Psychological manipulatations in the cognitive warfare

Abstract

The revolutionary development of neuroscience and behavioral science, rapid advancement of information, communication, and digital technologies have led to the emergence, along with five conventional types of military confrontation (on land, in the air, on water, in space and cyberspace), of the sixth – cognitive – domain of warfare. Although such features of this type of warfare as time indefiniteness, total coverage of the entire population involved in the conflict, and deploying of other, but more intense and sophisticated measures of influence make it different from traditional wars, the goal of cognitive warfare remains the same – to impose one’s political will on the enemy. In the current Russo-Ukrainian military confrontation use of strategies that focus on adversary’s cognition manipulation has become increasingly threatening.