An interesting thing about Success Models is that those who pursue them, live in an illusion of ‘control’ and think that whatever they are getting is due to the pain and hard-work they are putting into it. Why? Because their schedule of ‘rewards’ is not fixed! It’s not that they are sure to be rewarded for each and every actions, sometimes they get nothing and sometimes a lot – this unpredictable nature of rewards make them more devoted pigeon, who try hard and thinks may be I have not pecked enough, it is for them there are some motivation quotes available in the market too, such as “No Pain, No Gain.” This is the idea of Variable Ratio Reinforcement theory, which in Skinner’s view yields maximum response rate and maximum sustainability!

We have experienced many such Success Models in the past, and today with Technology, producing these Success Models in any part of the world is only a matter of a few clicks!

Creator Economy – Early Signs

Over the last few weeks, some headlines are flashing in the mainstream media about the Tulsi Village of Chhattisgarh. The village is now called a YouTubers’ hub, YouTuber Hot Spot, and Content Capital of India, as one in every three residents of village is now a Youtuber, a member of Creator Economy. There are over 1000 Youtubers in the village with a population of approx 3000. And these days all national media outlets are filled with the Success Stories of this village. There are stories from an 85-year-old grandmother to a 15-year-old boy, from people leaving government jobs and farming types routine professions to earning the name, fame, and celebrity status. And the village is now promoted as a Model Village for the country! Some outlets have mentioned that every kid born in this village and its surrounding, now aims to be only a Youtuber in life. After all, those who used to earn 10-15 thousand in a month, today earning 35-40 thousand, and as the number of their subscribers/followers is ramping up, there is no limit to their Success!

The whole scheme of the creator economy looks like nothing less than a dream for the residents of this small village of Bharat, at least in numbers and narration. This is a classic case of a ‘Success Model’ in making!

Creator Economy has already started setting its footholds in our small towns and villages, the Tier II/Tier III towns and villages are their main target! One can say that this is a unique model of ‘AatmaNirbharta’, which is developed by, nurtured by, and promoted by foreign platforms!

Now the question comes how we will convince a kid growing up in these villages, to perform the real work in life, when everyone around him/her is earning not just 100 times more money but name/fame and celebrity status too. And what all it takes is a Smartphone and some ‘fakeness’ before the camera!

We cannot ignore the fact that it is our Small Towns and Villages which produces our farmers, our soldiers, our craftsmen, and our Industrial clusters, so giving the foreign tech platforms’ Creator Economy a free runway here is like leasing out the potential of Bharat! And if these viral trends of today become ‘Success Models’ of tomorrow, it will probably take another War of Independence in future to bring our people back on track!

Addiction is a neurological process, which can shattered the life of individuals, societies and nation and it is generally irreversible! Drug Addiction in some of our border states like Punjab is one of our key national security issues, and we have seen our rural Punjab falling in the grip of this menace before our eyes!

Now these platforms of virtual dopamine- are another man made calamity in making, gradually spreading in the villages and small towns, under the shadow of ‘Creator Economy.’

Our inability to not see these trends can be called nothing but our intentional or unintentional ‘Vision Blindness.’ And it’s a matter of National Security concern!

‘Pit bull’ Controversy -– Uttar Pradesh

A few days back, news about a gym trainer’s 80-plus-year-old mother getting killed by their American bully dog pit bull surfaced in the media. The way hundreds of dog/cat lovers, across social media platforms, started a campaign to stand with the killer dog, started showing empathy with the owner for keep showing love to his dog despite losing his mother, and the way entire focus of discussions shifted toward pit-bull’s emotions, it makes one to wonder that what caused our society to become so insensitive, inhuman and immoral! From day one, the young man was pretending to be more ‘unusually’ caring and loving toward his killer pet, and his whole focus was on showing himself ‘cool’ and saving his and his American pit-bull’s brand image.

After all, he was in the center of a viral trend, how can he pretend to be a normal human!

This is the reality of this token economy, where being viral is more important than living as a normal human!

“With nothing else to seek but attention, ordinary people tend to become assholes, because the biggest assholes get the most attention. This inherent bias toward assholedom flavors the action of all the other parts of the BUMMER (Behaviors of Users Modified and Made into Empires for Rent) machine,”

Jaron Lanier, author ”Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Account Right Now” and creator of Virtual Reality.

