Information and psychological warfare
In the information and psychological struggle, the main objects of attack and protection are the psyche of the personnel of the armed forces, the population of the opposing sides, the system of forming public opinion and decision-making. Such a struggle is conducted by methods and means of informational and psychological influence aimed at troops and the population on both sides of the "front".
Information and psychological influences are understood as information effects on the psyche, primarily on the consciousness of a person and communities of people, manifested in a change in their perception of reality, correction of their behavior and decision-making, as well as, in some cases, in a change in the physiological state of the human body. Thus, information and psychological influences in the political sphere are understood as the use of diplomatic, military demonstration, economic, political, information techniques for direct or indirect influence on opinion, moods, feelings and, as a result, on the behavior of the other side in order to suppress the will, to force to act under dictation.
Information and psychological methods and means of psychotechnology are divided into open and hidden, positive and negative and destructive, pursuing explicit and hidden goals. Open psychotechnologies are implemented using honest "clean" and deceptive "dirty" methods and techniques. Information and psychological effects of a hidden type are aimed at direct manipulation of a person's consciousness through his subconscious mind through the use of hidden psychotechnologies when the object of influence is not aware of the very fact of exposure. These hidden effects include psychotropic (man-made) drugs, as well as suggestive (suggestion, mass hypnosis) and psychotropic (pharmacological) effects. Psychophysical influences have a hidden violent orientation on the psyche and subconscious of a person in order to unconditionally modify consciousness, behavior and health in the direction necessary for the influencing party. The desire to covertly influence through the subconscious mind of a person is carried out by modern psychotechnologies, including the use of ultra-weak energy-informational interactions. At the moment, many analysts are paying attention to the rapidly increasing improvement of old and the emergence of new information psychotechnologies, which constitute a real weapon and a danger to the intelligence of an individual and the people as a whole, its army, law enforcement agencies, and governing authorities.
Until recently, human consciousness was the main object of influence. It was considered an immutable truth that tangible effects can be perceived by our consciousness if and only if they are critically comprehended by our consciousness, pass through the filter of our RAM, and only then be deposited in the memory store - in our subconscious, direct access to which is categorically closed. The subconscious mind is considered rather as something mythical, ephemeral, as something dormant, inactive, unable to influence the "sound" thoughts and actions of a person. The latest research has convincingly proved that our RAM, which forms our common sense, is only a small part of our total memory that a person possesses. Its main reserve and storage is our subconscious mind. The subconscious contains from 70 to 99 percent of our memory (all knowledge). Hence, there is a great interest in revealing a person's reserve capabilities by directly influencing his subconscious mind. An attempt to "unearth" the deep deposits of our brain is aimed at actively involving the subconscious mind in the operational process of thinking, when a person's phenomenal abilities to memorize information, fantastic counting speed, and the disclosure of his parapsychic abilities are realized. On the other hand, behind this is the desire to learn how to directly influence people's subconscious, program them for certain thoughts and actions. Such actions entail not only fundamental shifts in the subconscious and psyche of people, but also a change in their worldview positions.
The desire to influence a person directly through his subconscious is expressed in the development of a variety of methods, using which the object of influence is not aware of either the purpose or even the fact of the impact. Their fundamental difference from open-type information influences is that they covertly, that is, without the knowledge of the object of influence, deprive him of the right to independently choose logically justified decisions, freedom to choose his behavior, fulfillment of desires, expression of emotions and even the psychophysiological state of the body (mood, health). This is achieved either by pre-introducing the object of influence into an altered state of consciousness, or by introducing manipulative information against the background of distracting messages directly into the subconscious, bypassing the stage of critical perception by the human consciousness. At the required time, this information, by a conditional signal (password) from the subconscious level, pops up in consciousness and is perceived by a person as his own thoughts and beliefs. In accordance with the program laid down, the person - the object of influence - organizes his behavior by making decisions. In the ultimate version, this person, as a result of the information and psychological impact of a hidden type, turns into a zombie who flawlessly fulfills the will of his master. A person who has been "programmed" behaves outwardly the same as an ordinary person, and does not suspect that he is "programmed". He will react only to the key command given to him at the right time. After completing the task, the zombie man does not even realize what he did on this command - the program "ordered" him to forget this fact. Several special programs can be embedded in the subconscious of such a person.
The use of psychotropic drugs is also possible for military purposes, which allows us to talk about psychotropic weapons, which can be used both separately and in combination with other means of influence.
So, with the increasing role of information and information technologies in human life, the confrontation between States, political parties, transnational corporations and international terrorist organizations began to take on new forms. Currently, scientists from different countries have mainly analyzed the system of patterns of information warfare. They link together phenomena and processes taking place in various spheres: economic, political, spiritual, and military. The patterns of the information struggle act as a relationship not only between material factors, but also between the spiritual forces actively acting in it.
If, until the end of the 40s of the XX century, the information struggle between states was mainly conducted during the period of hostilities and was subordinated to military strategy, today it is conducted almost constantly and everywhere. It is necessary to pay close attention to politicians and the international community in order to timely see and, if possible, prevent the threat of a transition from information warfare to more aggressive and destructive forms.
There is an increasing need to create conditions for the conclusion of multilateral international agreements on the prohibition of the use of means of technological influence on national information resources, to determine the principles of control over the use of information systems and to form the main priorities in the policy of integration of national segments of information systems into a single global information infrastructure pursued by international organizations. Traditionally, economic, diplomatic, ideological, cultural and other "non-military" means are used to solve foreign policy problems. Today, information technology can be added to this list of tools.
