U.S. Cultural Security Intelligence Work

In the era of digital informationization, the intelligence work in the field of cultural security is of vital importance, and the United States, as one of the world's superpowers, has reference and research value in the field of cultural security intelligence work.

Especially after 9/11, the U.S. deeply recognized the shortcomings of the intelligence system of separate departments. In a series of reforms, the U.S. has focused on building an information-sharing network across all departments.

The history of the United States after World War II is of particular reference value. Maintaining cultural security has always been an important part of the U.S. national security strategy.

After World War II, U.S. cultural security intelligence work has gone through three stages of evolution.

The first stage was during the Cold War.

At the end of World War II, the whole world was waiting to be reborn, but with the opposition between the socialist camp and the capitalist camp, the world entered the Cold War.

During this period, the United States began to formulate a cultural security strategy for foreign expansion, promoting American culture to the world and to the side of the enemy, which resulted in the first large-scale victory in cultural expansion and ideological foreign aggression in the history of the United States, and played a great role in the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and in the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The second stage was the period from 1991 to 2001, that is, from the end of the Cold War to 9/11.

During this period, the United States was overflowing with the cultural atmosphere of an ideological "savior", and its domestic scholars and some political elements tried very hard to find theoretical grounds for its cultural expansion: The End of History and the Last Man was published in 1992, and The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order was published in 1996.

The fact of the Cold War victory made American politicians and people develop a kind of cultural self-confidence, that is, the so-called "American way of life and cultural formations have been proved to be universal and the best", which strengthened the strategic determination of the United States to expand its foreign culture.

The third stage is from 9/11 to the present.

During this period, the U.S. cultural security strategy is mainly of two types: at the governmental level, extensive use of state power to safeguard cultural security and promote American-style democracy; and at the civil level, endorsement of American values through peddling of cultural products.

While launching military strikes against the so-called terrorist countries, the United States empowered government agencies to monitor, restrict, and close down cultural institutions linked to "terrorist organizations" or endangering U.S. national security; and guided leaders and producers of literature and art with a certain degree of influence in the field of the cultural industry to propagate the U.S. ideology and safeguard U.S. national security.

The purpose of the U.S. cultural security intelligence work is cultural hegemony, and the core is the export of values and ideology. As a superpower, the U.S. utilizes its scientific and technological strength, market scale, and financial capital to engage in cultural production and open up a global situation of cultural autocracy.

Based on this, when American policymakers formulate their own cultural security strategy, in addition to safeguarding national security, they also take the influence of their own ideology on the economic and democratic systems of other countries as one of their strategic goals, so as to infiltrate other regimes with their ideology.

The United States maintains cultural security through a variety of means. In the field of education, the United States has adopted different methods to defend and publicize the "superiority" of its own culture to its own people and to foreign people.

On the one hand, it instills the idea of "America First" in its own people through education. The famous American scholar Jerrill said that the United States is a country that pays special attention to ideology, and ensures the American people's sense of identity with the national culture through ideological education.

On the other hand, the United States attracts outstanding talents from all over the world through its good economic level and scientific and technological strength, and tries its best to educate these talents to stay and work in the United States, thus creating the appearance that the American culture is "very attractive".

In terms of cultural dissemination, the United States promotes American English on a global scale and heavily subsidizes some media companies, including ABC and CNN, but also VOA and WorldNet, which are directly sponsored by the government.

The United States maintains its cultural security through a variety of means, including the establishment of a large national intelligence socialization system, the establishment of international civil society organizations, and the reform of its own intelligence management system in keeping with the times.

For example, the Marvel Movie Series of the United States, from Iron Man in 2008 to Avengers 4: Endgame in 2019, has exported American values to the world in the form of cultural products that emphasize individualism, especially individual heroism, in the United States.