Information psychological war

May 11, 2004 · Andrey Manoilo

In clause the new technique of criminological researches of modern information-psychological war as complex sociopolitical phenomenon in a life of a society is offered. Today information-psychological war as the factor of foreign policy is investigated level with the diplomatic, economic and armed struggle, developing at the same time as an independent direction of scientific research. However, in our opinion, any of scientific approaches existing today does not open essence of information-psychological war neither as political conflict nor as social phenomenon, that, probably, and is a principal cause of an inefficiency of means chosen today and methods of political regulation of the given category of public attitudes. All this demands development of new methodology of research of information-psychological war which would allow, depending on a concrete political situation, to consider this phenomenon at various levels of scientific knowledge: in global scales as the social phenomenon and criminological environment, at a geostrategic level as a field of information - political conflicts, at a tactical level - as the special form of a political conflict and at an applied level as the tool of an information policy.

Prompt development of global communication systems and telecommunications, network and information technologies, transferring of a significant part of social activity of all society and its separate members from space of an objective reality in new t. n. The virtual or information-psychological space (such environment of ability to live of the person which has no analogues in the nature surrounding us and, as against the nature, it is created by the person, his technical progress and revolution in mental development), creates essentially new opportunities for dialogue, information interchange and interactions between members of a society and, by virtue of it, inevitably attracts occurrence of a plenty of new means, methods, ways and opportunities of rendering information-psychological the influences, obliged to the occurrence is extreme to those processes which can be named transition of a society from a “industrial” stage of development to “information”. These new opportunities are widely used by criminality for fulfilment of illegal acts, not only expanding their list, but also lifting technics of fulfilment of crimes on qualitatively other, higher, a level. In our opinion, one of such new versions of the criminal actions connected to global information and with the growing role of the information in a life of a society, so-called information-psychological war, which components is information-psychological operations. Today are everywhere used in external and internal political strike, in an economic competition, in local confrontations. In a general plan any operation of information-psychological war can be presented as set of four basic components:

A management of operation - activity on the organization, management and coordination of actions and actions of information-psychological war, maneuvering by forces and the means involved in operation.
Actions of penetration to another’s information resources (information-technical influence) which can be straight lines (for example, use of potential of hackers for breaking the protected network resources) or nondirective (for example, use of nocuous programs) and to have the direct purpose plunder, destruction, updating of the information belonging to these resources, or fulfilment of a various sort of diversions (for example, time infringement of working capacity of a network infrastructure).
Actions of psychological influence on mass and individual consciousness of a society and his separate citizens (dezinformation, manipulation, propagation, lobbying, management of crises, and also various combinations of these elements in frameworks of more complex psychological operations).
Auxiliary activity (maintenance of safety requirements and conspiracies of information-psychological operations, material and personnel maintenance, etc.). Basically, all actions of penetration to another’s information resources are reduced to so-called computer crimes and basically are covered by working criminal legislation. The actions of psychological influence used in operations of psychological war, practically are not covered by the current legislation, not registered in an obvious kind in the criminal code of the Russian Federation and, basically, in most cases are not penal acts that noticeably complicates the organization of effective counteraction to these acts. It is supposed, that a first step to development of corresponding additions in the working Russian legislation (for example, in the criminal code) becomes the legal qualification developed by authors (object, the subject, the objective, subjective party) such illegal acts, allowing to attribute them to crimes. At the criminal-legal characteristic of the basic structural elements of operations of information-psychological war it is necessary to mean, that approach of criminal and other responsibility for the acts attributed to structural elements of operations of information-psychological war, not always it is possible, as in the international and national legislations regulation of attitudes in sphere of information-psychological wars practically is absent. Besides not always designated as structural elements of operations of information-psychological war of the phenomenon can be attributed to criminal actions, or rather difficultly to prove the subjective party of the given act. Severe classification of such elements of information-psychological influence is extremely complicated, t. To. Those fragments of information-psychological operations and actions which can be observed, analyzing diplomatic actions, various propaganda, PR, the public selective companies, amaze imagination with a specific variety of receptions used in them and technologies. Simple transfer of such elements with a binding to concrete conditions and situations (operative conditions) in which they have been realized, will borrow not one ten sheets. By virtue of the bulkiness such list is useless enough as for practical application by a method of copying of these receptions in similar conditions of operative conditions (as it is practically impossible to pick up a suitable pattern for a real multifactorial situation), and for forecasting the further succession of events in a real situation which without ceremony can be result of application of one more way of the information-psychological influence which were not including in the given list. However, one of the ways of development of classification of elements of information-psychological influence determining the maintenance of information-psychological war, can be allocation from their variety of final (small) number axiomatically simple, most frequently met, “typical” elements, such, that any complex, atypical action of information-psychological war could be presented as a combination of these elements, - that is on them to spread out. Reception as it is uneasy to notice, is taken from mathematics with its axiomatic structure. As such basic elements it is possible to suggest to take six base making information-psychological influences:
Dezinformation.
Lobbying.
A manipulation.
Propagation.
Management of crises.
Blackmail. All this demands more steadfast research of information-psychological war as complex and multifactorial phenomenon in a life of a modern society. And the major direction of such research should become her criminological analysis. From our point of view, information-psychological war (IPW) in frameworks of criminological researches can be considered at various levels of knowledge:

