Strategic Communication Laboratories
Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) claims to have been formed in 1993 and that
- 'The demand for the agency grew out of the failure and frustration many clients experienced when trying to apply traditional marketing techniques to non-commercial issues, such as resolution of wars and civil strife, strike aversion, international crises and riot control.' [1]
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, the opening page of SCL's website clearly states its objective:
- "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public opinion is greater than he who enacts laws." [2]
Posibly Lincoln — with his famous adage 'you can fool some of the people most of the time...' — was not the most appropriate choice. But what exactly SCL do is not immediately obvious from their description of themselves. They are pioneers of "a new methodology" and this methodology was based on "16 years of academic research and development conducted at 42 universities around the globe." Is it voodoo, astral projection?
- "The methodology uses 'scientific techniques' from a variety of social sciences to make ‘communications with groups’ far more effective (and measurable)."
What this scientific methodology does is enable governments 'and countries' to 'manage their relationships with their key audience groups through more powerful communication.' SCL offers various solutions based on this methodology to help countries in specific governmental areas such as defence, foreign affairs, internal security, health, finance and tourism. The site also tells us that SCL are the 'leading supplier of strategic communications, information operations and [public diplomacy] to governments and military clients around the world'.
Public diplomacy, information operations and strategic communication are the polite terms for propaganda, spin and psychological operations,
a further look at the site reveals that this methodology has a name (and an institiute) 'Behavioural Dynamics Institute'.
In a world where the perception is the reality, all countries need to have the capability to manage their own perceptual alignment – otherwise someone else will.
The company pledges strict confidentiality, saying that "absolutely no information concerning any of our past projects will be made available under any circumstances".[3] However, Oakes has admitted working in South Africa, but refused to talk about any other cliets.
Contents
Board of Directors
- The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Pattie Chairman
- Nigel Oakes Chief Executive Officer
- Alex Oakes Director
- Alexander Nix Director
- Roger Gabb Director
- Julian Wheatland Director
- Rear Admiral John G Tolhurst CB FRAeS Advisory Board
- The Rt. Hon. Sir James Mitchell Advisory Board
- John Bottomley FCIS Company Secretary
- Ian Tunnicliffe Director of Information Operations
- Dr Andrew Stewart Advisory Board
- Lord Birdwood Advisory Board
- Lord Ivar MountbattenAdvisory Board
- Professor Phil Taylor BA PhD – Behavioural Dynamics Institute Advisory Board
- Gavin McNicoll Advisory Board
Address
33 St James's Square London SW1Y 4JS United Kingdom
Tel : 020 7930 3500 Fax : 0870 428 0844 Email : opcentre@scl.cc [5]
Notes on the building
According to their website, the current address Strategic Communications Laboratories claims to be based out of (as seen above) houses 18 separate companies. Some of these include Anglo & International Corporate Finance Ltd, Kobe Steel Europe Ltd, and Scotland & Associates to name a few, however SCL is not listed as one. [6]
The Website
http://www.whois.net describes Strategic Communication Laboratories website as being registered as follows:
Domain Name: SCL.CC
Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: DNS19.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS20.REGISTER.COM
Status: CLIENT-XFER-PROHIBITED Updated Date: 10-aug-2006
Creation Date: 16-sep-2004
Expiration Date: 16-sep-2015 [7]
Partners
Strategic Communication Laboratories have two partners Advanced Strategic Initiatives, Inc. and VT.
notes
- ^http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=2
- ^http://www.scl.cc/contactscl.php
- ^http://www.scl.cc/home.php
- ^http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/addressfinder;jsessionid=MNZPRLEAXSAPSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K?catId=400145&pageId=pcaf_a_ma_results&_requestid=106779&gear=postcode
- ^ www.whois.net, accessed 14/02/07
- ^http://www.scl.cc/staff.php
- ^Sunday Times (06/08/2000) http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/business/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T1139394225&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T1139394227&cisb=22_T1139394226&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=10939&docNo=12
