The Importance of the Media in Peace Operations

Abstract

Wars today are usually not about winning a piece of land. The basic idea today is that the greatest success in war is achieved if the enemy's will to resist is destroyed. Michael Deaver, who was responsible for communications during Reagan's presidency, commented on the Gulf War 1991 like this: The military successfully integrated a communication strategy. They understood that is was just as important, if not more, to look after the journalists as to deal with logistics or pure military strategy. That is the reason why it is so important to train and exercise the meeting with the media. In military exercises, national and international, the main thing to train is usually the military skills. In international exercises another aim is usually to train the cooperation with other country's officers and soldiers. That's definitely useful and necessary. Often can you also see in the training objectives something about CIMIC and, still pretty rare, the aim to learn the importance of the media. Even when you do find that among the training objectives, it can be hard to really get that aim in focus. Military personnel usually favour military training. But you need to train as you fight and fight as you train. In a real Peace Support Operation, the media will be present and you should be prepared to meet them.