays published Crystallizing Public Opinion

Drawing on his uncle Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious, Bernays argued that public opinion could be deliberately engineered rather than simply informed, helping found public relations as a professional discipline serving governments and corporations alike.

• Bernays later applied these techniques for the United Fruit Company

1924 · 102 years ago

The Chinese Communist Party established its Central Propaganda Department

Founded years before the party took power, the department developed into one of the world's most durable and tightly organised strategic communications institutions, setting messaging discipline across media, education and cultural output in a form that continues today.

1948 · 78 years ago

The UK Foreign Office created the Information Research Department

The unit produced anti-communist material for covert distribution to journalists and allied governments, and its existence was not publicly acknowledged for decades, illustrating how strategic communications capacity was sometimes built as a deniable function rather than an open one.

1953 · 73 years ago

The United States established the US Information Agency

The agency consolidated government efforts to explain American policy and society to foreign audiences during the Cold War, running libraries, exchange programmes and broadcasting abroad until it was folded into the State Department in 1999.

2008 · 18 years ago

Acting US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs defined strategic communication as the synchronisation of images, actions and words

A senior US defence public affairs official characterised strategic communication as the synchronisation of images, actions and words to achieve a desired effect. The formulation tied communications capacity explicitly to coordinated action rather than messaging alone, framing it as a defence function.

May 2025 · last year

India and Pakistan waged competing information campaigns during their brief conflict

Both governments issued rapid, often contradictory, claims about strikes and losses during several days of cross-border fire following a militant attack in Kashmir, with independent verification of many specific claims proving difficult in real time.

• Indian officials gave the operation the name Sindoor

2025 · last year

South Korea's new administration revamped presidential communications after the 2025 election

Following months of political turmoil that included a brief martial law declaration and the removal of the previous president, the incoming government restructured how it briefed the press and public, seeking to rebuild institutional trust in official communications.

December 2024 · 2 years ago

The US State Department's Global Engagement Center lost its congressional authorisation and shut down

Congress declined to renew funding for the body, which had coordinated the government's efforts to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation, after criticism from lawmakers who argued its work amounted to policing domestic speech.

• Some of its functions were dispersed to other State Department offices

2024-2025 · last year

Saudi Arabia continued building out professional communications capacity tied to its Vision 2030 programme

The kingdom retained major international public relations and lobbying firms and expanded state media outlets such as Al Arabiya, part of a sustained effort to shape international coverage of its economic and social reforms.

2024-2025 · last year

The African Union built out its own spokesperson and communications capacity

As the bloc took up its permanent seat at the G20, its communications department worked to present more unified continental positions on debt, climate finance and security issues rather than leaving individual member states to speak separately.

2024-2025 · last year

Taiwan's government coordinated rapid public messaging during Chinese military exercises around the island

The presidential office and defence ministry synchronised briefings and social media updates during periods of heightened Chinese military pressure, aiming to reassure domestic audiences and counter narratives originating from Chinese state media in real time.

2024-2025 · last year

African Initiative continued operating as a Russian-linked news and messaging outlet across Africa

Researchers and several Western governments linked the outlet, which produces content in multiple African countries, to networks that had previously operated under the late Wagner Group figure Yevgeny Prigozhin; the outlet has denied being a state proxy.

• Different African governments took varying approaches to the outlet's local accreditation

2024-2025 · last year

Chinese diplomats and state media kept expanding a multilingual social media presence on platforms unavailable to domestic Chinese users

Embassy accounts and outlets such as CGTN continued to grow their following on X, Facebook and YouTube, with officials generally favouring a steadier tone than the more combative wolf-warrior-style messaging associated with the earlier period.

2024-2025 · last year

Israel's government expanded funding for public diplomacy efforts abroad

Additional budget was directed toward government and civil-society campaigns aimed at shaping international opinion during the Gaza war, part of a long-standing public diplomacy effort that Israeli officials refer to as hasbara.

2024-2025 · last year

Ukraine's government faced criticism over its unified wartime television broadcast

The joint Yedyni Novyny television broadcast, which merged national broadcasters into a single government-coordinated feed after the 2022 invasion, came under pressure from journalists and funding disputes that raised questions about how long the arrangement should continue.

2009 · 17 years ago

Mulhern argued marketers faced a more challenging competitive environment for communication

Mulhern held that shifts in the communications environment made it harder for marketers to satisfy customer wants while building long-term relationships. The observation situated strategic communication within changing communication goals, organisation and channels.