If we take the above case as a symbolic reference then the young man represents our Gen Z and emerging Creators’ community, his pit bull represents American tech platforms, and the old mother can be seen as a symbol of our National Interests. With whom do you think our youngsters will stand in the future?

“The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.”

― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

There are many such early warning signs related to Creator Economy that exists, and it will need a separate case study of its own for those signs alone.

But in a nutshell, Creator Economy is now turning into the most upgraded engine of producing new/improved Success Models! Bit by bit, Success Models that it produces are tapping our society, politics, economy, religion, spirituality, cultural and civilizational symbols, and every single aspect of our National Identity, is being covered!

Observing these early warning signs/ symptoms with a System thinking mindset is beyond the capacity of traditional strategic security frameworks! A fresh approach is needed. And perhaps, this time, we will have to borrow the 10th Man View in our National security related issues!

The 10th Man View of the National Security

“If nine of us who get the same information arrived at the same conclusion, it’s the duty of the tenth man to disagree. No matter how improbable it may seem. The tenth man has to start thinking about the assumption that the other nine are wrong.”

This popular dialog is from the movie ‘World War Z’ is basically about an alternative method of intelligence estimates (also called critical method) developed by the team that was formed to analyze the intelligence failure of the Yom Kippur War (1973). The logic behind this approach was based on the idea of “refutation” not verification or human tendency to generalize from the experience, and it says that: “from all the hypotheses that can explain what is happening, one must choose not necessarily the one that is better supported by information, but the one that has no information that refutes it,” as shared by Major Gen. (Res.) Professor Isaac Ben-Israel (a member of that team) in his paper ‘Philosophy and Methodology of Intelligence.’

It is important here to note that Israel is an example of the western bloc’s traditional partnership. It’s a nation whose dependency on the western world is crucial for its existence, in the most complex region and among the most complex neighbors in the world! But despite that, when it comes to their National Security, they work on two key doctrines: the 10th Man View and Rise and Kill First principles. No strategic calculations can stop them for not pursuing that. So this idea that bearing the burden of US Partnership is more important than our National Security priorities belongs to an obsolete outlook. It’s a moral hurdle that needs to be discarded!

Some of the early signs of the creator economy that we discussed above, are also based on this 10th Man View! At a moment, when everyone around seems becoming an active participant in the Creator Economy and its Success Models, then it is the job of a 10th Man, to suspect and reject them!

[Note: this article is an introduction to this view; we will continue to explore case by case situation/ trends/ early signs of technology shift, with a 10th Man’s perspective in the upcoming set of articles]

Invisible Success Models – A Case of Bharat

A unique case about Bharat is that more than 85 percent of our people are patriotic and possess a great love for their nation, which reflected on all major events/calamities, local or global, and it is this core element of our instinct that as a nation, we always bounce back stronger!

Now the question comes if there are numerous visible Success Models of outside forces around us, then what happens to those who reject them? Who have faith in everything that belongs to their mother land- what references exist for them? How they are motivated to follow a path of no rewards, and no return? Reason, it is generally a blank space for them, which one can fill as per his/her motivation! So, from where this motivation really comes from? How that blank space is so special than any reward/recognition? And why no Skinnerian Model works for them?

The one-line answer can be it cannot be defined- those who pursue it, know it!

But if we have to put it in words, then we can recall a small story, which our current NSA Ajit Doval once shared in a talk. He said that once there was a grand Banyan tree (Vat Vriksha) in a forest. As the time passed, it got encircled by many weeds and small trees (Khar-patwar) here and there. At one time, the presence of those small trees and weeds expanded to an extent that they overshadowed the Banyan Tree itself, and soon the entire existence of the Tree turned blurred, almost invisible, some people started saying that this area belongs to only those small trees and weeds, Banyan tree never existed here! But the truth is that the Banyan tree was always there. It stood there for ages; and will stand forever! Few small trees and weeds could never uproot the Tree from its roots, what all they can do is that they can overshadow its existence for some time!

That Banyan Tree, the Vat Vriksha, represents the Invisible Success Models of Bharat, which are planted by, nurtured by our great visionary ancestors, and to see their Invisible Success Models, the need is to cut the weeds that surround it, with the sharpness of self-consciousness and wisdom! The Tree also represents our national cultural civilization identity, the roots of which are so deep down in the earth, that even we have no idea how deep they are! Our job is to clean the weeds and small trees down, so that Tree shines with full glory before our young generation, and we need to ensure that it is from this Tree they derive their inspiration to put Bharat back on the throne of Superpower, not from the Artificial Success Models of outside forces!

When such a day will come, when Bharat will start identifying, acknowledging and working on their own Success Models, when we will start choosing our own problems, challenges, and even our enemies, that will be called the first Shankh Naad of a powerful Bharat!

Conclusion

“In such things as War, the errors which proceed from the spirit of benevolence are the worst!”

Karl Von Clausewitz

Whenever the issue of tech-related challenges comes, the most dominating thought in our security establishment is that we must be aware and educate the people! This idea that aware and enlightened people, can fight their own battle often comes as the first reaction in everyone’s mind, and the whole process of figuring out solutions ends with this conclusion. We cannot forget that there was a time when a similar Educate and Awareness campaign model was presented for our J&K Terrorism-related challenges too! A whole lobby in Lutyens’ Delhi, developed, nurtured, and promoted those false promises and those fancy solutions, and previous governments, unfortunately, gave enough space to those recommendations in their policies too (when ‘Pyara Gulshan Apna’ kind of song were used to frequently aired in Doordarshan around the mid 90s). Those models cost us so dearly!

It is only after 2014, when the outlook and methods of our National Security challenges response changed when we adopted an action-oriented mindset, implemented needed policies/reforms in that direction, and most importantly when we reflected the right leadership intent, only then the whole situation started improving and today we can say that we are genuinely on the path of peace, prosperity, and security in the region!

Something similar is the case with Education and Awareness solutions to tech-related challenges! An educated and aware public can do nothing that can stop the Tsunami of improvisations coming from an engine, which is based on not some technical skills/competencies but on the craft of psychologists and behavioral experts! In one line, expecting common people to fight their own battle in this domain- is an unfair demand!

On a global level, Bharat, which is ready to lead in all major problems, from climate change to terror to food and fuel/energy security, always prefers to present itself as a mute follower on matters related to technology! A country that believes in the ‘Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides,’ mantra since Rig Veda times, surprisingly turn deaf/ dumb on Technology related challenges! The reason for this can be anything but not our inability, or lack of intellect.

There are many such discussions about the trajectory of technological/ psychological innovations of our time, that are going on all over the world, and a majority of these debates are going on at the HQs of these very technologies, their home countries themselves! Today, there is a whole lobby of Silicon Valley’s Hippies (the founding members, ex-executives of Big Tech corporations, scientists, and inventors) that exists, who are on a campaign to find a global solution for the menace that their products have created, and are in search for a human-centric perspective, which rests with the Bharat!

The world is looking at Bharat to provide a perspective, and a template to follow and this is the right time to introduce our Human Intelligence improvisation as the Success models to the world!

READ ALSO: 10th Man View of National Security (Part-1)

The post 10th Man View of National Security (Part-2) appeared first on IMR.

The Chinese military has adopted a strategy known as the “Three Warfares,” which includes psychological warfare, media warfare, and legal warfare. This strategy aims to shape perceptions, control the narrative and use legal means to gain an advantage over its adversaries.

Psychological warfare, also known as “mind warfare,” involves the use of propaganda and disinformation to influence the attitudes and behaviour of an opponent.

Media warfare involves the use of traditional and social media to shape public opinion and control the narrative. This can include the use of state-controlled media to disseminate propaganda and disinformation, as well as the use of cyberattacks to disrupt or manipulate the flow of information.

Legal warfare involves the use of international law and legal means to gain an advantage over an adversary. This can include the use of legal challenges and diplomatic pressure to achieve strategic goals.

The Chinese government has denied any use of Three Warfares and said it is a western conspiracy theory, but it is widely acknowledged that the Chinese government and military actively use these tactics.

Examples of Legal Warfare

Legal warfare includes the use of international legal challenges and diplomatic pressure to achieve strategic goals. Some specific examples of legal warfare include using:

International arbitration and legal challenges to challenge territorial claims and disputes in the South China Sea.

Diplomatic pressure to prevent other countries from recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state.

Trade agreements and economic incentives to gain access to resources and markets in other countries.

