Global Engagement Center

The Global Engagement Center (GEC) is an agency within the Bureau of Global Public Affairs at the United States Department of State. Established in 2016, its mission is to lead U.S. government efforts to "recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations" around the world.^[1][2][3]

Global Engagement Center (GEC)

Seal of the United States Department of State
Agency overview
Formed	2016
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Agency executive	James P. Rubin, Special Envoy and Coordinator
Parent department	U.S. Department of State
Parent agency	Bureau of Global Public Affairs
Website	www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs/global-engagement-center/

History

Executive Order 13584 of 2011 established the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) to support "agencies in Government-wide public communications activities targeted against violent extremism and terrorist organizations.”^[4] Five years later on March 14, 2016, Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13721^[5] which renamed CSCC as the Global Engagement Center while retaining its counterterrorism mission.^[6][7]

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 expanded GEC's mission by giving it the authority to address other foreign propaganda and disinformation operations,^[8] following some Members of Congress' call for a stronger response to Russian propaganda.^[9][10] The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 further expanded GEC's scope of work, including endowing it with a mandate, as reflected in its current mission statement.^[11]

In September 2022, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) activated the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC).^[12][13][14] In May 2023, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the FMIC would support GEC and other entities within the U.S. government to help them understand "the plans and intentions of the key actors in this space: China, Russia, Iran, etc."^[12]

Leadership and staff

Michael D. Lumpkin led GEC from January 2016 to January 2017.^[15][16] According to a 2018 report prepared for the French government, the GEC was predominantly staffed by Pentagon employees.^[17] Lea Gabrielle served as GEC director from February 11, 2019, to February 19, 2021.^[18]

In December 2022, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment of James P. Rubin as GEC Special Envoy and Coordinator, reporting to the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.^[19]

Activities

GEC's core work is divided into five interconnected areas, as summarized below:

1. Analytics and research: Collect data from foreign actors to produce and share analyzes on foreign malign information influence operations with stakeholders within the State Department.
2. International partnerships: Participate in international coalitions/partnerships with foreign governments to coordinate counter-disinformation analyzes and solutions.
3. Programs and campaigns: GEC houses teams focused on Russia, China, Iran, and Counterterrorism. It tailors initiatives and coordinates internally within the State Department, across agencies, and with international allies.
4. Exposure: Coordinate interagency exposure of foreign information influence activities.
5. Technology assessment and engagement: Host private-sector technology demonstrations, assess counter-disinformation technologies, and identify technological solutions.^[20]

In March 2020, then-GEC coordinator Lea Gabrielle testified^[21] at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing titled "The Global Engagement Center: Leading the United States Government's Fight Against Global Disinformation Threat."^[22] In October 2023, GEC Principal Deputy Coordinator Daniel Kimmage testified at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing titled "The Global Engagement Center: Helping or Hurting U.S. Foreign Policy."^[23]

GEC also issues grants to support research identifying foreign disinformation campaigns.^[24] It offered graduate students of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs multiple opportunities to collaborate, including on a study examining "Russian active measures on Twitter targeting American audiences with content regarding the Syrian conflict" in Spring 2019,^[25] and on a study analyzing seven aspects of China's global influence operations in Spring 2022.^[26]

Special report on China

In September 2023, the U.S. State Department published Global Engagement Center Special Report: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment.^[27][28] In what the Associated Press called "a first-of-its-kind-report",^[29] the State Department accused the Chinese government of using "deceptive and coercive methods" to influence public opinion.^[30] The methods discussed included buying content and acquiring stakes in newspapers and television networks outside China; coercing international organizations and media outlets to silence its critics; creating fake personas to spread disinformation; and using repression to shut down social media accounts.^[30][29] The New York Times wrote that the accusations "reflect worry in Washington that China’s information operations pose a growing security challenge to the United States and to democratic principles around the world by promoting 'digital authoritarianism.'"^[30]

Pre-empting disinformation

In October 2023, GEC took the unusual step of exposing a nascent disinformation campaign as it had barely gotten off the ground, publicly linking a Pressenza article recycling disinformation about a Russian Orthodox monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, to a covert operation to spread Russian propaganda in Central and South America.^[31]

Reception

Early critics of GEC, including Russia's state-run English-language news agency Sputnik, compared it to the "Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.^[32][33][34] One critic complained that it positioned the federal government as an "arbiter of truth" that could result in suppressing narratives that the White House did not agree with.^[32] A 2018 article in the Air Force Law Review examined several issues raised by GEC, including possible abridgment of freedom of the press, pointing out that "Under the First Amendment, arguably the very existence of a state-controlled entity that pronounces who is and is not 'fake' functions like an unconstitutional license on the press."^[32]

