Category: war and warfare

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421: COGNITIVE WARFARE

 

Cognitive warfare is not only an attack on what we think.

It is an attack on our way of thinking. 

 

Pic: Courtesy Internet

 

 

The human mind is the paramount battleground in modern warfare and cognitive warfare has emerged as an unparalleled domain.

 

Defining Cognitive Warfare. Cognitive Warfare is a psychological strategy that focuses on altering how a target population thinks and through that how it acts. This strategy intends to gradually influence the targeted public’s beliefs, opinions, and perceptions about a subject, such as an event, a politician, a government, or an ideology in general. It is the weaponisation of public opinion, by an external entity, to influence public and governmental policy and destabilise public institutions.

 

Genesis. Cognitive warfare is a development that has emerged from prior related non-kinetic forms of warfare, such as PsyOps operations and Information Warfare. Information warfare is aimed at manipulating what people believe to be true and thereby swaying public perceptions. A more organised and advanced form of information warfare is cognitive warfare.

 

Catalysts. Cognitive warfare relies heavily on new communication and information technologies, notably AI.

 

Key features

 

    • Cognitive warfare targets the entire population (as opposed to merely military ones in wartime).

 

    • Its focus is on changing a population’s behaviour by way of changing its way of thinking rather than merely the provision of discrete bits of false or misinformation in respect of specific issues.

 

    • It relies on sophisticated psychological techniques of manipulation by harnessing the new channels of public communication, such as social media, upon which populations have become increasingly reliant.

 

    • It aims to destabilise institutions, especially governments, though often indirectly by way of initially destabilising cognitive institutions, such as news media organisations.

 

    • Cyber warfare categories including cyber conflict short of war, cyber terrorism, cybercrime, and cyber espionage, etc can be classified as covert cognitive warfare.

 

    • Cognitive warfare so far consists of activity that is more aptly characterised as short of war.

 

    • One problem with cognitive warfare is the problem of attribution and deniability.

 

    • Covert cognitive warfare is (more or less) by definition unlawful (at least in the nation-state against which it is directed).

 

    • Cognitive warfare is likely to be more successful in certain prevailing circumstances like destabilising effects of war, economic depression, pandemics, and other disasters or a pre-existing polarised society.

 

Countering Cognitive warfare

 

    • Legislation to hold mass social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, legally liable for illegal content, such as incitement and hate speech, on their platforms.

 

    • Mandatory licensing of mass social media platforms.

 

    • Licences to be conditional on the content on their platforms being compliant with the minimum epistemic and moral standards determined and adjudicated by an independent statutory authority established by the government.

 

    • Lawful content which, nevertheless, fails to meet these minimum epistemic and moral standards, to be liable to removal by social media platforms, under the adjudications of the above-mentioned independent statutory authority.

 

    • Communicators of politically significant content on mass media channels of public communication who have very large audiences, e.g., greater than 100,000 followers, to be legally and publicly identified.

 

The People’s Republic of China has incorporated cognitive warfare and related strategies into their operations.

 

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References and credits

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Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from sources deemed reliable and accurate. All copyrighted material belongs to respective owners and is provided only for purposes of wider dissemination.

 

 

 

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419: INDIA’s PREPAREDNESS FOR DRONE WARFARE

 

The most important, current, and discussed topic related to the contemporary application of Air Power.

 

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INDIA’s PREPAREDNESS FOR DRONE WARFARE

 

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418: NEWS AND VIEWS (INTERNATIONAL)

 

NEWS-1 (ISRAEL HAMAS WAR)

Israel’s military said it had resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza on Friday after accusing the Palestinian militant group of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.

 

VIEWS

  • The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice.
  • The terms of the cease-fire were in favour of Hamas. It gives some respite to the Israeli government from both domestic (to bring back the hostages safely at the earliest) and international (to regulate the extent of force and to allow humanitarian aid) pressure.
  • The cease-fire facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip. But deliveries of food, water, medical supplies, and fuel remain far below what is needed.
  • 105 Israeli hostages held in Gaza were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
  • Qatar and Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend the truce.
  • Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Hamas attack on 07 Oct. Israel is preparing to turn the focus of its operation to southern Gaza after its seven-week assault to the north.
  • The cease-fire to some extent has reduced the chances of the escalation of the conflict.
  • Military force is not a permanent solution to the complex problem.
  • The two-nation theory needs to be implemented earnestly.

 

NEWS-2: RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu chaired a roundtable meeting with military officials in Moscow on November 21, 2023. He said that Russian troops are advancing on all fronts in Ukraine. They are occupying and expanding their zones of control.

It was announced that Russia has taken control of Khromove, a small village on the outskirts of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

 

VIEWS

  • The war started in Feb 2022. The intensity has been varying.
  • In 2023 the frontline has barely shifted. Both sides keep claiming success.
  • The latest major flashpoint is the war-battered industrial town of Avdiivka.
  • It is likely to be a long-drawn affair. Both sides are adamant and gradually weakening themselves.
  • Israel Israel-Hamas war has taken the spotlight away from it.

 

 

NEWS-3: EUROPE’S DEFENCE SPENDING

 

The Annual Conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA) took place in Belgium in hybrid mode on 30 Nov 23.

Defence companies, militaries and EU chiefs all agreed that Europe is sorely lacking, especially in what is available to support Ukraine.

Many participants pointed to issues from financing to interoperability to research and development.

 

VIEWS

  • Europe is ploughing billions into its defence industry, with record sums being spent since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
  • Military spending in the European Union has hit a record 270 billion euros ($295 billion) this year.
  • Moscow has announced a massive 68 per cent hike in its military spending for 2024 (almost a third of all of Russia’s government outlays).
  • The EU’s 27 member states spend on average 1.5 per cent of their country’s economic output. NATO’s target is two per cent for its members (22 of which are also EU member states).
  • The United States, in contrast, spends 3.5 per cent of its already higher GDP on defence.
  • Out of all this, maximum gainers are the Defence and arms industry.
  • Collective security is valid, and interoperability is very important.

 

NEWS-4: SPACE WARFARE IN KOREAN PENINSULA

A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying Seoul’s first domestically made reconnaissance satellite launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:19 a.m today (01 Dec 23).

Seoul’s satellite is set to orbit between 400 and 600 kilometer above the earth and is capable of detecting an object as small as “30 centimetres” (11.8 inches), according to the Yonhap news agency.

 

VIEWS

  • Two weeks back, North Korea had successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit. This launch of the “Malligyong-1” was Pyongyang’s third attempt at putting such a satellite in orbit, after two failures in May and August.
  • Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over the North.
  • Until now, South Korea relied heavily on US-run spy satellites.
  • While the South has “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles.
  • Maybe it is the beginning of space race in the Korean peninsula.
  • Space warfare (a natural extension of air warfare) is the new domain of warfare.

 

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Disclaimer:

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