army essay_praveen p nair

8/8/2019 Army Essay_Praveen P Nair

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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 Pakistans 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 bechurned 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


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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 andnews 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.


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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 andadvertising 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 hisprinciple 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 ofWhite Mans 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 womens 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 standslittle 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


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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.

army essay_praveen p nair

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