Government Issued Opinion

Intelligence services, businesses and governments increasingly use a sinister methodology called an influence campaign to sway the core values of their own countries and others around the globe. This method is used by many different types of governments, from China to the United States, and can pervade many different sectors of public life. Even seemingly powerful politicians are impacted by influence campaigns without even realizing it. While influence campaigns differ from political campaigns or corporate advertising, they share similar characteristics. Both influence human behavior by manipulating human beliefs to produce an outcome favorable to the campaign goal. This book explains the mechanisms of influence campaigns and how they affect outcomes in policy making, often in surprising ways. Chapters detail examples of influence campaigns waged by various governments throughout the years and aim to suggest how the public consciousness should combat these strategies. As targets of these campaigns, citizens must understand how our leaders use them for their benefit.--