The recent emergence of Strategic Communications as a distinct form of political and geopolitical influence has caught the attention of academics and practitioners alike. Yet its key distinguishing feature––a grounding in liberal democratic values and the fundamental freedoms of the individual––have exposed a number of vulnerabilities.

From outside it is under attack from authoritarian and totalitarian states who seek the demise of liberal democracy.

At the same time, it finds itself undermined from within by political libertarians, who question the very nature of individual freedoms, acting in a convergence with techno-libertarians for whom the state is no longer the defining agent of power.

Meanwhile, dramatic advances in Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies and their ability to manufacture and falsify truth present a technological, if not existential threat to Strategic Communications and its claim to being built on evidence-based truth-telling.