The West - Russia: the problems of psychological conflict
The global information field is being increasingly used for rigid geopolitical competition. The West still has a strong inertia to present Russia as a successor of the «empire of evil». In a game in this field are involved the Baltic States, Georgia, Ukraine. Russophobia is objectively strengthened by relative weakness of the Russian state, which has lost its former opportunities and impact, as well as by disdain for the people, not capable to «apprehend Western values».
Tightening of this competition in the field of information convinces us that IDEAS ARE IMPORTANT. It is no coincidence that in the United States behind the slogans of «pragmatism devoid of ideology» one has never forgotten the messianic covenants of the founding fathers of the fact that «America is chosen by God», what is still the essential foundation of the society and the public policy, including foreign one.
The tightening pressure from the part of Western media on the political and economic elite and the leadership of our country spilled over in August 2008 in a tough opposition. Almost the first, since 1991, covering of the events by Western media came to total pressure with cynical misrepresentation of the facts and suppression of causes of the incident, up to the attempts to declare Russia an aggressor. Against our country was brought a complex of special information and propaganda activities to influence individual psyche and social consciousness, which is characteristic of the information wars. And it is obvious that the intensity of anti-Russian campaigns will only increase in the foreseeable future.
To numerous accusations of limiting democratic freedoms and toughening control over the media and public opinion has added the increasing criticism of the foreign policy of the country. Obviously, the goal of this pressure remains the same - to force the Russian leadership to make decisions mismatching with our public interests. An integral part of it is the pressure on political elites, which, in my opinion, has also markedly increased, particularly through the attempts to compromise and oppose one groups to another («regional elites - center», «defense and law enforcement agencies - liberals», etc.).
The document of the U.S. Army «Information Operation Roadmap» shows further evolution of the military thought of the Pentagon in planning and conducting the information war. The paper itself focuses on the expansion of space, improvement of means and methods of information confrontation. It was enacted in October 2003 with a stamp «Classified information/ Not for foreigners». In late 2007, the information was declassified. This, in our opinion, shows that the development of conceptual foundations for conduct of the information war in the United States has reached a more perfect level.
The assessment shows that the development of understanding of the nature of information operations forces the U.S. specialists to significantly transform their views; in particular, to the object and subject of the impact. The early doctrinal documents of the Ministry of Defense of United States noted that the main forms of information operations were: public diplomacy, public relations and psychological operations (PSYOPS). These forms remain in the document at issue, have been also identified their essential content.
It is emphasized that modern information operations are continuing operations, which require extensive preparations in peacetime. Considerable efforts should be spent on accurate identification of potential antagonistic audience (the bearer of absolute hostility to the alleged operation) and, most importantly, of key antagonistic decision makers. To enhance the efficiency when working with forbidden audiences and objects, it is necessary to create hidden levers, which are deployed in peacetime, but intensified with aggravation of conflict.
Much of what is described in the document has already been implemented in practice. This, in turn, is the strategic information operation under the name «The fight against international terrorism», which resulted in a serious geopolitical breakthrough of the United States on a number of issues. One can mention here also the operation «The fight against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq» (as part of a larger and long-term operation «The fight against international terrorism»), which resulted in a consolidation of the United States in the Middle East and creation of the conditions for implementation of its own plan to reconstruct the region, under the joint name «The strategy for the formation of the Greater Middle East». One can add the actions within the framework of public diplomacy and public relations for the development of the theses of «failed states» and the «axis of evil», which led to the formation of plans for the preventive use of military force against sovereign states without the sanctions of international organizations (for example - former Yugoslavia).
In recent months the focus has shifted to the fight against corruption at the international level, the basis of which should become the steps to control financial flows. Not only Americans are becoming more active. Command of the Armed Forces of France, on the basis of the analysis of political and military consequences of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, also notes an increasing role of information confrontation in the modern world. According to French experts, measuring of only the intermediate results of the crisis in the Caucasus shows that, despite Russia solved the main tasks during the armed phase of the conflict, the success, as well as steps taken by the Russian leadership in the diplomatic sphere, have been partially neutralized by effective anti-Russian campaign in Western media, as well as by public activities of the official representatives of the NATO, EU, USA and Georgia.
In France, it is stressed that the active phase of the armed conflict in the Caucasus lasted for few days. The scale of the fighting, the depth of the use of force and means of the Armed Forces were limited. At the same time, the scope of the information confrontation within the framework of a local conflict reached a global level. On this basis, the French experts draw conclusions about the need for anticipatory preparedness for information operations. Should be secured close cooperation of government structures, defense and law enforcement ministries and their subordinate departments.
Iran's Parliament, according to Western experts, have prepared for the government of the country a report, which states that Washington is stepping up the scale of «information war» against Tehran, aimed at aggravation of dissatisfaction of the Iranians with the authorities, inciting of ethnic and religious conflicts and formation of the negative image of the Islamic Republic in the international arena. To counteract the propaganda activities of Americans, the Iranian parliamentarians advise to strengthen the coordination between the major news agencies of Iran to determine the concerted line when covering important foreign and domestic issues, to tighten the control over foreign radio and television broadcasts on Iranian territory, as well as over Internet resources. It is suggested to make use of inaccuracies and discrepancy with the reality in the materials on Iran, promoted by Washington, to demonstrate their «faked-up nature». In order to organize counter-propaganda, it is considered appropriate to expand the scope of the existing and create new Iranian radio and television channels, broadcasting in English and Arabic. One does not rule out the use of information possibilities of the Iranian Diaspora abroad and attracting of Western and Arab media to counter Washington's plans to discredit the ruling regime in Iran.
Let's go back to Russia. Its image, projected abroad, inevitably makes itself felt within the country. And here it is very important to enhance interaction with the international expert community. This substance is very thin - it is a work «with consciousness that shapes the consciousness». «Valday Forum» becomes popular, but we have practically no information grounds outside of Russia. Even the leading Russian newsmakers, coming abroad, have to speak from foreign grounds. World experience suggests several possible solutions to the problem. One of the options is to create a system of funds and their foreign missions, which can become a powerful network structure, an effective tool for the realization of Russia's information policy abroad. A breakthrough in this direction may be provided with the joint efforts of the concerned NGOs, various Russian party structures and, of course, Russian business, which interests, as it turns out, are often directly dependent on the country's image.
It should be borne in mind that Russia's financial capacity in this area is far from that of the U.S.: the annual budgetary allocations of U.S. to the relevant objectives exceeded 1.5 billion dollars. Our successes would be greater if the efforts of the concerned government agencies, expert community, media and big private business of Russia were united with a single systemic intention.
The question of improving the Russian system of coordination of information work ripened long ago. The main geopolitical rivals of Russia have powerful «centers of influence», providing the goals of domination in the world information space and primacy in shaping the rules of the game in the world market - powerful media corporations, which effectively influence the world public opinion. Russia has to create something of that kind, otherwise it is doomed to regularly lose.
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