Tag: Clandestine Warfare

Secrets of War, Espionage 04 Weapons of The Shadow War (SOE and OSS)

I decided to share this link after being asked what weapons SOE used. Although this film only covers a few of the weapons available to SOE agents it’s a good introduction.

The legendary William Fairbarin (aka the Shanghai basher and dangerous Dan) makes an appearance during his time in Canada but has been wrongly quoted.

During the re-enactment of training in Scotland we see two former members of SOE’s French Section, Harry Ree and Jacqueline Nearne.

Although there are a number of inaccuracies this film is still worth watching.

Now it can be told: School for Danger (public information film)

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was an ultra-secret branch of the British military and this public information film released in 1947, one-year after the executive was disbanded, is one of the first public acknowledgements of SOE’s existence during the war.

Every member of the cast were former members of SOE’s French Section, hence the poor acting, and each scene was based on actual events during the war.

Those familiar with this Section will recognise the two main characters: Harry Ree and Jaqueline Nearne whose sister Eileen also served with SOE and escaped from Ravensbruck Concentration camp.

Recommended readings- non-kinetic warfare

This page provides a brief description by authors and links  to their books, academic papers and articles on non-kinetic warfare and is updated each month.

Books

Narrative Warfare, a Primer and Study guide

Narrative Warfare, a primer and study guide, is literally, a first of a kind and ground-breaking in its intent. The intent of this book is to give national security professionals and other interested parties a baseline understanding of narrative and its principles regarding the potential for predictably triggering behaviour. If we are to succeed on the battlefield of influence, understanding narrative is an imperative…   See more https://medium.com/@paulcobaugh/narrative-warfare-a-primer-and-study-guide-6ccae8d34397

Plato’s Fear Paperback – March 12, 2020

by Ajit Maan Ph.D.

Powerful narratives don’t simply target an audience; they create the target audience. The identity component of narrative is missing from assumptions that narrative is just a mode of communication. Narrative is the most fundamental tool of power. It is the means through which power gets institutionalized. Narratives are told to someone’s advantage and very powerful narratives may even preclude the telling of any alternative. But it is also a means by which power can be exposed, questioned, under-mined, and made to answer for itself…

Ajit Maan, Ph.D. is a security and defence policy analyst and a specialist in narrative strategies in radicalization processes. She is faculty at Union Institute and University’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, George Mason University’s Centre for Narrative Conflict Resolution, and is member of The Brain Trust of the Weaponized Narrative Initiative at Arizona State University.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085RVQ4DK?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Soft Power on Hard Problems

This book is a practice in military civics. This collection of international perspectives challenges commonly held assumptions and outmoded paradigms of engagement. The authors share the view that the over-reliance on kinetic approaches over influence operations account for some of the failures of nations against extremists…

Information Warfare: The Lost Tradecraft Kindle Edition

by Howard Gambrill Clark (Author)

Dr. Howard Gambrill Clark, Ph.D. is a Yale graduate with twenty years of experience and research in countering violent extremism and counterterrorism: U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and special unit commander (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Philippines); White House National Economic Council counterterrorism analyst; Department of Homeland Security Senior Intelligence Officer for Headquarters Operations Directorate and Senior Intelligence Analyst for Counter Radicalization; and Special Operations Command senior consultant and trainer for countering violent extremism and stability operations as well as service to the U.S. Information Agency and U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He received his doctorate from King’s College London War Studies.

Articles and papers available on the internet

PERSPECTIVE: Anatomy of Narrative Warfare and Social Media Ops Since the Last Election

October 30, 2018  Paul Cobaugh (Published by Homeland Security Today)

What follows is some basic perspective about where and how this type of analysis fits into the national security landscape. Of note, I will say that the topic is complex, to say the least. A great deal of scrutiny regarding the findings of this excellent piece of work is not only due but required for national security professionals in addition to well-informed citizens from other walks of life. Protecting the nation from malign influence is not exclusively the role of professionals but also the responsibility of citizenship. In terms of protecting the homeland, this study does, though, provide some of the best large-scale insights for national security professionals to date…

Mr. Paul Cobaugh retired from the US Army as a Warrant Officer after a distinguished career in the US Special Operations CT community, primarily focused on mitigating adversarial influence and advancing US objectives by way of influence. Throughout his career he has focused on the centrality of influence in modern conflict whether it be from extremist organisations or state actors employing influence against the US and our Allies. Post military career he was offered and accepted the position of Vice President at Narrative Strategies, a US based Think-Do Tank which specializes in the non-kinetic aspects of conflict. He has also co-authored, Soft Power on Hard Problems, Hamilton Publishing, 2017 and Introduction to Narrative Warfare: A Primer and Study Guide, Amazon, 2018

PERSPECTIVE: Anatomy of Narrative Warfare and Social Media Ops Since the Last Election

Narrative Warfare by Paul Cobaugh published 21 January 2019

Narrative Warfare, continues to come into prominence in the wake of modern Russian Active Measures styled warfare against her adversaries, both real and perceived…

View at Medium.com

More information on these and other subject matter experts working in the field of narrative warfare can be found at https://www.narrative-strategies.com/

Nancy Wake – Special Operations Executive (in this documentary Nancy Wake lives up to her reputation of being straight talking!)

Film documentary telling the story of the Australian who, after engineering the escape of hundreds of allied servicemen from occupied France during the Second World War – and following her own escape and subsequent training as an S.O.E. agent returned to France by parachute to support the resistance.  (Six-part documentary)