(SBU) U.S. State Department Pakistan Communications Plan Brief

Office of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

28 pages
Sensitive But Unclassified
March 2010

Comprehensive plan for achieving strategic objectives

We need a comprehensive and coordinated government·wide communications and engagement effort to achieve our mission.

To be successful, we must:

1. Expand media engagement with regular outreach from U.S. representatives
2. Counter extremist voices that recruit, mislead, and exploit
3. Build communications capacity to meet the needs of the Pakistani people
4. Strengthen people·to-people ties and build mutual understanding

…

Refocusing the narrative

We need a messaging strategy built on …

consistency (repetition)
strength (commitment)
facts (counter terrorist lies)
respect (we invite dialogue)
and
commonality (Pakistanis benefit
from American partnership)

• We cannot achieve our objectives if the debate takes place only between the extremists and the United States.
• We must work with credible Pakistani partners to consistently combine words, deeds, and enlargement to positively influence popular attitudes, perception s and behaviors.
• We have to broaden our dialogue and partnership to include economic opportunity, the environment, etc – problems that concern Pakistanis as much as or more than terrorism.
• We must also effectively denigrate extremist ideology, propaganda, and actions.
• The result must be a refocused narrative: violent extremists obstruct-and u.s.
partnership promotes- Pakistani aspirations

…