“Soft Power” Brig. Gen. Les A. Kodlick, Director, Public Affairs, SECAF

This year's Air Warfare Symposium marked the first time the director of Public Affairs for SECAF has led a session at an AFA symposium!General Kodlick’s speech was a strong one, focused on the message the Air Force sends and how successfully that message is received by people. “Our messages lack credibility because we haven’t followed through on our promises; credibility is the goal,” Kodlick said while emphasizing the importance of setting a leadership example with communication.
 

In regards to the advances in social media, Kodlick insists these new media outlets are just another tool in the communications toolbox, citing that if the Facebook population was a nation, it would be the third largest in the world. Considerably, that is a lot of people communicating and sharing information on one platform. 

Kodlick defines “soft power” as the conceptual link to forming partnerships by using all communication abilities to bring facts to the global community, and points out that “Congress can make a General, but communications can make a Commanding General”. We must harness the power of innovative communication and change how we use it, because the enemy is doing just that.