Deception in Modern Warfare and Strategic Affairs

This thesis examines the use of deception in warfare and strategic affairs in the past 30 years. The thesis uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative assessments to determine the effectiveness of using deception to achieve surprise in battle, how successful achieving surprise is as an attacker, how deception can be used as a defender and how successful it has been. All of this was determined by studying 21 wars and 80 battles, as well as an additional ten scenarios of strategic deception, from 1969 to 2009. The research indicates a possible decrease in the use of deception, and a greater reliance on superior fire power than previous studies done on earlier timeframes. The thesis also suggests that due to the United States' varying adversary's reliance on deception to counter our conventional superiority, the U.S. should utilize counterdeception or deceptions of its own.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Defense and Strategic Studies

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Defense and Strategic Studies

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Kennedy, Nathan Thomas

Contributors dc:contributor

• Keith Payne

• deception
• warfare
• strategy
• guile
• denial and deception
• military deception
• strategic deception
• Defense and Security Studies

Statement dc:rights

• © Nathan Thomas Kennedy

Repository record dc:identifier

https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/1452

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bearworks.missouristate.edu:theses-2453