Psychological warfare

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Collage from different PSYOP methods

Radio message to Libyan troops, international military operation in Libya 2011

The expression psychological warfare (English: Psychological warfare (PSYWAR)) describes in the military and warfare all methods and measures to influence the behavior and attitudes of opposing armed forces and foreign civil populations in the context of or in advance of military operations . Targeted misinformation is used to influence the strategic considerations of the opponent. Among other things, psychological warfare is a method used by secret services, such as was used, for example, with the so-called decomposition in the pre-reunification period by the Ministry for State Security of the GDR.

term

The term "psychological warfare" is considered problematic and offensive. The use of military power no longer extends to the level of local armed conflict, but is globalized through the mass media . It therefore often operated with euphemistic terms such as "peace" or " stabilization " in tension or conflict areas (eg. UN - peace missions ) and endeavors that were previously unveiled terminology to change accordingly.

In NATO - parlance , the term "Psychological Operations" (PSYOP) has prevailed, as a parallel discipline to MEDIAOPS ( Media Operations ), which for the civilian use of language Public Relations is to understand / media relations. PSYOPS and MEDIAOPS are sub-areas of INFOOPS ( Informational Operations ).

Decision-making and command channels correspond to these conceptual differences and hierarchical assignments. The Bundeswehr developed Operative Information (OPINFO) as a specific form or doctrine of psychological warfare , which in a certain way summarizes the NATO terminology.

history

Psychological warfare was first developed and fully applied in the Middle Ages in Mongolian warfare . Less subtle methods were used in the course of the military reforms of Genghis Khan , the leader of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century AD. The Mongols preferred to break the will of the enemy before attacking. They demanded complete submission from the settlements and cities and threatened them with complete destruction if they refused. When they had to fight to conquer the respective settlement, the Mongolian generals complied with their threats and massacred the survivors as a deterrent. Stories of the migrating horde spread to the nearest villages, creating an aura of uncertainty and fear that undermined the possibility of future resistance.

During the Second World War , both the Axis Powers and the Allies relied on psychological warfare.

• This included, on the part of the USA and Great Britain , having famous German exiles like Thomas Mann appeal to the German population by radio .
• From the Soviet Union , members of the National Committee for Free Germany, over loudspeakers at the front , called on members of the Armed Forces to "defeat" or to voluntarily take prisoners.
• The Jericho trumpet on the Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber .
• According to the maxim that it is not important whether something is true, it is only important whether something works, Germany employed astrologers like Karl Ernst Krafft , whereupon the British with Louis de Wohl - horoscopes and Nostradamus - interpretations (and falsifications) countered, which were distributed in the form of leaflets . For example, the generals Erwin Rommel and Bernard Montgomery were compared.
• The material of the propaganda troops served under National Socialism, among other things, the creation of the German newsreel , with which the population as well as the opponents of the regime should be influenced propagandistically .

Methods

Anything that disturbs, diminishes or destroys the morale of the opposing forces or falsifies their perception counts as a method of psychological warfare. Propaganda and gas lighting are just as much a part of it as brutal examples of deterrence. The direct use of military means can also contain elements of psychological warfare. For example, maneuvers close to the territory of a potential opponent can weaken his will to fight or raids in the hinterland can lead to uncertainty among opposing troops.

Classic methods or media of psychological warfare are also the distribution of handouts, the delivery of leaflets by plane, balloon, grenade or rocket, loudspeaker calls or radio transmitters. The knowledge of modern advertising psychology is used : leaflets were produced in the style of the respective national currency during the Second World War and at first glance they could hardly be distinguished from a banknote lying on the street.

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  Influence through loudspeakers in Afghanistan by the 9th Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Battalion

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  A leaflet dropped on Germany by the 8th Air Force during World War II

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  An American Blackhawk drops leaflets over Iraq

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  The United States 301st PSYOP Company is giving away school supplies to an Iraqi school.

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  American soldiers distribute the Baghdad Now newspaper

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  Leaflets dropped over Herat ( Afghanistan )

See also

• Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group
• Winning hearts and minds
• Center for operational communication in the Bundeswehr

literature

• Paul Linebarger : Psychological Warfare. Reprint of 2nd edition from 1954. Arno Press, New York NY 1972, ISBN 0-405-04755-X .
• Ellic Howe : The black propaganda. An inside story on the UK's top secret operations during World War II. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09673-5 .
• John R. MacArthur : The Battle of Lies. How the USA sold the Gulf War (= dtv. 30352). Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-30352-2 .
• Anne Morelli : The Principles of War Propaganda. zu Klampen, Springe am Deister 2004, ISBN 3-934920-43-8 .
• Gert Sommer, Albert Fuchs (Ed.): War and Peace. Handbook of Conflict and Peace Psychology . Beltz, Weinheim et al. 2004, ISBN 3-621-27536-3 .
• Andreas Elter : The war sellers. History of US propaganda 1917–2005 (= edition suhrkamp . 2415). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-518-12415-3 .

Web links

Commons : Psychological Warfare  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Tyler Wall: US - Psychological Warfare and Civilian Influence US Psychological Warfare and Civilian Targeting . United States: Vanderbilt University (September 2010), p. 289, Retrieved January 10, 2018.
2. ^ Johannes von Plano Carpini :  News from the Mongols. 1245-1247 . Introduced, translated and explained by Felicitas Schmieder, Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1997, ISBN 3-7995-0603-9
3. ↑ David Nicolle:  The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hulegu, Tamerlane  (2004) p, 21.
4. ↑ See Ellic Howe : Uranias Kinder. The strange world of the astrologers and the Third Reich. Beltz Athenaeum, Weinheim 1995, ISBN 3-89547-710-9 .
5. ↑ SC Chekinov; SA Bogdanov: The Nature and Content of a New-Generation War ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  (PDF). United States: Military Thought. P. 16, ISSN  0869-5636 . Retrieved January 10, 2018. 
6. ^ Béla Szunyogh: (1955),  Psychological warfare; an introduction to ideological propaganda and the techniques of psychological warfare . United States: William-Frederick Press. S, 13. Retrieved January 10, 2018.