In 2017, some members of Congress, including Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Chris Murphy, co-sponsors of the FY2017 NDAA, criticized the lack of funding for GEC.^[2][35] Portman and others suggested that the agency had turned a corner in 2019 when it hired Lea Gabrielle, a former Navy pilot and intelligence officer who worked for Fox News, as head of the organization.^[33] As of May 2020, GEC had a staff of only 120.^[33] In April 2020, the inspector general for the State Department concluded that the GEC lacked safeguards to ensure that independent organizations it was working with were acting appropriately, such as when it funded a project called "Iran Disinfo" which aggressively targeted groups including the National Iranian American Council.^[33] Critics of the Trump administration also cited Trump's "lack of credibility on misinformation" as an impediment to advancing the agency's efforts to combat fake news.^[33]

In its analysis of GEC's response to the COVID-19 infodemic, The Cyber Defense Review noted that the agency had chosen to fund partner organizations rather than taking a direct role in fighting disinformation, and that it lacked a social media presence of its own.^[36] Explaining that GEC's predecessor agencies – the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, the Global Strategic Center, and the Counterterrorism Communication Center – had relied on partner entities to combat ISIS propaganda, Major Neill Perry argued that the approach was less effective in countering disinformation targeting American domestic audiences.^[36] In addition, Perry expressed concern that Congress had directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to create yet another agency, the Foreign Malign Influence Response Center (FMIRC), without specifying how it would collaborate and avoid duplication with GEC.^[36]

In February 2023, Elon Musk called the GEC "an obscure agency" and described it as "the worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation" and "a threat to our democracy."^[37][38][39]

In May 2023, Republicans Michael McCaul, Brian Mast, Chris Smith, Darrell Issa, Maria Elvira Salazar, Keith Self, Cory Mills, and Ken Buck co-authored an oversight letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which they alleged that GEC had strayed from its founding mission by facilitating censorship of conservative opinions in the U.S., among other things.^[40][41]

In a December 2023 Asia Society report titled "The New Domestic Politics of U.S.-China Relations," Evan S. Medeiros described the establishment of GEC as a dimension of the "new bureaucratic politics" of U.S. China policy. He wrote: "Although not focused specifically on China, Beijing’s propaganda efforts have been a central focus of its work, including by calling out various disinformation campaigns run by China. The GEC, for example, has been at the forefront of documenting parallel disinformation campaigns by Russia and China about U.S. activities in Ukraine meant to advance the Russian narrative to justify its 2022 invasion.”^[42]

Publications

Reports

• GEC Special Report: Russia’s Pillars of Disinformation and Propaganda, August 2020^[43]
• Report: RT and Sputnik’s Role in Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem, January 20, 2022^[44]
• PRC Efforts To Manipulate Global Public Opinion on Xinjiang, August 24, 2022^[45]
• Gendered Disinformation: Tactics, Themes, and Trends by Foreign Malign Actors, March 27, 2023^[46]
• Global Engagement Center Special Report: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment, September 28, 2023^[27]
• The Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine’s Children, August 24, 2023^[47]

