Daniel Eerhart
Introduction
In medicine, iatrogenesis is when a physician’s medical treatment or procedures unintentionally induce disease, harmful complications, or any other ill effect. This paper introduces the concept of iatrogenic influence. It parallels the medical term and refers to situations where information operations inadvertently produce adverse outcomes and unintentionally exacerbate the issue they aim to improve. While this phenomenon has existed as long as information warfare has, the nearly twenty years of conflict following September 11th, 2001, known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT), has produced numerous missteps and infringements from which we can learn lessons to improve future efforts.
During the GWOT, U.S. military psychological operations units deliberately integrated various information-related capabilities and aimed to wage a mutually supportive war in the tactical and cognitive domains. However, inherent to the nature of terrorist organizations is the ability to weaponize fear and win information battles. Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Islamic State, the Haqqani network, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba all weaponized the information environment to bolster recruiting efforts and spread propaganda. While U.S. forces aiming to compete in the information environment had to wrestle with bureaucratic processes and protect domestic trust and perceived legitimacy in the combat zones, GWOT adversaries pressed their advantage in the information space through decentralized execution and rapid dissemination. U.S. military commands do not have the luxury of cutting corners; when they do, they increase the risk of iatrogenic influence.
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