Topic:

What is Psychological Warfare?

Instructor: Salman Ali

What is Psychological Warfare?

According to Dictionary: the use of psychological

tactics to destroy the opponents morale

The use of propaganda or other psychological
means to influence or confuse the thinking,
undermine the morale, etc. of an enemy or
opponent
Psychological warfare involves the planned use
of propaganda and other psychological
operations to influence the opinions, emotions,
attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups

The real battlefield is the

mind:

When this word

originated?
The word Psychological warfare was first

used in 1920 and psychological operations

in 1945.
The British military analyst and historian, J.
F. C. Fuller, is believed to have been the
one who coined the term "psychological
warfare," when in 1920, in a scholarly
analysis of lessons learned during World
War I.

What actually it means and its

target audience?
Psychological Warfare(PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of

modernpsychological operations(PSYOP), have been

known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops,
Political Warfare, "Hearts and Minds," andPropaganda
Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Psychological Warfare
(PSYWAR) is simply learning everything about your target
enemy, their beliefs, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses,
and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your
target, you are ready to begin psychological operations.
Who can be the target audience?
Target audiences can be governments, organizations,
groups and individuals.

A psychological warfare campaign is a war

of the mind. Your primary weapons are

sight and sound. It can bedisseminatedby
face-to-face communication, audio visual
means (television), audio media (radio or
loudspeaker),visual media (leaflets,
newspapers, books, magazines and/or
posters). The weapon is not how its sent,
but the message it carries and how that
message affects the recipient.

For Example:
In 2013 : According to aFox Newsreport, Call of Duty:

Black Ops II and Medal of Honour: Warfighter are two

war-themed games where the player gets to shoot
enemies and, according to shop owners and videogamers, show Pakistan and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) as supporting terrorist organisations,
including al Qaeda.
The problem is that there are things that are against
Pakistan and they have included criticism of our country.
They show the country in a very poor light.
These (games) have been developed against the
countrys national unity and sanctity. They have been
developed against Pakistan. These games are part of
psychological warfare.

Psychological warfare is an art adopted to

defeat the enemy's will to fight. It

predominantly aims to win the battle before
it starts. It is aimed at convincing the
enemy that:a. Your equipment and war assets are
obsolete.
b. You are being commanded by
inefficient commanders.
c. Your basic human rights are being
suppressed.
Thus a state of discomfort is created in a
society which gives rise to frustration,

Major Factors:
Two major factors contributing to physiological warfare
are propaganda and rumour.
Propaganda;
According to International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences,

'Propaganda is the relatively deliberate manipulation, by

means of symbols (words, gestures, flags, images, monuments,
music etc) of other people's thoughts or actions, with respect
to beliefs, values and behaviours which these people (reactors)
regard as controversial. ED Martin says, 'Propaganda offers
ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd'.
Rumour;
In defining a rumour one can say it is an information on news

without verification, content oriented.

Gordon Allport has defined it as 'we know that rumours

concerning a subject matter will circulate within a group in

proportion to the importance and the ambiguity of the subject
matter in the lives of individual members of the group'.
RH Knapp in 'A psychology of rumour' published in 1944

Weapons of psychological warfare used by media

Media holds a crucial position in our life in the modern

world. It has certainly helped this earth in becoming a

global village. It has made the man more aware,
systematic and sophisticated. But there are other
aspect of media which has caused havoc in our lives
with out our realization.
Various techniques are used that are aimed to
influence the target audiences value systems, belief
systems, emotions, motives and behavior. It in fact
controls the human mind and heart.
We are truthful to say that it has rather become a
weapon of psychological warfare.

Weapons of psychological warfare

used by media:
There are various techniques used by the

media controlling elite to

monitorpsychological warfare. The
greatest social messages are promoted
through movies, dramas in short by
television, throughfixation of motive
sequences (not logical or factual) but
emotional sequences, thrusting their point
across in an emotional way which gets
registered and fixed in the back of the
viewers mind without even he realizing it.
Since the mind is being fed with entirely
new ideas, the censor part of the brain is