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.

Introduced in 1998 by the Department of Defense, the concept of information operations (IO) proposed to revolutionize the ways in which warfare, diplomacy, and business were conducted. However, this transformation has not come to fruition. Two large gaps remain: between policy and theory, and between the funding needs of IO initiatives and the actual funds the federal bureaucracy is willing to provide to support these operations. These two discrepancies are central to the overall discussions of Information Operations Matters. Leigh Armistead explains why these gaps exist and suggests ways to close them. Also in discussing best practices in IO, he clarifies how the key agencies of the U.S. government can use the inherent power of information to better conduct future strategic communication campaigns. Information Operations Matters presents a more pragmatic approach to IO, recommending that IO policy be made surrounding usable concepts, definitions, theories, and capabilities that are attainable with the resources available. To meet the threats of the future as well as those facing us today, Armistead argues, it is necessary to use this new area of operations to the greatest extent possible.

A no-nonsense treatment of information operations, this handbook makes clear what does and does not fall under information operations, how the military plans and executes such efforts, and what the role of IO ought to be in the war of ideas. Paul provides detailed accounts of the doctrine and practice of the five core information operations capabilities (psychological operations, military deception, operations security, electronic warfare, and computer network operations) and the three related capabilities (public affairs, civil-military operations, and military support to public diplomacy). The discussion of each capability includes historical examples, explanations of tools and forces available, and current challenges faced by that community. An appendix of selected excerpts from military doctrine ties the work firmly to the military theory behind information operations. Paul argues that contemporary IO's mixing of capabilities focused on information content with those focused on information systems conflates apples with the apple carts. This important study concludes that information operations would be better poised to contribute to the war of ideas if IO were reorganized, separating content capabilities from systems capabilities and separating the employment of black (deceptive or falsely attributed) information from white (wholly truthful and correctly attributed) information.

Information operations involve the use of military information and how it is gathered, manipulated, and fused. It includes such critical functions as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, communications, and precision navigation. Separating myth from reality, this authoritative resource provides military professionals with a current and comprehensive understanding of information warfare operations planning, including offensive, defensive, and influence operations. The book identifies the features of information operations that differ from traditional military operations and reveals why this discipline is more important now than ever before. Professionals discover new planning tools that have been brought together under a single platform to become the next Information Operations Planning Tool for the U.S. Department of Defence. Additionally, the book defines and identifies new threats and opportunities, and explains why the U.S. is not yet winning the war for the minds.

Clarifies a critical topic for today's leaders

Volume 7, Perceptions Are Reality: Historical Case Studies of Information Operations in Large-Scale Combat Operations, is a collection of ten historical case studies from World War II through the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine. The eleventh and final chapter looks forward and explores the implications of the future information environment across the range of military operations during both competition and conflict. The case studies illustrate how militaries and subnational elements use information to gain a position of relative advantage during large-scale combat. The intent of this volume is to employ history to stimulate discussion and analysis of the implications of information operations in future LSCO by exploring past actions, recognizing and understanding successes and failures, and offering some lessons learned from each author's perspective.

Future U.S. national security strategy is likely to be profoundly affected by the ongoing, rapid evolution of cyberspace--the global information infrastructure--and in particular by the growing dependence of the U.S. military and other national institutions and infrastructures on potentially vulnerable elements of the U.S. national information infrastructure. To examine these effects, the authors conducted a series of exercises employing a methodology known as the Day After ... in which participants are presented with an information warfare crisis scenario and asked to advise the president on possible responses. Participants included senior national security community members and representatives from security-related telecommunications and information-systems industries. The report synthesizes the exercise results and presents the instructions from the exercise materials in their entirety.