IO - Discredited Tool or User Failure?

A paper has been recently published by the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) entitled "U.S. Governmental Information Operations and Strategic Communications: A Discredited Tool or User Failure? Implications for Future Conflict", by Steve Tatham, December 2013. The manuscript was funded by the U.S. Army War College External Research Associates Program. The author uses the experience of information operations (IO) in Afghanistan "to identify the shortcomings of U.S. strategic communications - particularly the tendency to rely on contractors using methods drawn from advertising and marketing". The document can be read online or download (Adobe Acrobat PDF) from the SSI website at this link.