WASHINGTON- As special adviser for international communication, Floyd is one of the Pentagon’s most important people for formulating and overseeing public communications for the armed forces. He was instrumental in launching the Defense Department’s modern web site, defense.gov, in 2009 and has also developed an extensive social media presence for the services, which included close to 3,000 Twitter followers in spring 2010.
In his current position, Floyd is charged with using new media to foster better relations between the Pentagon and its overseas constituents. A particular emphasis of his work will be to use the web to instill in young Europeans the importance of the NATO alliance.
Path to Power
Floyd grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas. He cites his father’s work as a key influence in shaping his career trajectory.
“My father worked for Bell Helicopter, so he was always bringing home people from different countries,” he says. “We’d have people from Germany, Israel, and South Africa stay with us in our home and that began a lifelong interest in geography, international affairs, history, and political science.”
After graduating from Texas Wesleyan, Floyd began a long career at the State Department in 1990, working for the assistant secretary of State for European Affairs.
Floyd’s career took him to Europe in 1993 where he served as deputy envoy to the government of Montenegro on behalf of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY). In this position, he reported on the Montenegrin government’s compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions to stop the flow of banned weapons to Bosnian-Serb controlled parts of Bosnia.
After working in the Balkans for two years and serving another two years at the U.S. embassy in Bonn, Germany, Floyd returned to the U.S. to work for then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and as executive assistant to then-State Department Spokesman James Rubin.
Price Floyd talks about a trip to Israel that shaped his future (Paul Schott/MNS)
Floyd continued his work at State’s Office of Media Affairs. As deputy director and then director, he oversaw print, broadcast, and web-based communications for major foreign policy initiatives related to the war in Iraq, elections in Afghanistan, and the global war on terrorism.
He left the State Department in 2007 to join the then-new think tank, Center for New American Security (CNAS). As director of external relations, Floyd was instrumental in launching CNAS into prominence in the American policy-making community.
“We took a small think tank that nobody had heard of and turned it into one of the most prominent think tanks in the country,” he says.
In 2009, Floyd returned to government when he became the principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at Defense. The position entailed management of public information, internal information and leading a public affairs community of approximately 3,800 military and civilian personnel.
In May 2010, Floyd was named special adviser for international communication, a position that focuses on online outreach efforts by the Pentagon to audiences overseas, especially in NATO member countries.
Social Media
Since he returned to the public sector in 2009, Floyd has emerged as a “social media czar.” Graham, Ian, “Social Media Policy Balances Web 2.0 with Security,” American Forces Press Service, March 2, 2010.
Price Floyd talks about how social media has helped the armed forces (Paul Schott/MNS)
“What I think is important with social media is to try to connect one-on-one with people but in a way that is viewed by thousands,” he says. “So if I have three thousand followers on Twitter, I may only be engaging with one person but everyone else who wants to can see that engagement so it’s very transparent.”
Floyd adds the Pentagon’s embrace of social media has had a demonstrable effect on the men and women serving in the armed forces.
“Anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that morale is helped by this [social media],” he says.
The Issues
A major focus of Floyd’s work is monitoring and improving the global perception of America. While coherent and ongoing public communication with overseas constituencies is important, he stresses that America’s foreign policy ultimately influences opinions abroad.
“The rest of the world will judge America by what it does, as it always has, so we need to make sure we’re focused on that,” he says. “Communicating our actions is important but not more important than the actions themselves.”
Price Floyd discusses how his Texan background helped him to bridge cultural divides in Montenegro (Paul Schott/MNS)
He says America can build a favorable image by engaging in humanitarian efforts.
“If you saw how the people of Indonesia perceived the U.S. after the tsunami and our response to that, support for the U.S. went up dramatically,” he says. “Same thing happened in Pakistan after the earthquake. The relief efforts we provided in Pakistan improved what people thought of us.”
The Network
Floyd reports directly to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Douglas Wilson, but also has frequent conversations with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Indeed, Floyd says it was Gates who encouraged him to develop the Pentagon’s social media infrastructure.
“He’s the one who pushed me to make sure we were doing what we could with social media to reach what he would call the key audience, which is 18-25 year-olds,” he says. “Those are the main people at the Pentagon and in the armed forces, and he wanted to be able to reach out to them.”
He helped found the prominent foreign policy think tank Center for a New American Security with Defense heavyweights Michele Flournoy, an Obama under secretary of defense, and Kurt Campbell, an Obama assistant secretary of state.