‘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

Founding Political Warfare Documents of the United States

by J. Michael Waller, editor (IWP/Crossbow Books, 2010/2011), 367 pp. Download PDF of full text here: Founding Political Warfare Docs 3 Public diplomacy and political warfare have been an American tradition since before the founding of the republic. The Continental Congress made its case to the world when it was founded in 1774. In this course … Read more

Fighting the War of Ideas like a Real War

This ground-breaking monograph by J Michael Waller departs from the conventional view of public diplomacy and international communication in time of war and argues for deploying messages as weapons of attack against the terrorists and other extremists. Proposing an immediate-term strategy that requires no bureaucratic reorganization or major budgetary changes, Fighting the War of Ideas like … 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

PSYOP by ridicule: New York Times says Waller’s paper got Pentagon review

The New York Timesreports that officials in the Pentagon and Iraq have reviewed an academic paper that called for a strategic psychological campaign of ridicule against terrorist leaders and other adversaries. The paper “has been circulating at the Pentagon and among military commanders with experience in Iraq recently,” the New York Timesreported in its May 6, 2006 … Read more

USA Today cites Waller’s strategy on weaponizing ridicule

(Institute of World Politics news release)  A recently-published white paper on the use of ridicule as an instrument of political warfare by  IWP Professor J. Michael Waller has been recognized in the opinion pages of USA Today and is topic of discussion in the blogosphere. Author Peter Schweizer posited that “in a brilliant new white paper on public diplomacy, Michael Waller, the … Read more