THE ART OF PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT IN INFORMATION WARFARE

TODAY

Praveen P Nair

OT code: B63

The human race has borne witness to incessant wars for territory, pride, culture,
ideology or sometimes as a desperate survival attempt. War is an irrefutable reality
of life. And thankfully so, is the yearning of the human soul for peace. It is this
dichotomy of seeking peace in war that has given rise to an interesting paradox in
warfare, where especially of late, battles continue to be fought, the motives are still
the same but the modicum is that of engaging with the enemy not on the warfront
but in the mental realm.

A fully fledged battle is no longer an option because of the destructive power that
nations possess today in the form of nuclear weapons. As Albert Einstein famously
put it, “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World
War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Increasingly armies are trying to
win battles without firing a shot. War today is only an object of last resort. In this
effort at minimizing human casualties, we have developed new weapons of war.
Building and breaking perceptions is the most important weapon that is deployed
with élan today.

However, it is not just a strategy of our times. It even predates written history. And
sometimes even Gods have to resort to guile and tact to win battles. In Indian
mythology, Lord Krishna was the arbiter and strategist-in-chief in the epic battle of
the Mahabharata. The battle was as much about the fears, anxieties and desires of
the commanders as it was about the relative strengths of the Pandava and Kaurava
armies. His tact and wisdom are still revered but as a war manual it speaks of his
immense acumen for perception management.

Perception is a filter with which we see reality and this in turn affects our whole
internal environment of values, beliefs and attitudes. And often the filters are fickle
and amenable to change. By manipulating the picture of reality that we offer to
people, it is thus possible to alter their attitudes, desires and even actions. This is
the essence of perception management. This is true for individuals, groups and
nations. As Individuals, we dress up well, present ourselves in our best behavior
with people most of the time to create the best perceptions of our personality.
Branding is an exercise which individuals, corporations and today even nations
take up very seriously today.

But in warfare, it is as equally important to penetrate and break the perceptions

about the enemy to the third party. Today war is not just about assertion of power
and might. It also requires legitimacy and support from others. In the battle to
liberate Bangladesh in the 1971 war, India used its diplomatic machinery to the
fullest before actually embarking on the battlefield. Indian diplomats spent almost
half a year letting the world know the truth about Bangladesh and drumming up
support in its favor before actually putting their armed forces into action. The same
saga repeated itself all over again in the 1999 Kargil war when India successfully
projected Pakistan as the aggressor which resulted in Pakistan’s action falling out
of favor with not just America but also its close ally China.

Another classical case of manipulating public opinion is the way the Jewish lobby
has not let the Holocaust fall off public memory by using the great propaganda
weapon called Hollywood. Through innumerable movies which continue to be
churned out even now, successive generations have become aware and sensitized
to the cause of the Jews and Israel. This helps them in sometimes legitimizing
some of their brutal overt and covert actions against Palestine. The revenge for the
Munich athletes’ assassinations carefully executed by Israel over a decade is a case
of covert action and public propaganda.

However, the peak of Information warfare was probably during the cold war which
was a battle of two ideologies; two ways of perceiving and imagining the state of
things to be. The Cold War employed superior spying facilities like spy satellites,
huge computer databases and after the advent of the internet, computer viruses and
bugs. Today hacking, viruses and worms are posing the biggest security threat to
corporations and nations. Thus, emerged the concept of Cyber Warfare, which
Richard Clarke defines as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's
computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption." In fact
in April 2009, there were reports that China and Russia had infiltrated the U.S.
electrical grid to disrupt the system. So imminent is the threat that The North
American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a public warning
that the electrical grid is not adequately protected from cyber attack.

Today the biggest battle that the world as a whole is grappling with is that of
international terrorism. While the established armies have to contend with fighting
a faceless enemy, there is the additional propaganda arm of these non-state actors
that they have to be constantly contending with. These extreme elements appeal to
the disgruntled and alienated sections of the population, particularly the youth.
Hence, this war on terror can only be successful when enough happens on the
ground to address these perceptions of injustice. In the absence of such perception
management, it is believed by many commentators that The War on Terror is
creating more terrorists than it is eliminating.

There have also been instances when perception mismanagement has cost its
proponents dearly. The most recent and obvious war that was waged in recent
times was Operation Iraqi freedom. America thought it had taken the world
onboard in its war against terror by its continuous bombardment of news about the
presence of WMDs in Iraq and the dangers that the Saddam regime posed to the
world. It also highlighted how the public can be brought on board to believe even
half-truths through agencies they repose faith in: on this occasion the print and
news media.

However, soon enough things took an interesting turn. WikiLeaks turned the tables
when it used American facilities, spied on them and posed a huge ethical and moral
question on the logic and modus operandi of the American military actions on Iraq.

This illustrates the fact that false perceptions only have a short shelf life and sooner
than later truth prevails. The Republican regime under George Bush realized this
the hard way in the previous elections. As a consequence of these mistakes,
Americans are constantly living under the threat of a terror attack.

Their adversary in chief, Osama Bin Laden too, is no stranger to the art of
perception management. His frequently released video tapes, “information” of him
being dead and alive raise the anxiety levels of the American public to new heights
every time.
Information warfare to manipulate perceptions is not confined to the battlefield
alone. Nowhere is Information warfare as deftly used as in business. Corporations,
often in cut throat competition with each other take recourse to espionage and
advertising wars, as was seen in the Cola Wars between the two major MNCs
Pepsi and Coca Cola. At a certain point in time, both were increasingly issuing
advertisements mocking the other, rather than promoting their own product. The
recent Hollywood movie, Inception, offers us a peek into what the nature of
corporate espionage could be in the future, with thieves stealing ideas from others’
dreams.

The art of perception management can be used as much to wage war and earn
profits as to strive for peace. Gandhiji employed this to the fullest with his
principle of winning over the hearts and minds of the enemy. The Indian National
Movement was in reality a battle between two nations; one still being in the womb.
It also was a war against the so called propaganda of “White Man’s burden” which
the English had successfully used to rule India. He sought to do this when he
appealed to their conscience and sense of fairness, rather than taking on their
physical might. On one occasion he even convinced the uneducated mill workers
of London, that even though they may lose their jobs in the economic war that he
had waged with the charka, they should side with the plight of the Indian farmers.
Similarly, within India, his tirade against social evils like women’s rights,
untouchability was in chief to change the attitudes of the aggressors towards the
oppressed. In the ensuing decades Martin Luther King(jr) and Nelson Mandela
would be inspired from this example to fight racism not just in the public space but
in the private space i.e., in the mind, where the fears and anxieties which give birth
to these evils operate. Such is the might of this weapon when used with the right
intentions.

With every major power in the world armed to the tooth, in the future, there stands
little chance of a war without annihilation. Hence, perception management will
become the difference between victory and defeat and the art of managing
perceptions through diplomacy, psychological tact and artistry would be the most
sought after skill in warfare. In our country, given our strengths in the knowledge
sector, and the wealth of innovative minds that our demographic dividend has
unleashed, it would be prudent to use this opportunity to strengthen our capabilities
in this realm. Not just for national security, but also for making the world a safer
place, free from terrorism, oppression, servitude and anything that enslaves the
human conscience.