Side view of a U.S. Air Force O-2 of the 9th Special Operations Squadron dropping Chieu Hoi leaflets over the Republic of Vietnam. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I received a comment today to an ancient blog, asking what other blogs talk about the same subject.  I wrote out a response and realized I wanted to share this with everyone.  So I told the original commenter to read this blog.

This blog is on Information Operations, running the gamut from general IO to cyber to MISO/Psychological Operations to Electronic Warfare to Deception to OPSEC to Strategic Communication to Public Diplomacy to… just about everything a country or a military does to influence another country.  Speaking of Strategic Communication, I had a former NSC staffer question me about that today because of the bogus memorandum OSD published, stating that Strategic Communication no longer existed.  That thing has caused nothing but trouble because it was released before coordination and not at all official.

Information Operations

Political Warfare.Org, at http://jmw.typepad.com/political_warfare/, deals with all the same subjects with a distinct political flavor, great course.  Dr. J. Michael Waller also wrote the book “Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War“.  He really owes me for all the recommendations I’ve given him, now he owes me one more.

Leonie Industries used to have a nice blog, but it’s gone fairly inactive. http://www.leoniegroup.com/blog/tag/information-operations/  I’ve talked with these folks often, they really get IO.

Two updates:

Healthy Influence Blog or Persuasion Blog.  This excellent blog deals with the science of persuasion, written by Dr. Steven Booth-Butterfield.  Steve’s blog really gets into the breadth and depth of persuasion, his blog pieces are intricately accurate and one can almost write a master’s thesis about the subject if you would read all his blogs, I believe.  Steve is a really nice guy and absolutely brilliant.  He literally wrote the book on persuasion.

Selil.  Dr. Sam Liles almost defies description, but, simply put, his blog is an excellent must-read for anything cyber.  Sam is also an endurance motorcycle rider, like me, so I happily read his occasional article about his motorcycle and currently his Iron Butt Rally preparation.  This past February, when there was snow on the ground, Sam rode his bike from Perdue University in Indiana to Washington DC to participate in a seminar on cyber.  Sam is also a former police officer aka cop, he’s also a really nice guy and absolutely brilliant.  Sam also has this unique ability to see through the bullcrap being thrown around Washington when it comes to cyber, both offensive and defensively and somehow manages to keep me straight.  But, be prepared, he tells the truth.  If I’m wrong about something, and that’s more often than not, he’ll tell me.

The US Army’s Information Proponent at Fort Leavenworth has a blog at http://usacacblogs.army.mil/informationproponentoffice/2012/01/68/ and if you can past the opening screen, you’re a better person than I am.  There is a more direct link to their IO resource page at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/IPO/

Larry Dietz runs the PSYOP Regimental Blog at http://psyopregiment.blogspot.com/  Of course it has somewhat of a PSYOP / MISO flavor to it, but I forgive him.

Not Blogs but Great IO Sources

Now this is not an IO blog but they post the newsletter from the JIOWC, the Joint Information Operations Warfare Center.  http://www.phibetaiota.net/2013/01/information-operations-newsletter-vol-13-no-03/  It would be a good place to start to read their newsletters. Be one with your Google and search here… in my best Dalai Lama voice.  Okay, bad joke, but it made me laugh.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Air University ‘online library’ at http://www.au.af.mil/info-ops/  This is a truly great collection of discussions of all things IO.  Not a blog but a reliable source to link to. This is a labor of love, so I’ve been told, this is the work of volunteers.

RAND publishes a lot of really good studies on IO, here: http://www.rand.org/topics/information-operations.html  Not a blog, but great for an evening with your tablet by the fire.  How romantic, eh?  Just don’t forget to lift your pinkie finger, show some class.

There are a few blogs out there on similar subjects.

Cyber

I’m waiting for a good cyber blog to pop up.  The media is publishing all kinds of great articles on cyber and there are a lot of blogs that pick up on those stories, but it doesn’t appear as if anyone with real experience is blogging about the field.  The offensive side of the house is all written in Chinese, so I’m at a loss there.  Oops, did I just type that out loud?

Actually, the offensive side of the house at the US Cyber Command will forever be dark.  ’nuff said.

Advanced Persistent Threats.  I’m getting way deep involved with this, so I should have a ton of stuff right here, in the future.

Public Diplomacy

John Brown has a very active blog on Public Diplomacy at http://publicdiplomacypressandblogreview.blogspot.com/

Matt Armstrong publishes MountainRunner.US, he deals with Public Diplomacy, but sadly it’s gone dark.  Matt is writing a book, however and the White House just published an “intent to nominate” Matt to the Board of Governors for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, here!   Great things are in store, ahead!

The Public Diplomacy Council has a really nice blog going here, http://www.publicdiplomacycouncil.org/.

Warning!

Don’t be fooled by most blogs that deal with “Information Warfare”, I seldom find anything dealing remotely with the subject. Also, stay the heck away from Alex Jones and Infowars.com, it is so completely bogus and conspiracy theory prone as to melt one’s brain.  If they ever read this they’ll probably steal that idea.

One last generic warning. There is no such thing as a government program to brainwash the American people or anyone in a foreign country. Also HAARP is not a program to somehow magically shower you with radio waves, causing you to begin singing “God loves America” or any such tomfoolery. If you read anything about Psychological Warfare, be prepared to run away. Also, if you ever read a blog citing the IO Roadmap as proof that the US is doing anything good, bad or indifferent, close your eyes before they melt. That little POS never seems to go away.

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