1 reply to this topic

[msmarvelous]

I am really interested in doing a history IA relating to psychological warfare, brainwashing, or something of that sort.

Any ideas to help me narrow down my topic?

[Emy Glau-ski]

Hi there,

First, I would start by picking just one country that used psychological warfare. The reason being that you don't have a big wordcount and you need as much space as you can to get a good analysis, so just sticking to one country would maximize that. I would pick a country that you can find a lot of information on psychological warfare on to do this because it will make finding sources and writing your IA easier. If you find this is too broad (which it probably will be) then you can focus on one event where the country used it, like during a revolution/uprising, a war, a particular key event, or whatever.

Then once you have found your country then you can look at the reasons why they used brainwashing or psychological warfare. Did they do it to get more people on their side? Eliminate the opposition? Strategical planning? Paranoia? You can analyze one or two of these reasons, whichever they may be when you do your research, and go from there. Your IA could focus on why the country used the tactics or perhaps why they were successful/not successful.

Good luck