Cognitive warfare


Cognitive warfare consists of any military activities designed to affect attitudes and behaviors. It is an extension of information warfare using propaganda and disinformation.
NATO General Paolo Ruggiero distinguishes it from other information-related activities by its objectives: "Its goal is not what individuals think, but rather, the way they think." Exponents of cognitive warfare aim to influence human thought, reasoning, sense-making, decision-making, and behavior, through the manipulation of information and use of machine learning structures which distribute information on the internet.

Concept

Definition

The academic community has not yet reached a complete consensus on the definition of "cognitive warfare." Oliver Backes and Andrew Swab from Harvard University's Belfer Center define cognitive warfare as "a strategy aimed at changing the way a target population thinks, and thereby changing its behavior." Alonso Bernal and others from Johns Hopkins University define cognitive warfare as "the weaponization of public opinion by external entities, with the goal of influencing the public and/or government policy, or undermining government actions and/or the stability of government institutions." Lin Zhengrong of Taiwan's National Defense University stated that the term "cognitive warfare" first appeared in a report by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In that report, cognitive warfare is defined as a new domain of competition that goes beyond traditional domains such as land, sea, and air. It is described as "an unconventional mode of warfare that exploits individual psychological biases and reflexive thinking, using technological networks to manipulate human cognition, induce changes in thought, and thereby cause negative impacts". Major General Robert H. Scales, former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, once summarized NATO's operational philosophy by stating: "Victory will be defined more by the mastery of the human and cultural domain than by the occupation of geographic high ground." Liang Xiaobo of the National University of Defense Technology believes that cognitive warfare is an important form of public opinion propaganda, psychological persuasion, and ideological struggle, based on modern theories and science, aimed at gaining the initiative over people's thoughts, beliefs, and values.
According to Lin Bozhou, a scholar at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, in 1999 scholars from People's Liberation Army academies proposed the concept of "unrestricted warfare", advocating the use of all means to enable the weak to defeat the strong and to force the enemy to concede to one's interests. In 2003, the Chinese Communist Party incorporated the "Three Warfares" theory into the Political Work Regulations of the People's Liberation Army. In 2014, military research institutions introduced the concept of "cognitive dominance", emphasizing ideological manipulation, influence operations, and strategic information warfare; this demonstrated that the CCP's use of cognitive and psychological tactics against the people of Taiwan is grounded in a certain theoretical framework.
This type of warfare is also referred to as "influence operation", "cognitive domain operations", or "cognitive domain warfare".

Relationship to other types of warfare

Scholars believe that "cognitive warfare" is a subordinate concept within the frameworks of grey-zone warfare or hybrid warfare.
  • Some viewpoints argue that cognitive warfare is a component of information warfare, and that information warfare itself is a part of hybrid warfare.
  • Some scholars conversely argue that information warfare is a subordinate concept within cognitive warfare.
Cognitive warfare may encompass multiple domains, including traditional propaganda warfare, psychological warfare, ideological warfare, and legal warfare. Compared to "information warfare", which can target decision-makers through online social media and physical interpersonal networks, and distort and manipulate voters' cognition and emotions, and distort and manipulate voters' cognition and emotions, "cognitive warfare" not only focuses on media manipulation but also extends into the field of neuroscience, aiming to influence brain functions beyond conventional mass media channels. Among the various related concepts, it is currently only "cognitive warfare" that employs neuroscience as a weapon in practical applications, specifically targeting and influencing the cognitive functions of the brain.
In cognitive warfare, information serves as a weapon of combat. In such operations, information can be real or partially true and partially false; it does not necessarily have to be entirely "fake news". Leaked documents from within the government or inappropriate remarks and actions by political figures can be enough to trigger social division. Regarding the distinction between cognitive warfare and information warfare, Rajesh Tembarai Krishnamachari states that "cognitive warfare" is a mode of operation aimed at influencing the adversary's consciousness and behavior. It involves the use of various means such as media, social media, culture, and politics to manipulate and influence both the public and the adversary's awareness. "Information warfare", as a component of cognitive warfare, focuses on the use of information and technologies—such as media, social media, the internet, and electronic and digital technologies—to impact the adversary's consciousness and behavior. Liang Xiaobo and other scholars have also pointed out that cognitive warfare largely relies on language as its primary medium to exert influence.

