Post by Admin on Sept 27, 2014 11:55:08 GMT -5
Strategic deception is a practice employed at the highest level of a government to deceive an enemy nation. In other words it is one nation deceiving another.
It was employed during WW2 against the axis powers, first by the British and then the Americans. The Soviet Union also practiced strategic deception to some degree. The masters at strategic deception were the British and they essentially wrote the blueprint for how strategic deception could be used to great success.
If you are interested in learning more about WW2 strategic deception, it is chronicled in the multi-volume series British Intelligence in the Second World War in Volume V: Strategic Deception by Michael Howard, which is now out of print, but you can purchase an abridged version on Amazon here.
One of the hallmarks of strategic deception is that in order to deceive your enemy, the deception must be universally believed. In other words, a nation that employs strategic deception has to be OK with deceiving their own citizens in the process in order to make the deception appear plausible. Only very few individuals are in on the deception and the planners closely guard their deception plans. In wartime this is deemed necessary collateral damage. In peacetime, the collateral damage of deceiving your own citizenry is more controversial. The ethical and moral implications of deceiving not only your enemy but your own citizens were discussed at a 2003 conference: Strategic Deception in Modern Democracies: Ethical, Legal, and Policy Challenges.
Regardless if deception is employed by a military during wartime or deception planners in peacetime, the principles of deception have been well established. A good primer on the principles of deception can be found in Joseph Caddell's DECEPTION 101―PRIMER ON DECEPTION.
Strategic deception requires very closely coordinated operations with the central planners assigning roles and responsibilities to the participants. Each participant is only told their role and they do not know the big picture of the deception. This selective dissemination is detailed in the Joint Security Control 1942 Charter, Joint Security Control 1943 Charter , Joint Security Control 1944 Charter, Joint Security Control 1945 Charter and the revised Joint Security Control 1947 Charter. Individuals in government, military and business leadership roles are often recruited to play their part in a deception to bolster the overall message that the deception is trying to produce.
Strategic deception takes time and patience because clues must be dangled in front of the enemy with very precise timing so that the enemy believes they have stumbled on to the truth - a truth that is in fact the deception. Strategic deception employs psychological pressures to maximum effect, preying on the human traits that can be exploited to get the enemy to swallow the deception whole - hook, line and sinker.
It was employed during WW2 against the axis powers, first by the British and then the Americans. The Soviet Union also practiced strategic deception to some degree. The masters at strategic deception were the British and they essentially wrote the blueprint for how strategic deception could be used to great success.
If you are interested in learning more about WW2 strategic deception, it is chronicled in the multi-volume series British Intelligence in the Second World War in Volume V: Strategic Deception by Michael Howard, which is now out of print, but you can purchase an abridged version on Amazon here.
One of the hallmarks of strategic deception is that in order to deceive your enemy, the deception must be universally believed. In other words, a nation that employs strategic deception has to be OK with deceiving their own citizens in the process in order to make the deception appear plausible. Only very few individuals are in on the deception and the planners closely guard their deception plans. In wartime this is deemed necessary collateral damage. In peacetime, the collateral damage of deceiving your own citizenry is more controversial. The ethical and moral implications of deceiving not only your enemy but your own citizens were discussed at a 2003 conference: Strategic Deception in Modern Democracies: Ethical, Legal, and Policy Challenges.
Regardless if deception is employed by a military during wartime or deception planners in peacetime, the principles of deception have been well established. A good primer on the principles of deception can be found in Joseph Caddell's DECEPTION 101―PRIMER ON DECEPTION.
Strategic deception requires very closely coordinated operations with the central planners assigning roles and responsibilities to the participants. Each participant is only told their role and they do not know the big picture of the deception. This selective dissemination is detailed in the Joint Security Control 1942 Charter, Joint Security Control 1943 Charter , Joint Security Control 1944 Charter, Joint Security Control 1945 Charter and the revised Joint Security Control 1947 Charter. Individuals in government, military and business leadership roles are often recruited to play their part in a deception to bolster the overall message that the deception is trying to produce.
Strategic deception takes time and patience because clues must be dangled in front of the enemy with very precise timing so that the enemy believes they have stumbled on to the truth - a truth that is in fact the deception. Strategic deception employs psychological pressures to maximum effect, preying on the human traits that can be exploited to get the enemy to swallow the deception whole - hook, line and sinker.