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Creating Chaos: Covert Political Warfare, from Truman to Putin
There’s an ongoing war involving most of the developed world. Its munitions are pixels instead of bullets, hacks instead of bombs—and it encompasses anyone who uses a cell phone or computer.
Surreptitious Russian involvement in elections in the U.S., the Ukraine, and elsewhere and many more such recent scandals are examples of the dark side of statecraft explored in Creating Chaos. The covert use of political warfare has a distinguished lineage, with roots in the “Great Game” between British and Russian empires. It continued to develop through the Cold War era, and has now blossomed into the hybrid political warfare of the 21st Century.
Using the most current information available, Larry Hancock, a “veteran national security journalist” (Publishers Weekly) introduces the nature and history of such practices, examining a number of formerly secret American and Russian hybrid warfare and “active” measures. Ranging across the globe, from Guatemala, Iran, and Indonesia to the U.S. and Russia, Hancock’s book details the exponential increase in covert warfare—and the equally exponential risk and consequences involved.
Surreptitious Russian involvement in elections in the U.S., the Ukraine, and elsewhere and many more such recent scandals are examples of the dark side of statecraft explored in Creating Chaos. The covert use of political warfare has a distinguished lineage, with roots in the “Great Game” between British and Russian empires. It continued to develop through the Cold War era, and has now blossomed into the hybrid political warfare of the 21st Century.
Using the most current information available, Larry Hancock, a “veteran national security journalist” (Publishers Weekly) introduces the nature and history of such practices, examining a number of formerly secret American and Russian hybrid warfare and “active” measures. Ranging across the globe, from Guatemala, Iran, and Indonesia to the U.S. and Russia, Hancock’s book details the exponential increase in covert warfare—and the equally exponential risk and consequences involved.
393 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
7 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Larry Hancock
42 books35 followersLarry is a graduate of the University of New Mexico with a BA in Education and majors in Anthropology, History and Education. Following service in the United States Air Force, he worked in the telecommunications and computer communications fields with Continental Telecom and later Hayes Microcomputer and Zoom Technologies.
During that his career he held the positions of Instructional Systems Design Manager and Engineering Training Manager at Continental Telecom, Vice President of Human Resource Dimensions (specialized in strategic business planning, disaster recovery planning and computer system conversions) and Training Manager, Marketing Manager and Marketing Director at Hayes Microcomputer and Zoom Technologies.
During that his career he held the positions of Instructional Systems Design Manager and Engineering Training Manager at Continental Telecom, Vice President of Human Resource Dimensions (specialized in strategic business planning, disaster recovery planning and computer system conversions) and Training Manager, Marketing Manager and Marketing Director at Hayes Microcomputer and Zoom Technologies.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 30, 2018
Data and hacks may have replaced bullets and bombs. Social media has been weaponised with targeted fake news and twitter bots.
These are the new tools available to all and sundry to pursue social, racial, ethnic and religious fragmentation.
However, Creating Chaos spends an inordinate amount of time on the Cold War, before finally moving on to modern day statecraft and I struggled to be engaged in the subject matter at hand.
Too much backward looking and too little forward thinking mired what should have been a fascinating examination of a topic that concerns us all.
Perhaps it is time to tell our children to stop obsessively staring at their screens and instead to look up and observe the world around us.
These are the new tools available to all and sundry to pursue social, racial, ethnic and religious fragmentation.
However, Creating Chaos spends an inordinate amount of time on the Cold War, before finally moving on to modern day statecraft and I struggled to be engaged in the subject matter at hand.
Too much backward looking and too little forward thinking mired what should have been a fascinating examination of a topic that concerns us all.
Perhaps it is time to tell our children to stop obsessively staring at their screens and instead to look up and observe the world around us.
December 11, 2018
With „Creating Chaos“ Larry Hancock presents a short overview of covert influence operations by the United States since the Second World War and contrasts them with Soviet and Russian operations up to 2018.
