Publication

This report analyzes psychological operations (psyops) conducted by the US Army in the operations "Iraqi Freedom" and "Enduring Freedom" in order to identify areas of improvement of psyops performance. The authors, among other things, compare psyops equipment and operations with the industry standards of persuasive communication; they also analyze the actual performance of psyops forces in the abovementioned operations and examine the divide between theater- and tactical-level psyops forces. The analysis concludes that only minimal resources are allocated to both tactical and theater psyops which result in minimal capabilities and suboptimal performance. The authors recommend focusing on the strengthening of tactical psyops forces for the sake of tangible short-term benefits.