US Reevaluates Information Warfare Strategy After Failure to Sway Russian Public, Reverts to PSYOP Terminology

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The United States has reevaluated its approach to information warfare following a failed effort to sway the Russian public amid the special military operation, said Sergey Grinyaev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Director General of the Center for Strategic Assessments and Forecasts. His insights were published in the Russian Defense Ministry’s magazine Military Thought and obtained by TASS.

In his article titled Doctrinal Transformations in the Sphere of Psychological Operations in the US and NATO from the Perspective of Possible Consequences for Russia's Security, Grinyaev offers a detailed analysis of US psychological operations (PSYOPS), exploring the rationale behind the Pentagon’s decision to officially revert to the term "psychological operations" (PSYOP), replacing the terminology Military Information Support Operations (MISO), which had been in use since 2010.

He explains that the primary catalyst for this shift was the disappointing results experienced by the US and NATO during their efforts to influence Russian society - an effort that exposed significant vulnerabilities in Western psychological warfare strategies. The clash between Western technologies and the resilience of Russian society and military during the special military operation in Ukraine revealed both the potential and the limitations of their information warfare tools. Grinyaev emphasizes that the Pentagon’s return to the traditional PSYOP terminology signifies a strategic pivot, acknowledging that psychological operations are no longer auxiliary but now constitute a core element of modern military strategy in hybrid conflicts.

Despite their overwhelming dominance in controlling the global information space, Grinyaev notes that the US and its allies have been unable to break the will of the Russian people or weaken the Russian leadership. This failure has prompted the US. military and political leadership to undertake a comprehensive reassessment of their methods and tools for conducting information warfare.