Influence Operations: Redefining the Indirect Approach

Across today’s spectrum of contemporary warfare, the human terrain is routinely recognized as the center of gravity, but disconnects exists between how states or power holders seek to influence target audiences and how insurgents, terrorist groups, and similar nonstate actors fight to seize the population’s cognitive terrain. Insurgents and nonstate actor threats increasingly seek the influence advantage through grassroots processes to subvert populations and establish asymmetric advantages against the United States and other state actors. U.S. policy recognizes the need to influence the behavior, perceptions, and attitudes of foreign audiences through an indirect approach, but its influence methods, in reality, remain tied to Cold War constructs unable to generate the desired effects needed for current/future threats. This thesis examines case studies of insurgent and nonstate actor influence operations to analyze their effects on the perceptions and attitudes of various disparate audiences at a grassroots level. The analysis then identifies methodology, vulnerabilities, and opportunities to engage these asymmetric threats within their own influence safe havens.