Psychological Warfare and Terrorism

This brief article demonstrates that there are common psychological principles that can be effectively and directly applied to illustrate the utility of terrorist activities. One key contention is that terrorism should be considered the pinnacle of strategic behaviors within any protracted campaign emphasizing psychological warfare. A variety of mechanisms and concepts are utilized to make this point and to demonstrate that the field of psychology provides clear benefits in explaining how terrorist acts can influence the thoughts and behaviors of audiences that are targeted by terrorist actors.