As the social phenomenon;
As a field of political conflicts;
As the special form of a political conflict;
As an element of system of tools of political regulation (the tool of an information policy). Within the framework of each of the specified levels of consideration information-psychological war is investigated within the framework of own scientific hypothesis:

The sociological hypothesis of information-psychological war: information-psychological war is the social phenomenon and the new form of public attitudes generated by an information society.
The statistical hypothesis of information-psychological war: information-psychological war is the field of the political conflicts which are taking place in close interrelation and interaction;
The conflictological hypothesis of information-psychological war: information-psychological war is political conflict with the purpose of resolution of conflicts concerning authority and management in which collision of the parties is carried out in the form of information-psychological operations with application of the information weapon [1]. The purpose of information-psychological war: resolution of conflicts concerning authority and realization of a political management in information-psychological space. Tasks of information-psychological war:

Transformation of structure of national economic, political, welfare, information-psychological spaces of participants of the international attitudes according to own principles of formation of an information-political picture of the world;
Achievement of the military-political superiority and unconditional leadership in sphere of the international attitudes;
Achievement of the purposes of national economic, ideological, cultural, information-psychological expansion;
Maintenance of favorable conditions for transition of own national system of sociopolitical attitudes to new, more advanced and hi-tech stage of evolutionary development. Attributes of information-psychological war:
Violence as the basic form of interaction of participants of an information - political conflict;
Information-psychological operations as the special organizational form of rendering of political influence on participants of the conflict;
Application of the information weapon.

A systemic-functional hypothesis of information-psychological war: information-psychological war - a part of system of political regulation, the tool of an information policy. Within the framework of a sociological hypothesis information-psychological war is considered as the new form of social attitudes (object of the sociological analysis), and a spectrum of the disputed situations generated by psychological war as external display of system properties of the given object. Within the framework of a statistical hypothesis information-psychological war is considered as complex differential system (field) of the political conflicts which are taking place in close interrelation and interaction, each of which is considered as individual realization of ensemble of the disputed situations generated or shown by a field of psychological war. In frameworks of conflictological hypotheses information-psychological war is considered as a political conflict having independent value as object of research and management, taking place in interaction and interconditionality with other political conflicts. Within the framework of a systemic-functional hypothesis information-psychological war is considered as a part of system of an information policy as aggressor, and victims of aggression within the framework of which the information - political conflicts generated by psychological war, are integrated into structure of political system of the conflicting parties and are used by them as tools of political regulation [2.] Certainly, legitimacy of application of each hypothesis to concept of information-psychological war demands the proof. The theorem 1. Information-psychological war is the social phenomenon. The proof: the information-psychological war is the form of violence in which as the tool of compulsion opportunities of influence of the information on mentality of the person are used. It is possible to allocate two basic attributes of a sociality of this phenomenon:

