Introduction: ‘Switching Back to Good Old PSYOP’

Abstract

This chapter introduces the content and themes of the book by situating its historical approach to psychological warfare in relation to contemporary concerns over disinformation, ‘active measures’, and the post-truth era. Prefacing the book’s argument that psychological warfare evolved alongside practices of aerial bombardment, it draws upon Derek Gregory’s notion of the ‘moral economy of bombing’ to introduces the book’s challenge to the claims that psychological warfare represents an objective, humane, manly, and lawful way of war.