Last week Secretary of War Pete Hegseth restored the use of Psychological Operations(PSYOP) to describe planned operations that convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences in an effort to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals in a manner favorable toward DoW objectives.
This corrected policy decision in 2010 to replace the use of PSYOP which dates to the dawn of the Cold War with Military Information Support Operations (MlSO). The term MISO also caused a great deal of confusion within the military. PSYOP is pretty obvious, MISO not so much. Fortunately, the fog has been lifted.
The implementation memo goes on to say, “with fifteen years of additional perspective, it has become clear that the term PSYOP more closely align functions with branding, eliminates confusion, and directly supports my priorities to reestablish deterrence and revive the warrior ethos.
Dues to the vast amount of doctrinal and funding issues at play, full implementation across the department is not expected until the end of FY 2026.