A Historical Overview Of Coercive Persuasion

Dr. Enrico Suardi ('19) will discuss state and non-state actors' attempts at developing tools of psychological coercion and manipulation.

About the Lecture: This presentation is part of a series of lectures on the behavioral sciences in US national security and public safety. The premise is that the human factor is the basis of crises and the source of solutions.

Is the human mind the new, sixth domain of operations, or has it been the main domain of operations since Sun-Tzu advised winning without fighting?

Nation-states and non-state actors have attempted to develop tools for brainwashing. These efforts have yielded no truth serum, no recruitment pill. Group pressure and psychological manipulations under conditions of deprivation break down most of us over time. However, false confessions are elicited and the coerced individuals are psychologically maimed.

Dr. Suardi will start off by providing a historical overview of coercive persuasion, and will then discuss the psychology and neuroscience of coercion and ethical persuasion. He will conclude with highlights of the ongoing 21st-century cognitive warfare.

About the Speaker: Dr. Enrico Suardi (IWP Class of 2019, Executive MA in National Security Affairs) is director of psychiatry at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, director of forensic services at the Ross Center in Washington, D.C., and the 2024-25 president-elect of the Washington Psychiatric Society A diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry, on faculty at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Georgetown University, and George Washington University, he has served as chief child and family psychiatrist at the U.S. State Department. Dr. Suardi studied political psychology with Jerrold Post, completed his M.D. and a residency in preventive medicine in Milan, Italy, and obtained an MSc in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

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