Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-first Century

Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-first Century
Author: Scot Macdonald
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN:

This is the first book to analyze how the technology to alter images and rapidly distribute them can be used for propaganda and to support deception operations. In the past, propagandists and those seeking to conduct deception operations used crude methods to alter images of real people, events and objects, which could usually be detected relatively easily. Today, however, computers allow propagandists to create any imaginable image, still or moving, with appropriate accompanying audio. Furthermore, it is becoming extremely difficult to detect that an image has been manipulated, and the Internet, television and global media make it possible to disseminate altered images around the world almost instantaneously. Given that the United States is the sole superpower, few, if any, adversaries will attempt to fight the US military conventionally on the battlefield. Therefore, adversaries will use propaganda and deception, especially altered images, in an attempt to level the battlefield or to win a war against the United States without even having to fight militarily. Propaganda and Information Warfare in the 21st Century will be of great interest to students of information war, propaganda, public diplomacy and security studies in general.

Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century

Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Scot Macdonald
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2006-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135983518

This is the first book to analyze how the technology to alter images and rapidly distribute them can be used for propaganda and to support deception operations. In the past, propagandists and those seeking to conduct deception operations used crude methods to alter images of real people, events and objects, which could usually be detected relatively easily. Today, however, computers allow propagandists to create any imaginable image, still or moving, with appropriate accompanying audio. Furthermore, it is becoming extremely difficult to detect that an image has been manipulated, and the Internet, television and global media make it possible to disseminate altered images around the world almost instantaneously. Given that the United States is the sole superpower, few, if any, adversaries will attempt to fight the US military conventionally on the battlefield. Therefore, adversaries will use propaganda and deception, especially altered images, in an attempt to level the battlefield or to win a war against the United States without even having to fight militarily. Propaganda and Information Warfare in the 21st Century will be of great interest to students of information war, propaganda, public diplomacy and security studies in general.

Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare

Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare
Author: Ofer Fridman
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2018-10-31
Genre: Hybrid warfare
ISBN: 9781626377516

"What is hybrid warfare? And what role does information play in today's conflicts? In the context of the technological/information revolution of the last two decades—which has greatly amplified the danger posed by nonmilitary means of political struggle—Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare addresses these questions from the perspectives of both Western and Russian experts. Incorporating both theory and contemporary realities, including the case of the Islamic State, the authors offer a unique dialogue on the nature of conflict in the second decade of the twenty-first century."--Publisher's description.

Information Operations

Information Operations
Author: Joint Forces Staff College (U.S.)
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2011-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1597973556

The modern means of communication have turned the world into an information fishbowl and, in terms of foreign policy and national security in post-Cold War power politics, helped transform international power politics. Information operations (IO), in which time zones are as important as national boundaries, is the use of modern technology to deliver critical information and influential content in an effort to shape perceptions, manage opinions, and control behavior. Contemporary IO differs from traditional psychological operations practiced by nation-states, because the availability of low-cost high technology permits nongovernmental organizations and rogue elements, such as terrorist groups, to deliver influential content of their own as well as facilitates damaging cyber-attacks ("hactivism") on computer networks and infrastructure. As current vice president Dick Cheney once said, such technology has turned third-class powers into first-class threats. Conceived as a textbook by instructors at the Joint Command, Control, and Information Warfare School of the U.S. Joint Forces Staff College and involving IO experts from several countries, this book fills an important gap in the literature by analyzing under one cover the military, technological, and psychological aspects of information operations. The general reader will appreciate the examples taken from recent history that reflect the impact of IO on U.S. foreign policy, military operations, and government organization.

Threatcasting

Threatcasting
Author: Brian David Johnson
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2022-06-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 303102575X

Impending technological advances will widen an adversary’s attack plane over the next decade. Visualizing what the future will hold, and what new threat vectors could emerge, is a task that traditional planning mechanisms struggle to accomplish given the wide range of potential issues. Understanding and preparing for the future operating environment is the basis of an analytical method known as Threatcasting. It is a method that gives researchers a structured way to envision and plan for risks ten years in the future. Threatcasting uses input from social science, technical research, cultural history, economics, trends, expert interviews, and even a little science fiction to recognize future threats and design potential futures. During this human-centric process, participants brainstorm what actions can be taken to identify, track, disrupt, mitigate, and recover from the possible threats. Specifically, groups explore how to transform the future they desire into reality while avoiding an undesired future. The Threatcasting method also exposes what events could happen that indicate the progression toward an increasingly possible threat landscape. This book begins with an overview of the Threatcasting method with examples and case studies to enhance the academic foundation. Along with end-of-chapter exercises to enhance the reader’s understanding of the concepts, there is also a full project where the reader can conduct a mock Threatcasting on the topic of “the next biological public health crisis.” The second half of the book is designed as a practitioner’s handbook. It has three separate chapters (based on the general size of the Threatcasting group) that walk the reader through how to apply the knowledge from Part I to conduct an actual Threatcasting activity. This book will be useful for a wide audience (from student to practitioner) and will hopefully promote new dialogues across communities and novel developments in the area.

