Matthew Armstrong

In 2013-2017, Matt served as a Governor, a Senate-confirmed Presidential appointment, on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, since renamed the US Agency for Global Media. In 2011, Matt was the Executive Director of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy which supports Congress, the Secretary of State, and the President by providing “advocacy and oversight over US government efforts that intend to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics.”

In October 2015 and March 2017, he testified before Congress on information warfare. In October 2016, he was inducted into the Psychological Operations Regiment at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School as an Honorary Member.

Matt earned a BA in International Relations and a Master of Public Diplomacy from the University of Southern California. He also studied European security and the Middle East at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Matt resides outside of Zürich, Switzerland, with his wife, two teenagers, a cat, and a dog (a rescue from a Romanian shelter).

 

Research Interests

• Public diplomacy
• Political warfare
• Information warfare
• Strategic communication

 

Publications

• Armstrong, Matt. “Operationalizing Public Diplomacy.” In Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, edited by Nancy Snow, and Nicholas John Cull. New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.
• Armstrong, Matt. “The Politics of Information Warfare in the US.” In Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare: New Labels, Old Politics, edited by Ofer Fridman, Vitaly Kabernik, and James C. Pearce, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2018.
• Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, “Crafting an Info Warfare & Counter-Propaganda Strategy for the Emerging Security Environment” on March 25, 2017. 
• Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, “Countering Adversarial Propaganda: Charting an Effective Course in the Contested Information Environment” on October 22, 2015. 
• Powers, Shawn, and Matt Armstrong. “Conceptualizing Radicalization in a Market for Loyalties.” In Visual Propaganda and Extremism in the Online Environment, edited by Carol Winkler, and Cori Elizabeth Dauber, x, 242 pages. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press, 2014.
• Armstrong, Matt. “Operationalizing Public Diplomacy.” In Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, edited by Nancy Snow, and Philip M. Taylor, xx, 382 p. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Various at https://mountainrunner.us

 

Thesis

Armed for the war we wanted, not the war being waged: The Freedom Academy and losing the ‘cold war’ 1945-1965

Supervisors

Dr Kate Utting (First Supervisor)

Dr Geraint Hughes (Second Supervisor)