Sharp power and psychological operations Flashcards
Soft power
uses mechanisms such as values, culture and institutional policies
Hard Power
use of force, through military and economic power
Sharp Power
pierces, penetrates, or perforates the political and information environments in the targeted countries
pramuša, prasiskverbia arba perforuoja politinę ir informacinę aplinką tikslinėse šalyse
Sharp Power examples
Stealing information and release it after
False stories and fake social media
Interrupt information flows
Both push and pull
Heritage from Soviet Times
Dezinformatsiya
Distributed denial of services
Phising attacks
key steps that can be taken to address the malign efforts
- Address the shortage of information on China and Russia
- Unmask authoritarian influence
- Inoculate democratic societies against malign authoritarian influence
Reaffirm support for democratic values and ideals
Reconceptualize ‘soft power.’
WHAT IS PSYOPS?
tactics intended to manipulate one’s opponents or enemies, such as the dissemination of propaganda or the use of psychological warfare.
There are three main types of PSYOP and several examples of strategic, tactical, operational, and consolidation PSYOP:
Propaganda is divided into
● white
● gray
Grey Propaganda is a type of Propaganda where the correct source of the information is never directly credited and the sponsor’s identity is concealed.
● black classes and present the various resources of psychological
operations.
General Principles:
- Adequate intelligence
- Coherent organization
- Sound planning
- A systematic evaluation of feedback
- The program must extend beyond words to actions-and
actions must be an extension of words.
Development of the US PSYOP
WW2. The German soldier who has this safe conduct agrees to surrender and receive assistance from allies.
WW2. A leaflet asks troops to choose between surrendering today and saving their lives or the hell tomorrow.
Korean war. Cartoon leaflet discussing false promises made to drafted soldiers in the North Korean army.
PSYOPS Master plan of 1985
- Create and develop one joint PSYOPS doctrine
- Develop and train PSYOPS specialists
- Educate every officer and troop about PSYOPS
- Modernize all PSYOPS forces with personnel and equipment
PSYOPS units
Key missions:
● Influence with information
● Deliberately deceive and
mislead an enemy
● Advise governments
● Provide communications for
rescue efforts
Examples of the US Psy-op
Operation in Philippines
After a war with Japan, In 1946 the US granted the Philippines its independence, but with the stipulation that the US maintained expansive control of the country’s economy. In time, a civil war broke out in the Philippines. The Huks (hukbalahap) were rebelling against the government, so the US had to intervene. Edward G. Lansdale found that the people on the surrounding countryside were very superstitious and he initiated a few operations that used their beliefs against them. In one of these attempts, Landsdale found that locals believed a vampire-like mythical creature asuang was roaming the hills. So Landsdale sent a psywar squad to enter the town and plant rumours that an asuang lived in the neighbouring hill where there Huks were based. They gave two days for the rumours to circulate. The team later kidnapped one of the Huks rebels, poked two holes in their neck in a vampire fashion, drained their blood and left the body in the area for the Huks to find. Once they did, the remaining forces quickly left the area.
Social media and Psychological operations
Twitter and Meta identified networks of fake accounts that “consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies” and are believed to be connected to the US military.
