The Determinant Role of Misinformation in the Manifestation of the Principle of Operational Surprise

Surprising the opponent in the main areas of strategic confrontation - information, political, economic, technological, ideological, psychological, espionage/counter-intelligence, military - was a priority objective of the general policy of the states, regardless of the analyzed historical age. In this framework, the most active and effective component of taking by surprise - misinformation- has always been in the attention of decision-makers in order to determine a distorted perception of reality, diminishing alertness and reducing the ability of an opponent to act or react [1]