Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 5, Number 1, Spring / Summer 2020 | Page 8

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
Neither of these instances were informed by comprehensive, accurate, or substantiated
psychological knowledge. Bringing unity to a severely fragmented capability
will empower effectiveness in offensive and defensive operations across the spectrum
of multi-domain operations.
The current COVID-19 pandemic highlights the critical need for unified
efforts in the Psychological Domain. Claims of the virus being a bio-weapon,
sanctions causing millions of deaths, and martial law all support themes of devising
narratives not unlike those seen in recent political elections. Using Google
Fact Checking Tool a 90 day review of 1,558 articles pertaining to COVID-19
presenting themselves as factual news was undertaken. The review revealed 1,240
completely false articles, 237 as misleading, and 25 as ambiguous. Only 36 of the
original 1,558 were categorized as truthful. The remaining 16 articles were noted
as being deliberately manipulative. The sheer numbers and blending of misleading,
ambiguous, false, and manipulative data creates a brute force suppression of
factual reporting.
This special edition opens with The Case for the Sixth Domain of War: Psychological
Warfare in the Age of Advanced Technology. Authors Media Ajir and
Bethany Vailliant make a captivating argument for the addition of a 6 th domain
of warfare. They draw focus to advancements in technology that makes access to
populations easier, but psychological refinement of the message is still in need. As
a result, efforts in the current 5 domain construct to influence a population are too
compartmentalized to be effective.
Our second article, Psychology as a Warfighting Domain by a veteran intelligence
team Sarah Soffer, Carter Matherly, & Robert Stelmack highlights the use
of psychological operations throughout major historical conflicts. Through their
research we are presented with an evolution of psychological warfare that notes its
successes and failures. It closes with a synopsis of the modern information environment
and signposts for the future in an interconnected world.
The third article in this special edition, Discovering Influence Operations on
Twitch.tv: A Preliminary Coding Framework draws attention to how digital streaming
platforms can and are being used as stages for influence operations. Authors
Alexander Sferrella and Joseph Conger present a unique coding framework using
Python scripting to help identify potential bots at rates faster and more accurately
than human intervention.
Our fourth article takes aim at the propaganda efforts of one of the most active
nations leveraging the Psychological Domain; Russia. Joseph Pagan highlights
evolving political motivations of Russia’s ruling elite in A New Russian Realpolitik:
Putin’s Operationalization of Psychology and Propaganda. The article discusses
specific psychological theories that have been operationalized for use within the
domain.
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