American Cyberscape: Trials and The Path to Trust - Major General Mari K Eder

Major General Mari K. Eder, U.S. Army retired, is the former Army Deputy Chief of Public Affairs. She also served as Director of Public Affairs at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and as an adjunct professor and lecturer in communications and public diplomacy at the NATO School and Sweden’s International Training Command. In 2017 she was inducted into the Army Public Affairs Hall of Fame and received the Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in strategic communication. She currently serves as Board Secretary and Trustee with the U.S. Army War College Foundation; this year she authored the foreword to the College’s new Communications Campaign Planning Primer. Trust is unraveling across American institutions, affecting not only government but also news organizations, trusted sources of information and, most critically, expertise and values. The impact is not just institutional, the decay also affects individuals, families and shared norms. The very foundations of American civic culture seem increasingly at risk. All the while, technology continues to act as an accelerant, speeding up societal change and challenging our abilities to keep pace while controlling our responses. Uncovering the multivariate sources of these challenges is work that demands rigorous, ongoing investigation. As with any investigation, a solid place to start is a requirement. In American Cyberscape: Trials and the Path to Trust, Mari Eder examines the sources of decay in trust and offers solutions to lead us to firmer terrains of shared truth. By grounding the topography of cyberspace and drawing on wide-ranging expertise and experience, both scholarly and practical, American Cyberscape shows pathways to improve outcomes for everyone. In addition to numerous military awards and recognitions, she received the Vatican award of the Knight, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great from Pope Benedict XVI in 2011. Major General Eder is the author of “Leading the Narrative: The Case for Strategic Communication,” published by the Naval Institute Press. A novel is pending publication.