The History of US Psychological Operations: Postwar Occupations (Part 5)

The most devastating war in modern human history was over, but with two of the most prominent militaries now locked in ideological and political differences. Despite this, the U.S. was once again willing to demobilize most of her military besides what was necessary to enforce occupation duties in former axis nations. For example, in 1945, […]

Russia orders Telegram app to be banned

Russia has recently begun blocking Amazon and Google IPs en masse — 1.8 million, as of now. The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, otherwise known as Roskomnadzor, is the governmental body responsible for censorship in the media throughout Russia. On Friday, they began to block the Telegram app, a ruling […]

American Universities and Influence Research

Recently, you’ve probably heard a lot about Influence Activities or Influence Operations, usually in the context of Russia and the 2016 election. For many Americans, this topic may seem to have come out of nowhere. At SOFREP though, we’ve been talking about it for a long time. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and […]

The history of US Psychological Operations: Psychological warfare abroad

As we discussed in Part 3, the domestic home front became a battle for ideas and slogans as the Roosevelt administration pushed the nation to get ready for war. FDR established the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI), based on the directions of Colonel William Donovan. Col Donovan spent considerable time with British officials, and […]

How the Pentagon Places SOF Soldier’s Minds in Boxes

Like many organizations, the military sometimes substitutes style over substance, particularly when it concerns systemic problems in training and execution. Despite more than a decade of fighting an unconventional enemy, and an immeasurable amount of lip service paid to out-of-the-box and disruptive thinking, when the rubber meets the road, unique or innovative proposals are almost […]

Is PSYOP a Lesser Trade?

I was amused by Loren Schofield’s satirical article about the Army making PSYOP an “all-women trade.” Even DuffelBlog referred to PSYOP soldiers as “highly-trained radio guards” for Special Forces ODAs.