The United States’ Strategic Political Communication and the Production of a Strategy Video Game “With an Authentic Iraqi Feel”

This article deals with a unique case study that has never been studied before in which the U.S. Department of Defense funded the production and distribution of a strategy video game during its occupation of Iraq between 2003–2011. Using a freedom of information request, a number of unclassified documents were obtained by the author, which included details of vast media campaigns, including the production of a prodemocracy strategy video game. There was never any attribution of the real video game maker, allegedly to enhance its credibility among its Iraqi users. After obtaining the game from Iraq and surveying the literature on the use of video games by various militaries, I offer a critical assessment of the game itself, highlighting the ideals and values that the U.S. government wanted to emphasize in its concealed information operation to the Iraqi public. Using the theoretical framework of strategic political communication, I argue that the objective of this video game was to manufacture Iraqi citizens who believed in the democratic process and the rule of law, yet who could also indirectly serve the U.S. strategic interests in Iraq.