Application of violence over the basic form of social influence;
Use of opportunities of influence of the information on mentality of the person as the tool of social compulsion Violence over social attitudes is the phenomenon widespread enough to consider his social: the violence is impossible without public organization and sociopolitical hierarchy, system of submission of one members of a society for anothers. At application of violence the preference is always given those means, ways and tools of social compulsion which in conditions of the given public organization are most effective. In an information society such tools are complex organizational technologies of information-psychological influence. The theorem 2. Information-psychological war is a political conflict. The proof: Information-psychological war possesses the following attributes of a political conflict:
Collision of the conflicting parties which consistently passes the basic stages of development of the social conflict takes place: a predisputed situation (increase of social intensity or formation of the conflict is characterized by comprehension of incompatibility of interests and positions, consolidation of the parties of the conflict; promotion of requirements to the opponent), latent, incident, the escalation, the balanced counteraction, the culmination and fading (resolution of conflicts or transformation to other form).
As well as the social conflict, information-psychological war passes through the following phases: confrontational (military), in which parties aspire to provide the interest due to elimination another’s; compromise (political), in which parties aspire to reach whenever possible the interest through negotiations during which make replacement of distinguished interests of each subject with the general, compromise; communicative (administrative), in which parties aspire to reach the consent that the sovereignty his interest possesses not only each subject of the conflict, but also and liquidate only illegal from the point of view of community of distinction during movement to common interests;
Information-psychological wars arise always concerning redistribution of authority and realization of a political management in a society. Conformity to these attributes allows attributing information-psychological war to a category of political conflicts. The theorem 3. Information-psychological war is the field of political conflicts and statistical system. The proof: Information-psychological war as a part of system of political attitudes. It is set of all political conflicts to which the preference is given various kinds of the information-psychological violence accepting the special organizational form of secret operations with obligatory use of the information weapon. The modern science yet does not allow to describe all system of information - political conflicts in its dynamics and development in the analytical form (in the form of multipleparameter function), but, basically, allows to consider set of conflicts as a certain political space with the set properties determining character of interaction of a matter and elements of this space with any political phenomena and processes, not belonging to it, - allows to consider information-psychological war as a field of political conflicts and proves legitimacy of use of a formalism and the conceptual device of the theory of a field to the description of the given phenomenon. Plurality and variety of forms and displays of information - political conflicts allows to consider a field of conflicts as statistical system in which multifactorial interaction, interdependence and interconditionality of set of elements generates the general laws of behaviour and transformation of structure of a disputed matter at a level of laws of the big numbers. The theorem 4. Information-psychological war is a part of system of political regulation, the tool of an information policy. The proof: Information-psychological war. A part of system:
Political regulation, as its purpose. Resolution of conflicts concerning authority and realization of a political management in information-psychological space;
An information policy, as for an aggressor war. Means (tool) of achievement of political ends, for a victim of aggression. Means (tool) of drawing of retaliation and restoration of military-political balance. The hypotheses formulated above do not exclude and do not duplicate, and gets wide spectra of scientific ways to investigate of nature of this phenomena, allowing to investigate information-psychological war as the complex, many-sided phenomenon in a life of a society, on the scales beyond consideration of any one scientific discipline [5-9]. Really, the principle of detailed elaboration of object of scientific research is put in a basis of hierarchy of hypotheses:
Considering information-psychological war from positions of the sociological approach, we see the objective and complete social phenomenon which importance can be defined only in comparison with other social phenomena of similar scale;
Considering it in more details, we, as a first approximation, see, that the matter of the given object of research is weaved from set of the information - political conflicts interconnected, mutually conditioned and cooperating among themselves. A huge variety of forms and displays of these conflicts does not allow the observer, aspiring to hold in sight them all or their any appreciable part to define, whether the conflict which has got in sight thus which was is notice him earlier, or it already other conflict, which development has led to occurrence of attributes and the qualities observed earlier at originally observable conflict. The problem of identification by the observer of the information - political conflicts having the big period of latent development, in conditions of their plural generation and attenuation, allows to enter concept of a field of political conflicts into the device of the researcher, and, using a formalism of the theory of a field to investigate most the general laws of behaviour of the disputed matter, arising as a result of plural multifactorial interaction of a plenty differential political conflicts.
Having refused the purpose to hold in sight the most part of a field of political conflicts at once suffices, we are limited in frameworks conflictological hypotheses to consideration separately-taken an information - political conflict and his evolution in time and space. Thus, even more having come nearer to object of supervision. To information-psychological war. We any more do not see all variety of his internal structure, but, but, in a condition to allocate from it separate elements. Information - political conflicts. And to investigate their individual properties. The device of modern political conflictology is well adapted to this purpose.
And, at last, research of psychological war as information - political conflict allows to allocate those its structural properties and elements which can be integrated into system of an information policy and to become, at least, - controlled, and as a maximum, - to carry out in this system the certain functions, including. Functions of the tool of political regulation. Thus, information-psychological war is investigated at this (systemic-functional) level any more as independent political object, and as a structural element, a detail of more complex political object - the systems of an information policy. Such gradation of levels of detailed consideration of information-psychological war assumes application of the following methods of research:
Sociological (at research IPW as social phenomenon);
Statistical (at research IPW as fields of political conflicts);
Political conflictology and political psychology (at research IPW as forms of a political conflict);
The logiko-structural and systemic-functional analysis (at research IPW as a part of system and the tool of an information policy).

The literature:

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