Based on previous research in the domains of national security and covert operations Larry Hancock concentrates on covert influence operations here, whether they are part of bigger operations or stand-alone activities. This overview starts with a short historical perspective of different approaches to influence operations before the chronological account of US operations from 1945 onwards begins. Depicting different US operations over time Hancock examines the possibilities and political risks of covert operations and the relationship between presidents and such operations.
Hancock describes the development of US operations from small scale improvisations to large scale operations with sophisticated infrastructure and oversight processes. He also alleges a process of outsourcing of covert operations had occurred since the late 1970s, which had provided better plausible deniability but also less direct control, resulting in covert operations sponsoring and coaching third party proxies operating nearly independently.
With the fall of the Soviet Union Hancock recognizes a paradigm shift and describes how before the CIA had operated covertly to stifle political change, while the Soviet Union could mostly act overtly and embraced revolutionary changes. Since the 90s private organizations training election observers and educating about democratic rights were operating openly, while Russian services operated covertly to stifle change and influence political outcomes. Here we also see the one weakness of the book, as Hancock only has US and Russian operations in his scope but does not include British, French or Chinese operations and tactics.
Nevertheless the depicted tactics and examples are eye-opening and do include modern influence operations utilizing automated twitter and Facebook accounts in false flag operations to influence the public. Especially this last part concerning the use of modern technological means of social media makes the book stand out among others, which only deal with Cold War era covert operations. Here Hancock also provides a crucial insight into the modern strategy of Russian covert influence operations, which is not to convince the public of some argument or win it over to the Russian point of view. Current operations mainly aim to create chaos by purposefully escalating conflicts within society, preventing political consensus, fragmenting and weakening the public’s trust into institutions and thus weakening the West as a political entity.
In summary Hancock provides a well-researched and readable overview of the operational conduct of covert influence operations with a host of examples and chilling warning to Western audiences, that they are currently a target for such operations.
Based on previous research in the domains of national security and covert operations Larry Hancock concentrates on covert influence operations here, whether they are part of bigger operations or stand-alone activities. This overview starts with a short historical perspective of different approaches to influence operations before the chronological account of US operations from 1945 onwards begins. Depicting different US operations over time Hancock examines the possibilities and political risks of covert operations and the relationship between presidents and such operations.
Hancock describes the development of US operations from small scale improvisations to large scale operations with sophisticated infrastructure and oversight processes. He also alleges a process of outsourcing of covert operations had occurred since the late 1970s, which had provided better plausible deniability but also less direct control, resulting in covert operations sponsoring and coaching third party proxies operating nearly independently.
With the fall of the Soviet Union Hancock recognizes a paradigm shift and describes how before the CIA had operated covertly to stifle political change, while the Soviet Union could mostly act overtly and embraced revolutionary changes. Since the 90s private organizations training election observers and educating about democratic rights were operating openly, while Russian services operated covertly to stifle change and influence political outcomes. Here we also see the one weakness of the book, as Hancock only has US and Russian operations in his scope but does not include British, French or Chinese operations and tactics.
Nevertheless the depicted tactics and examples are eye-opening and do include modern influence operations utilizing automated twitter and Facebook accounts in false flag operations to influence the public. Especially this last part concerning the use of modern technological means of social media makes the book stand out among others, which only deal with Cold War era covert operations. Here Hancock also provides a crucial insight into the modern strategy of Russian covert influence operations, which is not to convince the public of some argument or win it over to the Russian point of view. Current operations mainly aim to create chaos by purposefully escalating conflicts within society, preventing political consensus, fragmenting and weakening the public’s trust into institutions and thus weakening the West as a political entity.
In summary Hancock provides a well-researched and readable overview of the operational conduct of covert influence operations with a host of examples and chilling warning to Western audiences, that they are currently a target for such operations.
December 28, 2018
An interesting and in-depth examination of political shenanigans from the Cold War to the present day. Lots of research but still very readable and suitable for novices. Worth picking up if you’re interested in how we got to where we are...
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
August 29, 2019
I was most interested in Cold War era stuff, which was decent enough... I lost interest a bit in the more contemporary stuff, perhaps as I've lived through following it. Guess I only want old, musty stuff in the books I read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews