Info Ops: From World War I to the Twitter Era

The companion volume to Hybrid Conflicts and Information Warfare, this collection traces the history of information operations from the leaflet campaigns of the First World War through Soviet WWII propaganda, Vietnam-era PSYOP, the Soviet-Afghan War, South Ossetia, and Hamas-Israel information operations, up to the digital present. The historical scope is what makes this volume distinctive — most practitioners are trained to think about information operations as a contemporary phenomenon, and the historical continuities documented here complicate that assumption productively.

The editors bring the same rigour to historical analysis that characterised the first volume, with contributors drawn from both academic and practitioner communities. For those advising clients on information operations strategy, understanding the doctrinal evolution of IO — what has been tried, what has worked, what has been learned across a century of practice — is essential context. The Middle East Institute has noted the book's particular value for understanding how non-state actors conduct IO, and the chapter on Hamas-Israel information dynamics has direct contemporary relevance.