Legal means to challenge the actions of other countries, such as the Chinese government’s legal challenges to the U.S. government’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Legal means to challenge the actions of international organizations, such as the Chinese government’s legal challenges to the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in disputes in the South China Sea.

Legal means to challenge the actions of foreign companies, such as the Chinese government’s legal challenges to the actions of foreign companies operating in China.

Examples of Media Warfare

Media warfare includes the use of traditional and social media to shape public opinion and control the narrative. Some specific examples include using:

State-controlled media outlets to disseminate propaganda and disinformation, and to promote the government’s views and policies.

Social media platforms to spread disinformation and influence public opinion, such as through the use of bots and fake accounts.

Cyberattacks to disrupt or manipulate the flow of information, such as by hacking into news organizations’ websites and social media accounts.

Legal means to restrict or control access to certain types of information, such as through censorship and the use of strict laws to control the media.

Media outlets to promote a positive image of China and its government, while downplaying or criticizing other countries and their governments.

Media outlets to shape the narrative around China’s territorial claims and disputes in the South China Sea and to challenge the actions of other countries in the region.

Examples of Psychological Warfare

Psychological warfare includes the use of propaganda and disinformation to influence the attitudes and behaviours of an opponent and to create confusion and sow discord among an opponent’s population. Some specific examples of psychological warfare include using:

Propaganda and disinformation to shape public opinion and influence the attitudes and behaviours of military personnel and civilians in other countries, behaviours of people in other countries with regard to China’s territorial claims and disputes and China’s economic and strategic interests, political system and government.

Unrestricted Warfare

In the book “Unrestricted Warfare” written by two Chinese colonels, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published in 1999, a strategy for China has been proposed to use in a potential conflict with a more powerful enemy, such as the United States.

Although not an official Chinese strategy, it is based on the idea of using unconventional methods, such as cyber warfare and economic tactics, to circumvent the enemy’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses. The authors argue that China must adapt to new forms of warfare in order to defend itself.

The authors apropose a variety of unconventional methods that China can use in a potential conflict with a more powerful enemy. Some of these methods include:

Cyber warfare: Using computer attacks to disrupt the enemy’s military and civilian infrastructure, as well as to steal sensitive information.

Economic warfare: Using economic means to weaken the enemy’s economy, such as through currency manipulataion, trade embargoes, and investment restrictions.

Psychological warfare: Using propaganda and other means to influence the enemy’s public opinion and undermine their morale.

Terrorism: Using terrorist attacks to create chaos and fear among the enemy population.

Asymmetric warfare: Using unconventional tactics and weapons to exploit the enemy’s vulnerabilities and avoid their strengths.

Lawfare: Using legal means to challenge the enemy’s actions and justify one’s own actions.

China has been investing heavily in cyber warfare capabilities, and have been known for cyber espionage and cyber attacks against other countries. It has also been using economic means to exert influence, such as through its Belt and Road Initiative and its Made in China 2025 plan. Additionally, China has been investing in psychological warfare and has been actively working to shape global perceptions of itself and its actions.

The post Three Warfares Strategy appeared first on IMR.

ALSO READ: Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War (Part 1)

How did that approach work in Russia-Ukraine War?

“When people speak in vague generalities, for example, and use a lot of abstract terms like justice, morality, liberty, and so on, without really ever explaining the specifics of what they are talking about, they are almost always hiding something. This is often their own nasty but necessary actions, which they prefer to cover up under a screen of righteous verbiage. When you hear such talk, be suspicious,” Writes Robert Greene in “The 33 Strategies of War.”

From the beginning, the Ukraine war is a crusade for liberty/ free will and some kind of global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism for media. Global media is flooded with stories that Ukraine is such a model for democracy in the region that its mere existence makes Putin uncomfortable, and that is why he launched a brutal attack on civilian centers. In his remark on 26th March, US President Joe Biden said: “we emerged anew in the great battle for freedom: a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.”

Such narratives needed a great narrator too. Zelenskyy’s entertainment and media background combined with live-streamed propaganda (streaming 24/7 to every corner of the globe), and Russia’s complete isolation from the internet, provided NATO a cognitive weapon for which Putin had no counter. From press to social media to parliaments to diplomatic enclaves to Grammy to Oscar, the one-sided celebration of Ukraine’s heroic resistance and Zelenskyy’s Netflix-like leadership approach virtually declared Ukraine a winner in this war, no matter what may be the outcomes.

In the early hours of 24 February, shortly before the start of the war, Zelenskyy recorded an address to the citizens of both Ukraine and Russia, in which he said: “Who can prevent this (war)? People – are these people present among you? I am sure there are – public figures, journalists, musicians, actors, athletes, scientists, doctors, bloggers, stand-up comedians, Tik-Tokers, and many more – regular people.”

The overall western narrative on Ukraine and Zelensky’s position can be summed up in the lines from a recent article “Glory to You, President Zelenskyy,” published in Harvard Political Review (March 3, 2022): “Tens of millions of people worldwide have seen President Zelenskyy’s videos shared online and on television. He has harnessed the power of social media to become history’s first truly online wartime leader, bypassing traditional gatekeepers as he uses the internet to reach out to the people. His uncensored, unadulterated spirit shines through in each broadcast” and Zelenskyy, “through his tactful use of social media, has rallied the world to the cause of Ukraine.”

In the information war, the winner is unquestionably Zelenskyy but it is important to note that information is not the only front in this War!

Now the big question among the Western strategist is – how long can we keep the short-attention-span internet audience (particularly the Americans) interested and engaged in Ukraine’s real-time war series?

Weaponization of AI – A Trailer

It is not that Russia was not aware of the growing Western might on the technology front. In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement on AI made the headlines, when he said: “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind, it comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict.” And “whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” Russia’s military systems are also well equipped with advanced AI capabilities including AI-enabled robotic weapons, autonomous tanks, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), long-range strikes involving high-precision missiles, and the Russian military already use AI for intelligence gathering, C4ISR, logistics, and development of autonomous weapons.

But backed by U.S. and NATO support, Ukraine has a clear edge over AI and digital technology, particularly in the psychological and cognitive warfare domains.

Last month, in the middle of the war, a conversation between two Russian soldiers got automatically captured, transcribed, translated, and analyzed using artificial intelligence algorithms (developed by a US company called Primer). There is news that several unsecured Russian transmissions have been posted online, translated, and analyzed on social media. It is also important to note that every single tech platform and social networking site that, not just Russians or Ukrainians, but the entire globe is using to explore the War, every single platform where people talk/ share or present their views on the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have embedded advanced AI algorithms, that are recording our response/ reactions and emotions in real-time in this big laboratory of psychological experiments called the Internet.

So in a way technology has made everyone a participant (with or without our consent) in this war and from that point of view, it is indeed a kind of virtual WW III. But given the possibilities of AI weaponization in the future, it can still be called only a trailer or snapshot of the future!

From an outer view, the latest developments in Cognitive Warfare and associated psychological manoeuvres appear as matters of the Big Power game, where countries like India have some scope to remain ‘untouched’ and ‘neutral’ but the question is – Can we afford to ignore the fact that in this battle of public perception, every single user, irrespective of his/ her national/ cultural identity, knowingly or unknowingly is a potential team member of some regional/ national or global battalion, recruited to serve the interests of forces, outside our borders?

India’s National Security Concerns

Recently, India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval remarked about these new trends/ shifts in approach to warfare and their possible impact on India, when he said, “The civil society is the new frontier of warfare,” and it is “the common people, their thinking, their perceptions, their sense of well being, and their perception of their own governments,” and everything that can impact the “will of the nation,” is under attack, in this new age of information revolution.

These tech platforms which made their way into the Indian market in the name of some educational activities (Amazon as an online book store), some aid in research (Google search), and occasional entertainment activities (YouTube), now become not only the source of radicalization of a large section of youth but also a significant facilitator in illicit trade and anti-national activities. Today, we have reached a situation where, whether it is some engineering graduate living in a metro city or some rural youth indulging in farming in his village, the cognitive weapons of the information revolution are capable of affecting everyone’s “wetware” irrespective of their personal/ educational/ social or professional background.

When we trace the root of the problem, we find that it all began not with computer technology and the Internet but with “Reality TV” culture, the initial platforms of psychological experiments, and what we are observing now is largely a scaling up of that culture through a more precise and targeted information weapon in our hands – the smartphone and its 24/7 streaming apps.

From Reality TV to Live Streaming

Similar to computers, Reality TV made its debut in India in the name of some singing, dancing and adventure sports/ activities, and through their auditions among the youth, they developed a mass appeal. The craft was fairly simple – putting some people under complex psychological situations and collecting the reaction of the different groups and societies, via voting lines (dial-in mobile phones or SMS). That was the beginning of an active mass engagement and an implementation of the “Persuade, Influence and Change,” frame of traditional PsyOps.

Now, these experiments are entering a new phase. The technological developments in the last few decades have accelerated the pace and reach of such entertainment products to a different level. This phase marked the full exploitation of advancement not only in the digital technology domain alone, the other complementary fields such as Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology have undergone significant progress too. It is important to note that due to absolute presence and unhindered access for over two decades, now makers of these platforms have a rich experience in analyzing the message and communication exchanged between different groups of our society too, across all regions/ cultures and age groups. Our actions, reactions, emotions, behavior, choices, likes/ dislikes, and overall psychology is nothing but bit-sized information stored in their massive data servers! As a result, their tone, flavor and craft of experiment are consistently improving and getting more precise with each passing day.

Alignment with the Youth ‘Psych’

These days YouTube is circulating and advertisement that their growing creator ecosystem contributed Rs 6,800 crore to the Indian GDP and supported 683,900 full-time equivalent jobs in India in 2020. What does that mean in simple terms?

Entertainment, gaming, dancing, music, cooking, travel, comedy, pet care, home care, self-care, talking or any other hobby or routine, is no more some leisure activity. These are the new employment opportunities for the youth and a highly rewarding career too.

Indian society is inherently outcome-oriented. When a child spends more than usual hours on something, the parent usually asks  – what’s the return? By keeping this psyche of youth and society in mind, these platforms have revamped their strategy too. Today, the more a youth spends time on social media, the more he/ she is capable to earn followers/ likes/ shares/ impressions, higher the chance of his success in life (this is what they highlighted). And when they see around, what do they find? There are several success stories, that originated from a common source! There are several influencers-cum-celebrities out there who not only have a highly rewarding career/ income on social networks but a post-retirement plan too. Several such faces can now even be seen in our regional/ national politics. And if these local examples are not sufficient then search globally – these platforms have created several success cases, for each region/ race/ color/ culture on the planet (at this moment, Zelenskyy is one such face too). On a broader level, all that makes traditional career/ education/ innovation/ discovery/ research/ engineering kind of path appear as a less attractive and less rewarding option for the young minds!

This is the psyche of our Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which are born and nurtured in this environment!

Conclusion

“Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self.” (The Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 6, Verse 5).

From perception to change to influence to command, computer technologies’ improvisations are now entering a state for which we have a reference in our ancient texts. In Ram-Ravan Yuddh, it is said that there came a moment when Ravan invoked “Maya” (the weapon of illusion), the weapon created an illusion of reviving all the armies and their leaders already killed in the war. Then Ram was reminded by his charioteer Matali that: “In your original identity, you are the creator of illusions in this universe. Ravan has created the illusion of phantoms to confuse you. If you make up your mind, you can dispel them immediately.” It is said that then Ram invoked the weapon called “Gyaana” (wisdom) and soon the entire illusion of terrifying armies created by Ravan evaporated into the thin air.

To deal with the Cognitive Warfare’s new improvisations, India’s ancient wisdom and thousands of years of experiences of experimenting with human intelligence can show a path! If name/ fame/ greed is the focus of the approach of Western model, then ‘Tyag and Tapasya’ is a time-tested approach of Bharat. It is this approach of our great rishi munis (who were the world’s leading inventors/ explorers and scientists) which made us thrive in several human endeavours in the past!

Bharat can develop a unique counter-Cognitive Warfare doctrine of its own and a time to work in that direction has come!

ALSO READ: Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War (Part 1)

The post Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War (Part 2) appeared first on IMR.

ALSO READ: Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War (Part 2)

Misinformation, Propaganda, Narratives, Info War, Psy Ops and other non-kinetic tactics of World War II and Cold War phase, are rapidly getting replaced by tools of the 21st Century, that are more concise, precise, targeted, and at the same time largely ‘extremist’ in their approach. These are designed keeping the continuously reducing attention span of targeted viewers and the needs of hyper-empowered ‘homo digitalis’ in mind.

