XVII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2025

Despite the instability of the modern world, when humanity is faced with a situation of global uncertainty, some things have remained unchanged for thousands of years, such as the meaning of Sun Tzu's phrase: “Successful warfare follows the road of deception” [1]. [1]. Solving the problems of global competition in the modern realities of digital transformation of all spheres of human life, sovereign states have to take into account the dynamically developing network nature of communications at all levels: from interpersonal to interethnic at the same time as the population's accessibility to them increases, because it is the sphere of mass communications and network social interaction that modern strategists see as the “sixth sphere of war - cognitive”, along with the usual land, water, air, space and cyber issues.

The concept of cognitive warfare (“The Cognitive Warfare Concept”) [3] proposed by NATO staff [3] is a statement of analytical conclusions based on the results of a six-month study, which became a trigger for a resonant discussion not only among the military and politicians directly interested in this issue, but also among journalists and scientists. The key place in NATO's prognostic studies is given to cognitive warfare [3], the success of which depends on the “weaponization of brain sciences” [4].

NATO's strategy defines “cognitive warfare” as “an unconventional form of warfare that uses cyber tools to alter the enemy's cognitive processes, exploit mental biases or reflexive thinking, provoke distorted thinking, influence decision-making, and impede action, resulting in negative consequences at both the individual and collective levels.” [2] The goal of cognitive warfare is to achieve the goal of “cognitive warfare” by using cyber tools to alter the enemy's cognitive processes, exploit mental biases or reflexive thinking, provoke distorted thinking, influence decision-making, and impede action, resulting in negative consequences at both the individual and collective levels. [2] The goal of cognitive warfare is identical to the goal of kinetic (physical) warfare - to dominate the enemy and impose one's will on him. But if in the second of the mentioned cases the victory is marked in time and space (capitulation, peace treaty, etc.), the new form of warfare entails a change of methods, means, technologies and resources for its conduct, however, its results are not marked neither by time nor geographical limits. Cognitive warfare is invisible, it has a total character, blurring the usual boundaries of the rear and the front and encompassing the entire population of the parties involved in the conflict. In this case, the area of warfare is “human mind”, and its essence is “war for the brain”. [5] The main task of cognitive warfare is not to understand “what” people think, but to find out “how” they think, so that, knowing the patterns, they can reprogram human consciousness in order to change the public position on critical issues, which will make it possible to achieve victory without resorting to traditional methods of warfare. Modern technologies for collecting, analyzing and disseminating large amounts of data (big data) to monitor and manage social behavior, infiltrating the consciousness (information and disinformation, engineering technologies, psychological influence, etc.) and thus turning “everyone into a weapon”, substituting social goals, forming the desired worldview contribute to the success of the “war for the mind”.

The Alliance saw the launch of the NWO as an opportunity to intensify developments in exploiting the capabilities of the “vulnerability of the human brain” [5], changing the balance of traditional and cognitive warfare methods. [5], changing the balance between traditional and cognitive warfare methods.

The basis of cognitive warfare is the construction of a “necessary” picture of the world in order for an individual and society as a whole to perform predictable actions and make “correct” decisions, which is possible with the competent use of mind manipulation mechanisms. The object of such manipulations is not only the present or the future, but also the past, when the result of the introduction of various suggestive technologies is the substitution of one memory for another, leading to the formation of a new picture of the world and jeopardizing the foundations of state security, undermining “the individual's faith in the system-forming myth of the state”. In modern scientific literature, such processes of managing public consciousness through the reconstruction of real historical events are associated with the era of post-truth [6], when the impact on minds occurs through the involvement of emotional spheres of a person who is guided by feelings in decision-making, excluding critical analysis and facts. Nowadays, the rapid increase in the number of information sources entails an equally rapid decrease in their quality. Modern technologies of “deepfake” (AI for synthesizing voice or image), distorted, unreliable information (fake news, alternative facts) occupy leading positions in the information space, forming “cognitive bases of anger, violence and hostility” [7]. [7]. The tool of cognitive warfare is control over information, its perception and its impact on social behavior [8]. In other words, it is not an information war, but a war for information, the transformation into knowledge of which takes place in order to change “the very context of the use of weapons” [9]. NATO analysts see the achievement of the ultimate goal of cognitive warfare in the establishment of cognitive dominance, which is possible in today's digital realities through the introduction of methods related to the dependence of society on various media, social networks and the Internet in general. One such method is the “information bubble” / “filter bubble” [10], the “filling” of which is carried out by the largest Internet companies with reliance on the interests of the “customer” of information, leaving only that which, in the opinion of the “information provider”, is important to the consumer. The result of such “filtering” of information is the distortion of an objective picture of the world that excludes the diversity of viewpoints. This is a world “painted” for a certain demand. The danger of the “information bubble” lies in the high probability to get into information isolation, to be behind the “wall of filters” [10].

