Back at JFK Special Warfare School to teach PSYOP

It’s always a happy occasion to be back at Fort Bragg, teaching psychological operations courses to our special operations forces. Recently I was at the John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School for a two-day PSYOP session for officers and senior NCOs. Our PSYOPers keep getting better and better. Over the years, I’ve seen … Read more

‘Weaponizing ridicule’: Breaking ground in Army’s Military Review journal

The U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, asked Dr. Waller to expand on his pioneering work in 2006 to use ridicule as a weapon. Waller’s article, “Weaponizing Ridicule,” is published in USACAC’s bimonthly intellectual journal, Military Review, September-October 2017. It looks out of place in Military Review‘s table of contents, but that’s … Read more

Teaching at JFK Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg

This week has Dr Waller back down at Fort Bragg, teaching at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Dr Waller is a frequent teacher and trainer for American special operations forces and others at Fort Bragg, and this week he is providing military officers and their interagency civilian counterparts with a historical, … Read more

Putin propagandists pick up ex-Pentagon PSYOPers

by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / February 14, 2016. In an irony that illustrates the contrast in value that Russia and the U.S. place on sound information strategy, the Russian government’s international propaganda service has hired American PSYOP professionals left jobless after congressionally mandated program cuts. RT/Sputnik hired at least four contractors from the US Special … Read more

PSYOP/MISO class @ Fort Bragg

Returned from two days at Fort Bragg to teach a great group of officers and senior NCOs about psychological operations (PSYOP), still confusingly called military information support operations (MISO). There is no shortage of critical thinkers among the special operations soldiers in these units, a very encouraging thing to see, even though overall training doctrine … Read more

Psychological strategy presentation at Westminster Institute

After a decade of war, with many military victories to its credit, the United States continues to struggle with defining and combating ideological adversaries. It has been unable to dominate the psychological battlespace in which America’s enemies – both those practicing violence and those not presently violent – flourish. Dr. Waller outlines a strategic solution … Read more

Dr Waller on PSYOP assessment team for Pentagon

Publication Date: February 24, 2010 The US Special Operations Command has requested an IWP professor’s assistance with a major assessment project to design military psychological operations capabilities for the next decade. Professor J Michael Waller is part of a US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) team to develop the Department of Defense PSYOP Capabilities-Based Assessment. The objective of the … Read more

Larry, Curly and Osama: Killing the enemy by ridicule

by J Michael Waller / Los Angeles Times / May 21, 2006.  The piece, titled in the print edition as “Larry, Curly and Osama,” appears online as “Larry, Curly and Musab.” OSAMA BIN LADEN says he doesn’t fear dying. He says he fears being humiliated. So let’s give it to him. Bin Laden and others have thrived on … Read more