Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 5, Number 1, Spring / Summer 2020 | Page 15

Global Security and Intelligence Studies • Volume 5, Number 1 • Spring / Summer 2020
The Case for the Sixth Domain of
War: Psychological Warfare in the
Age of Advanced Technology
Bethany Vailliant and Media Ajir
Abstract
Wills win wars. A country at war must have and maintain the support
of its people to achieve victory. Targeting will, using advanced
information technology (IT), presents a new vulnerability for the
United States. Literature in this field has largely ignored the psychological
effects of new, cyber-enabled tools; therefore, the concept of
information warfare has tended to favor primarily technical infrastructure.
This oversight has caused state mismanagement of what
was once carefully managed disruption by the United States. Tools
and techniques have been refined to transcend effects beyond material
goods, entering our minds and manipulating our behavior. The
weaponization of these tools urges us to consider the sufficiency of
our current framework for warfare—the five domains. This research
argues that due to the disruptive change in the delivery method of
information, a sixth, psychological domain should be established to
properly assess and operationalize effects going forward.
Keywords: cyberspace, psychological domain, psychological warfare,
information warfare, fifth domain, sixth domain
El caso del sexto dominio de la guerra: guerra
psicológica en la era de la tecnología avanzada
Resumen
Las voluntades ganan guerras. Un país en guerra debe tener y mantener
el apoyo de su gente para lograr la victoria. La focalización,
utilizando tecnología de información avanzada, presenta una nueva
vulnerabilidad para los Estados Unidos. La literatura en este campo
ha ignorado en gran medida los efectos psicológicos de las nuevas
herramientas cibernéticas; por lo tanto, el concepto de guerra de información
ha tendido a favorecer principalmente la infraestructura
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doi: 10.18278/gsis.5.1.2