In the information space against the background of the SWO, foreign media are actively involved in the formation of an information bubble, thus creating the necessary picture of the world for their population, creating an aggressive image of Russia. However, the “demonization” of the Russian soldier is an informational technique that was first tested not in our days. A.V. Suvorov's army faced the distortion of the warrior's image during the storming of Prague, a suburb of Warsaw, when the news about “the beastly cruelty of Russian soldiers, who, having taken Prague by storm, slaughtered the peaceful population <...> and killed babies were pinned on pikes and carried them in this form to frighten the enemies” [11]. However, Suvorov warned his soldiers before the assault with the words: “...do not run into houses; spare the enemy asking for mercy; do not kill the unarmed; do not fight with women; do not touch minors”. At the beginning of the SWO, similar practices of influencing the emotional sphere of the population were used by Ukrainian politicians, whose words were actively supported by the European media. As an example, a horrifying narrative of violent acts against men, women, and infants was broadcast in the media for several months. Despite the fact that ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova (the initiator of the dissemination of provocative false information) was fired, there was no refutation in official sources, which is explained by the rules of cognitive warfare in the post-truth era.

The coverage of the events in Bucha by leading foreign publications was accompanied by a number of factual discrepancies provided by the Russian side to refute the statements about acts of aggression against the civilian population by the Russian army servicemen. It should be noted that a number of analysts note that the choice of the village of Bucha to describe the “brutal massacre” is not accidental, it is aimed at the English-speaking audience, because it is consonant with the English word “butcher”, which facilitates the impact on the emotional sphere of the target audience [12]. The Independent openly used provocative wordplay in describing the events mentioned in the publication “Azatbek Omurbekov: ‘Butcher of Bucha’ was blessed by Orthodox Church before ‘utterly inhuman war crimes’”. The Russian side's consistent presentation of facts confirming Ukraine's false statements about what happened in Bucha, the exposure of staged videos with “corpses with moving hands, who get up and walk away, reflected in the rearview mirror of the departing car” [12], the refusal of the Security Council of Ukraine to take action in the case of the Butcher from Bucha [12], the refusal of the UN Security Council to hold a separate meeting on this issue, confirm the existence of the “game” according to the rules of cognitive warfare with “one-sided” false filling of the information bubble.

In 2023, under the leadership of Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of St. Petersburg State University N.V. Eryomina conducted a study “SWO in the media of European countries and post-Soviet countries: a comparative analysis” [13]. [13], according to the results of which conclusions were made that a task was formulated for a number of foreign mass media to cover SWO through the impact on the emotional sphere of their target audience. Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Great Britain were especially distinguished in this direction, “denouncing” the “crimes of the Russian regime”, “opening” the eyes of their readers to the main goal of the NWO - “the demolition of the Putin regime”. In this vein, it is interesting that the “low level of journalism” [13] does not bother to compare real facts and conclusions offered by the fake heralds, because the beginning of the NWO is Russia's initiative (which excludes the task of the operation to destroy its “regime”) and foreign media do not refute this fact. At the same time, the UK media write about the necessity to achieve the set goal of the NWO and bring it to the end, thus presenting mutually exclusive information in the neighboring paragraphs of one publication.

The interpretation of the data obtained in the course of the above-mentioned study of the topic of the “Nord Streams” undermining allows us to conclude about the one-sided coverage of this event in the media of Sweden, Great Britain, Norway and Poland. But it is especially important to note the specifics of the material presentation, which is that Russia is named as a sabotaging party in this incident [13].

A characteristic feature of the digital world is its pervasive enveloping power. The increasing amount of research in the field of cognitive warfare as a concomitant threat of the new world and the Alliance's declaration of this threat confirms the relevance of this direction. The key distinctions of cognitive warfare - non-kinetic impact on the enemy, weakening his resistance, destroying him from within, substituting true goals with suggestible ones - oppose, on the one hand, its physical warfare, and on the other hand, have strategic goals of non-contact coercion of the enemy in the present moment and in the long term, avoiding lethal outcome of their soldiers to achieve the goals set on the battlefield. The successful application of cognitive warfare techniques is associated with increased human autonomy, the severing of traditional social ties, and a decline in academic awareness. In this regard, one of the first measures to counteract the cognitive impact should be to increase the level of education of the population, which at the same time serves to achieve a twofold goal - the education of patriotism through education, which is confirmed by the words of Nobel laureate V. L. Ginzburg: “. L. Ginzburg: “...I understand patriotism as follows: to the best of one's ability a person should try to educate the population”, “...We want to know everything, but leave in our souls only what is close to our worldview”.

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