529 Olivier Urrutia The role of Think Tanks in the definition and application of defence policies and strategies audiences, synchronising word and action until the necessary persuasive communication is achieved. Shaping is implemented through forming, convincing, controlling and establishing norms. The notion of shaping is a central topic in American geopolitics – part of strategic intelligence and military strategy, with think tanks promoting this type of activity: “Modern propaganda describes a coherent and long-term effort to provoke or reorient events in order to influence the way in which a people relates to a company, an idea or a group”.50 Rand doesn’t limit itself to mere theorising, but rather offers specific data and “solutions” that can be applied to the army: create a publicity strategy through the rebuilding of a nation, show strategic influence via public diplomacy, and develop civilian social services. Basically anything that is not military force. The aim is to see the cause of war as a consumer product and the citizens as clients who need to be seduced. In this way, marketing strategies and techniques that companies use to sell their products could be used by the US military to link in field operations with the overall objective of shaping. The report offers a multitude of business models that could be used by the military, in keeping with the three main pillars of marketing: a) Manage expectations b) Know the client c) Have after-sales service The USA uses influence as a technique in a global strategy: converting the enemy into a sympathiser or into a partner. Influence as a tool for awareness-raising global and social communication could be defined as propaganda. H.D. Lasswell, in his renowned work Propaganda Technique in the World War,51 develops the idea of the process of scientific propaganda, which he defines as the government management of opinion. For Lasswell, the psychological war is a pre-condition and a complementary condition to the economic or military war. He considers Wilsonian theory as being a forerunner; a theory that states that rejection of military war in modern societies lies at such a level as to invalidate peoples’ possibilities of recourse to force – thus making persuasion the key element. The incorporation of strategic communication for influence by the US Army into its armed conflicts started off as an experimental tactic during the first Iraq war (1991) when the agency Hill & Knowlton worked together with the federal government. The idea was to complement the use of physical force with an ideological war, using the p.53-123 50 BERNAYS, Edward, Propaganda, Paris, la Découverte, Zones, 2007, P.43 51 LASSWELL, Harold.D., Propaganda Technique in the World War, the MIT Press, 1971
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