Editing Perception management (section)

==Foreign policy and terrorism==
Perception management has long been a key issue in the United States government. Beginning in the 1950s, the CIA contracted out several hundred different public information and news agencies for different "assignments". This practice grew, and currently operates with several thousand initiatives helping to privately shape public opinion of the government. Indeed, the Department of Defense views perception management as a psychological operation aimed at eliciting the desired behavior by manipulating the opinions of both enemies and friends. Best put by the DOD directly, "Perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/388/59/ |title=The evolution of perception management tactics (06/04) |publisher=Towardfreedom.com |date=2005-06-03 |access-date=2012-02-23}}</ref>
Since the U.S. engaged in the [[War on Terror]], perception management tactics have become vital to military success and relations with other countries.
{{blockquote|text= ... It is absolutely vital that the Perception Management campaign of the United States and its allies be coordinated at the highest possible level, that it be resourced adequately, and executed effectively. Properly coordinated, such a campaign could be a war-winning capability. When left uncoordinated, such operations will achieve only modest success, at best, and at worst, could seriously backfire. Even a poorly chosen word, used in the heat of the moment (e.g. 'crusade'), can have significant negative consequences.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Garfield, A.|year=2002|title=The Offence of Strategic Influence: Making the Case for Perception Management|journal=Journal of Information Warfare|volume=1|issue=3|publisher=School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University|location=Western Australia|access-date=2010-11-05|url=http://www.jinfowar.com/journals/archives/vol-1/v1-issue-3/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320153533/http://www.jinfowar.com/journals/archives/vol-1/v1-issue-3/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-03-20|page=46}}</ref>}}

Typical counter-terrorism (CT) thinking focuses on the violence, or its associated threat, to identify and exploit associated avenues for meaningful response and reaction.<ref>{{cite web|author=Gressang, D. S.|date=March 17, 2004|title=''Perception Management and Counter-terrorism: Leveraging the Communicative Dynamic'', paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada|access-date=2008-10-10|url=http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p73614_index.html}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>