See also

• Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act

References

1. "About Us – Global Engagement Center". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
2. Weed, Matthew C. (August 4, 2017). "Global Engagement Center: Background and Issues". Congressional Research Service. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
3. Dorell, Oren. "Information warriors: Here's how the U.S. is combating 'fake news' from Russia". USA TODAY. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
4. "Executive Order 13584 --Developing an Integrated Strategic Counterterrorism Communications Initiative". whitehouse.gov. September 9, 2011. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
5. "Developing an Integrated Global Engagement Center To Support Government-wide Counterterrorism Communications Activities Directed Abroad and Revoking Executive Order 13584". unblock.federalregister.gov. from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
6. "Global Engagement Center". 2009-2017.state.gov. from the original on September 12, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
7. "Engaging Through Messaging – The New Global Engagement Center". Council of American Ambassadors. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
8. Hall, Holly Kathleen (July 3, 2017). "The new voice of America: Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act". First Amendment Studies. 51 (2): 49–61. doi:10.1080/21689725.2017.1349618. ISSN 2168-9725. S2CID 157694345.
9. Weed, Matthew C. (August 4, 2017). "Global Engagement Center: Background and Issues" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. (PDF) from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
10. "Secretary Tillerson is doing the right thing, so why is Congress bashing him?". Brookings. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
11. "John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, Section 1284, Modifications to Global Engagement Center, P.L. 115-232". Congress.gov. from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
12. Klippenstein, Ken (May 5, 2023). "The Government Created a New Disinformation Office to Oversee All the Other Ones". The Intercept. from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
13. "Foreign Malign Influence Center". www.dni.gov. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
14. "The Intelligence Community's Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC)". Congressional Research Service. August 9, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
15. "A New Center for Global Engagement". U.S. Department of State. from the original on October 11, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
16. "Lumpkin, Michael D." U.S. Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
17. Jeangène Vilmer, J. B.; Escorcia, A.; Guillaume, M.; Herrera, J. (August 2018). Information Manipulation: A Challenge for Our Democracies (PDF). Paris, France: Report by the Policy Planning Staff (CAPS) of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM) of the Ministry for the Armed Forces. p. 118. ISBN 978-2-11-152607-5. (PDF) from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
18. . US Department of State. Archived from the original on June 21, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
19. "Appointment of James P. Rubin as Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
20. "About Us – Global Engagement Center". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
21. "Before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development "Executing the Global Engagement Center's Mission"" (PDF). Senate Foreign Relations Committee. March 5, 2020. (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
22. "THE GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT CENTER: LEADING THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL DISINFORMATION THREAT". www.foreign.senate.gov. March 5, 2020. from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
23. "The Global Engagement Center: Helping or Hurting U.S. Foreign Policy". Committee on Foreign Affairs. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
24. "SFOP0009762 Identify and Expose Kremlin Disinformation Networks, Department of State, Bureau of Global Public Affairs". www.grants.gov. June 16, 2023. Archived from the original on November 2, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
25. "Measuring the Impact and Effectiveness of Adversarial Propaganda and Disinformation | Columbia SIPA". www.sipa.columbia.edu. from the original on October 26, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
26. "Great Power Competition with a Focus on Influence Operations | Columbia SIPA". www.sipa.columbia.edu. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
27. "GEC Special Report: How the People's Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment". United States Department of State. from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
28. "Chinese Information Manipulation: A Conversation with Daniel Kliman | ChinaPower | CSIS Podcasts". www.csis.org. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
29. "The US warns of a Chinese global disinformation campaign that could undermine peace and stability". AP News. October 4, 2023. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
30. Myers, Steven Lee (September 28, 2023). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2023. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
31. Meyers, Steven Lee (October 26, 2023). "U.S. Tries New Tack on Russian Disinformation: Pre-Empting It". The New York Times. from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
32. Toronto, William D. (2018). "Fake News and Kill-Switches: The U.S. Government's Fight to Respond to and Prevent Fake News" (PDF). Air Force Law Review. 79. The Judge Advocate General, United States Air Force: 167–206. ISSN 0094-8381. (PDF) from the original on June 15, 2022. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
33. Brustein, Joshua (May 14, 2020). "The Tiny U.S. Agency Fighting Covid Conspiracy Theories Doesn't Stand a Chance". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Bloomberg L.P. from the original on October 29, 2023. Retrieved October 29, 2023 – via EBSCOHost.
34. Toosi, Nahal (August 2, 2017). "Tillerson spurns $80 million to counter ISIS, Russian propaganda". Politico. from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
35. "Murphy and Portman Call on State Department to Step Up Efforts to Counter ISIS and Russian Propaganda | U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut". www.murphy.senate.gov. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
36. Perry, Neill (Spring 2022). "The Global Engagement Center's Response to the Coronavirus Infodemic". The Cyber Defense Review. 7 (2): 131–138. JSTOR 48669297 – via JSTOR.
37. Casiano, Louis (February 6, 2023). "Twitter boss Elon Musk accuses government agency of being 'worst offender in US government censorship'". FOXBusiness. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
38. Gordon, Michael R.; Volz, Dustin (April 12, 2023). "WSJ News Exclusive | U.S. Steps Up Effort to Fight Against Russian Disinformation". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
39. Rawnsley, Adam (February 23, 2023). "Elon Musk's Twitter Goes Dark on Government Data Grabs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
40. "McCaul, HFAC Members Demand Answers on GEC's Role in Censorship". Committee on Foreign Affairs. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
41. "ICYMI – State Dept Absurdly Stands by Funding Conservative Blacklister | Representative Darrell Issa". issa.house.gov. May 31, 2023. from the original on October 28, 2023. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
42. "The New Domestic Politics of U.S.-China Relations". Asia Society. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
43. "GEC Special Report: Russia's Pillars of Disinformation and Propaganda". United States Department of State. from the original on September 6, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
44. "Report: RT and Sputnik's Role in Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem". United States Department of State. from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
45. "PRC Efforts To Manipulate Global Public Opinion on Xinjiang". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
46. "Gendered Disinformation: Tactics, Themes, and Trends by Foreign Malign Actors". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
47. "The Kremlin's War Against Ukraine's Children". United States Department of State. from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.

Further reading

• Stengel, Richard (2019). Information Wars: How we Lost the Battle Against Disinformation and What to Do About It. Grove Atlantic. ISBN 9780802147998.