Challenging Online Propaganda and Disinformation in the 21st Century

Challenging Online Propaganda and Disinformation in the 21st Century
Author: Miloš Gregor
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030586243

Disinformation has recently become a salient issue, not just for researchers but for the media, politicians, and the general public as well. Changing circumstances are a challenge for system and societal resilience; disinformation is also a challenge for governments, civil society, and individuals. Thus, this book focuses on the post-truth era and the online environment, which has changed both the ways and forms in which disinformation is presented and spread. The volume is dedicated to the complex processes of understanding the mechanisms and effects of online propaganda and disinformation, its detection and reactions to it in the European context. It focuses on questions and dilemmas from political science, security studies, IT, and law disciplines with the aim to protect society and build resilience against online propaganda and disinformation in the post-truth era.

The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda

The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda
Author: Paul Baines
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 931
Release: 2019-11-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1526486237

The SAGE Handbook of Propaganda unpacks the ever-present and exciting topic of propaganda to explain how it invades the human psyche, in what ways it does so, and in what contexts. As a beguiling tool of political persuasion in times of war, peace, and uncertainty, propaganda incites people to take, often violent, action, consciously or unconsciously. This pervasive influence is particularly prevalent in world politics and international relations today. In this interdisciplinary Handbook, the editors have gathered together a group of world-class scholars from Europe, America, Asia, and the Middle East, to discuss leadership propaganda, war propaganda, propaganda for peace marketing, propaganda as a psychological tool, terror-enhanced propaganda, and the contemporary topics of internet-mediated propaganda. Unlike previous publications on the subject, this book brings to the forefront current manifestations and processes of propaganda such as Islamist, and Far Right propaganda, from interdisciplinary perspectives. In its four parts, the Handbook offers researchers and academics of propaganda studies, peace and conflict studies, media and communication studies, political science and governance marketing, as well as intelligence and law enforcement communities, a comprehensive overview of the tools and context of the development and evolution of propaganda from the twentieth century to the present: Part One: Concepts, Precepts and Techniques in Propaganda Research Part Two: Methodological Approaches in Propaganda Research Part Three: Tools and Techniques in Counter-Propaganda Research Part Four: Propaganda in Context

This Is Not Propaganda

This Is Not Propaganda
Author: Peter Pomerantsev
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1541762134

Learn how the perception of truth has been weaponized in modern politics with this "insightful" account of propaganda in Russia and beyond during the age of disinformation (New York Times). When information is a weapon, every opinion is an act of war. We live in a world of influence operations run amok, where dark ads, psyops, hacks, bots, soft facts, ISIS, Putin, trolls, and Trump seek to shape our very reality. In this surreal atmosphere created to disorient us and undermine our sense of truth, we've lost not only our grip on peace and democracy -- but our very notion of what those words even mean. Peter Pomerantsev takes us to the front lines of the disinformation age, where he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, "behavioral change" salesmen, Jihadi fanboys, Identitarians, truth cops, and many others. Forty years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, Pomerantsev finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia -- but the answers he finds there are not what he expected. Blending reportage, family history, and intellectual adventure, This Is Not Propaganda explores how we can reimagine our politics and ourselves when reality seems to be coming apart.

Information War

Information War
Author: Nancy Snow
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2011-01-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1609802446

In Information War, former United States Information Agency employee Nancy Snow describes how U.S. propaganda efforts and covert operations are expanding more rapidly today than at any other time in U.S. history, as the Bush administration attempts to increase U.S. dominance by curbing dissent and controlling opinion. Snow lays out the propaganda techniques that the government uses to control dissent in the twenty-first century, spotlights the key players and their spinmeistering abilities in the information war, and describes memorable "leaks" in the Administration’s efforts to conduct stealth propaganda programs and control information at home. Ultimately she shows that dissent and true democracy are the early casualties of these policies.

Battlefield of the Future - 21st Century Warfare Issues

Battlefield of the Future - 21st Century Warfare Issues
Author: Lawrence Grinter
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781478361886

This is a book about strategy and war fighting. It contains 11 essays which examine topics such as military operations against a well-armed rogue state, the potential of parallel warfare strategy for different kinds of states, the revolutionary potential of information warfare, the lethal possibilities of biological warfare and the elements of an ongoing revolution in military affairs. The purpose of the book is to focus attention on the operational problems, enemy strategies and threat that will confront U.S. national security decision makers in the twenty-first century.