Objectives and downstream effects

"Destabilization" and "influence" are the basic objectives of cognitive warfare, which subsequently spread dissatisfaction or encourage particular beliefs and actions in a society, so that the enemy destroys itself from within; this makes it impossible to resist, deter, or divert the attacker's objectives. In addition to attempting to change the way people think, cognitive warfare also seeks to change the way the audience feels and behaves; if successful, it will likely shape and influence the beliefs and behaviours of an individual or group in favour of the attacker's tactical or strategic objectives. In the most extreme cases, it may cause an entire society to fall apart and no longer have the collective will to resist the attacker, which in turn allows the attacker to subdue the society without resorting to the threat of overt force.

Destabilization

The first basic goal of cognitive warfare is to destabilize the social stability of the target population by destroying its existing unity and trust in society – through, for example, "negative emotional mobilization", causing it to become obsessed with internal problems and to lose productivity.
The methods of destabilization include accelerating existing divisions within the group, or introducing new ideas and concepts to pit different groups against each other and intensify polarization.

Effect

The second basic goal of cognitive operations is to influence the target population. The attacker manipulates the target group's cognition and understanding of their surroundings, prompts the target group to act in a way that is beneficial to the attacker's purposes, and ultimately causes the target group to resonate with something. Targets of influence the general public, military personnel, and leaders or figures in military, political, or business fields.
According to cerebral nerve scientists, since it is the brain that is responsible for emotions that influence human judgment, humans are prone to distortions in their perceptions and decisions in situations where they feel stress and fear. In terms of dissemination effects, according to a joint study by the Academia Sinica in Taiwan in the journal Global Security Studies published by the University of Oxford, the effects of cognitive warfare are complex, increasing the cognitive processing costs to the brain even if the audience's brain does not pick up on the false information. Under repeated exposure and repeated stimulation of false messages, audiences may reduce the psychological cost of acceptance, and those who lack sufficient knowledge about public affairs may be more vulnerable, relying on external messages.

Downstream effects

According to Masakowski, the objectives of cognitive warfare are to shape and control an enemy's cognitive thinking and decision-making; to manipulate and degrade a nation's values, emotions, national spirit, cultural traditions, historical beliefs, and political will; to achieve adversarial strategic geopolitical objectives without fighting; to influence human and societal reasoning, thinking, emotions, etc. aligned with specific objectives; and to degrade a population's trust in their institutions. Masakowski states that this allows for the weakening and disruption of military, political, and societal cohesion and the undermining or threatening of democracy. Masakowski alleges that cognitive warfare has also been used by authoritarian societies to restructure society and groom populations to accept "continuous surveillance" and that this allows these authoritarian societies to "remove individuals/outliers who resist and insist on freedom of speech, independent thinking, etc."

Modus operandi

Common types

Common cognitive warfare styles include:
  • Media: Using the media or relevant Key Opinion Leaders, such as news stories, advertisements, movies, television shows, and publications, in order to promote one's views and opinions.
  • Social media manipulation: Through social media platforms such as TikTok, Xiaohongshu, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and related key opinion leaders, attempts are made to manipulate and influence public opinion and behavior. The ability to secure the internet, social media, or software has been recognized as a key to national security in the cognitive domain and has become the main battleground for international cognitive warfare. By controlling and utilizing whitelisted associated accounts in social media, and using falsely generated fake personal and media accounts to promote favorable information.
  • Intelligence manipulation: To achieve the effects of polarization, incitement, and intimidation by altering, falsifying, and disseminating false or inaccurate information and intelligence in order to influence the enemy's decisions, actions, or public opinion in the public sphere. When such information is mixed with part of the real news, it will make it more difficult for outsiders to recognize the truth, easier to convince the public, and more difficult to clarify the facts.
  • Cultural influence: Influencing the enemy's ideology and values through language and culture, such as music, film, and art. It has been argued that since there are differences in cultural traditions, religious beliefs, customs, psychological perceptions, and thinking patterns among different countries and nations, and discrepancies or even hostility among pluralistic ethnic groups within a country, it is important for the attacker to construct and master the cultural cognitive models of different countries or target groups. Strengthening research on the basic cultural characteristics and cognitive behaviors of enemy military personnel, and on the basic perceptions and attitudes of different communities of the target group, including the general population and non-governmental organizations, on common important and sensitive issues, is a key measure for cognitive warfare.
  • Political propaganda: Influencing the awareness and behavior of target audiences through political advocacy, such as speeches, declarations, demonstrations, public relations, public diplomacy, policy reports, and campaign advertisements.