|
INTRODUCTION
First traces of civilization until
today, any political entity (state, tribe, group)
sought to obtain or maintain the capacity. Since there are several entities
with different values, inevitably, some will enter in conflict between them
seeking to extend the size of their territory or to impose their policy.
Moreover, the leaders of the state must keep their influence on the
population which they control and to avoid being made ravir the capacity by
other groups which could seek to take it.
A way of managing its capacity and
of seeking to acquire some more consists in using the military force.
Another approach consists of the intentional use of psychological action
(McLaurin, 1982). The psychological action (
psychological operations or PSYOPS) include/understand
any form of planned action taken to affect the perception or the behavior
of a selected political target without the use of force military (Bloom,
1991; McLaurin, 1982). The psychological action lies within the scope of
the international relations insofar as a state tries to impose its will on
another state (McLaurin, 1982).
Sun Tzu was a Chinese General who
lived 3 centuries before J-c. It wrote a text named the art of the war. Its
text treated at the same time tactic of combat and technique of influence.
For him, " Those who are experts in
the art of the war subject the enemy army without combat. They take the
cities without giving the attack and reverse a state without operation prolonged .
"(p.27; to see Volkoff, 1986). The precepts of its text touching the
techniques of influence are numerous, here are some one: to discredit the
heads, to disorganize the authority, to ridicule the traditions, to sow the
discord enter the citizens, to disturb the economy, to spread immorality
and the vice, to use the cheap men and to draw up the young people against
the old men.
The goal
of this text is to describe the various techniques of influence as well as
the methods used to plan them. The first part will consist of the
description of the three main categories of psychological actions
(propaganda, misinformation and measurement activate) like some their applications.
Then, the second part will consist of a description of the means used to
plan a propaganda or a misinformation like
measuring the effects of various psychological actions.
|
