At a press conference given by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Sunday (April 14), Taiwan's
PSYOPS Center Director Wang I-hung introduced new snack food packaging called "surrender foods" to be used for propaganda purposes as part of its "psychological warfare foods" campaign.
Chinese strategic literature particularly emphasizes the role of
psyops, legal warfare, and public opinion warfare--collectively known as the three warfares--to subdue an enemy ahead of conflict or ensure victory if conflict breaks out.
An example of a common
PSYOPs technique is "free floating fear," an amorphous, intangible, ever-present anxiety-provoking state of mind.
(25.) Lieutenant Robert Pfohman, "Charlie's Pen Pals:
PSYOPS Squadron Gets the Word to the Enemy, The Hurricane: A Publication of II Field Force in Vietnam, number 13, November 1968, p.
Similar subversion can allow data collection at such high resolution as to permit individuals to be simulated; this knowledge permits
PSYOPs to be optimized; compromising media creates new conduits for persuasion or the manipulation of fear.
The
psyops (psychological operations) are part of the history of warfare.
The Non-Lethal Effects Chief, usually the S5 or S7, is the lead for non-lethal targeting, including using Inform and Influence Activities (IIA),
PSYOPs, Military Deception, Civil Affairs, etc.
Welch claims that, in the twenty-first century, '
psyops' or psychological warfare came of age; continuing the war metaphor, he describes the 'war on terror' and 'asymmetrical warfare', which is the use of propaganda by a smaller nation against a much larger one.
Another important area to which Military Psychology can contribute is Psychological Operations (
PSYOPS) (De Sebastian, 2012), defined as planned actions that convey information to certain sectors of the foreign local population, in order to influence their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and to create positive attitudes and behaviors in our interest (U.S.
Concerns are expressed, for example, about
psyops, surveillance, and targeting even though these are intrinsic to counterterrorism.
The American
psyops team that accompanied the invading soldiers, blanketing Grenada with pamphlets released from helicopters, painting strategically worded graffiti on walls in a challenge to the slogans of the Revolution, feeding its media with carefully crafted scripts and photo ops to present a picture of a repressive, Soviet-controlled government, tried valiantly to fuse the two events.
USASOC includes Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets; Rangers; Civil Affairs, and Military Information Support Operations (MISO)--formerly known as psychological operations (
PSYOPS)--units.