A new White House report to Congress (pdf) defines “strategic communication” as “the synchronization of our words and deeds as well as deliberate efforts to communicate and engage with intended audiences.”
“This understanding of strategic communication is driven by a recognition that what we do is often more important than what we say because actions have communicative value and send messages,” the report stated. “Every action that the United States Government takes sends a message.”
Unfortunately, the report does not begin to acknowledge any instances in which U.S. government actions are inconsistent with U.S. government words, thus necessitating their “synchronization,” and so it is not very illuminating.
A copy of the report, transmitted to Congress on March 16 and reported March 25 by Inside the Pentagon, is available here.
The report refers in passing to a Presidential Study Directive on Development, a document that has not yet surfaced in the public domain.
By preparing credible, bipartisan options now, before the bill becomes law, we can give the Administration a plan that is ready to implement rather than another study that gathers dust.
Even as companies and countries race to adopt AI, the U.S. lacks the capacity to fully characterize the behavior and risks of AI systems and ensure leadership across the AI stack. This gap has direct consequences for Commerce’s core missions.
The last remaining agreement limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons has now expired. For the first time since 1972, there is no treaty-bound cap on strategic nuclear weapons.
As states take up AI regulation, they must prioritize transparency and build technical capacity to ensure effective governance and build public trust.