In the classic war strategies, it is often said that the best deceptions are based on ambiguity, mixing fact and fiction so that one cannot be disentangled from the other. In all the previous forms of psychological operations, whether leaflets, loudspeakers, radio, print and electronic propaganda, the truth remained an important ingredient of use and the key idea was that for manipulation to be effective, it had to be based (to a maximum extent) on some Truth and Credibility, otherwise it would not work in the long run. But all that is now a thing of the past. Those strategies belong to a phase when deceptions or manipulation operations used to be some irregular events, not a 24/7 live-streamed reality! In the world of bite-sized content and streaming communications, the philosophical concepts of ‘Art of War’ have mostly been replaced by psychologically fascinating ‘Art of Lying’ and the ideas of fact, logic, truth and credibility are gradually becoming obsolete and ineffectual.

So how the future recipe of psychological experiments will taste with these new ingredients? Russia-Ukraine War offers a perfect snapshot of that future!

After over 40 days of stunning speeches and standing ovations, massive cheerleading campaigns, TikTok manoeuvres, Instagram/ Twitter/ YouTube revolutions and all-out internet invasion, some horrific images of Ukrainian civilian causalities started coming out to the surface, and the world heard the “silence of ruined cities and killed people,” as Zelenskyy rightly quoted in his Grammy award message. These images do not go well with the much celebrated “heroic victory” of the Ukrainian President, yet he shared them with the global audience with some kind of ‘guarantee’ that neither the blame nor the accountability for this whole episode would ever come to his shoulders!

After all, it is Russia, the aggressor who committed these “war crimes.” NATO partners who betrayed the Ukrainians and the rest of the world, which is unable to decide whom to side with, is further making it worse! So where is the fault of Zelenskyy in all this? He is only doing the job that best suits him, carrying the image of “servant leader” (that elected him to chair) managing public opinion/ perceptions, and giving perfect shots for this live-streamed war series, in real-time! But how do those millions of Ukrainians who turned ‘refugees’ overnight and those who lost their families and dear ones in this nonsensical campaign for “NATO membership” see all this? How they perceive the role of their social media hero President whom they elected to end the war not to accelerate it, perhaps, will never come to the light!

“Ukraine has gone from bread basket to bread line,” said UN World Food Programme Head, citing the serious humanitarian crisis in the country. According to UN reports, Ukrainians are trapped in besieged Ukrainian cities, lacking access to food, water and essential services. Interestingly, from day one of the war, providing ‘uninterrupted internet’ connectivity to civilians tops the list of priorities for the Ukrainian government. As of now, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with Elon Musk has provided over 5,000 Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine, which are largely up and running despite missiles and cyber attacks.

From absolute internet control to weaponization of public opinion, in many ways, the Ukraine war is a classic case of 21st-century Cognitive Warfare, pilot-tested successfully!

‘Persuade, Change, Influence and Command’

“Communication is a kind of war, its field of battle is the resistant and defensive minds of the people you want to influence. The goal is to advance, to penetrate their defenses and occupy their minds,” writes Robert Greene in his book “The 33 Strategies of War” (2006).

In the middle of the Ukraine War, the White House invited selected social media influencers on a zoom call to guide them on how to educate their millions of followers spread across the world, about U.S. policy on Ukraine. The White House digital strategy director tweeted: “An astonishing amount of people are learning about the invasion of Ukraine through digital creators who have begun to cover it,” and “we take that really seriously, and are working to make sure those creators have the ability to have their questions answered.”

That in simple words was an open invitation for social media influencers to join NATO Psy Ops and Cognitive Warfare against Russia.

What is Cognitive Warfare?

“Cognitive Warfare is the weaponization of public opinion by an external entity,” for “influencing public and governmental policy” and “destabilizing public institutions,” defines NATO’s report: ‘FALL 2020 – Cognitive Warfare – An Attack on Truth and Thought.’ The study says that Cognitive Warfare is different from earlier forms in the sense that it is not limited to controlling the “flow of information” rather it is a fight “to control or alter the way people react to information.” It highlights the “power of words/ ideas and non-kinetic war,” citing how “the Soviet Union watched the collapse of the Iron Curtain,” and the impact of the power of “blue jeans and rock and roll.”

The document mentions Russia 54 times, China 20 times, and Iran 6 times, citing how these three had waged cognitive attacks against the Western bloc through misinformation/ false narratives campaigns about the Corona outbreak and what the three could do in the near future. It highlights how the combination of social media, news networks, automation algorithms, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, psychology, and sociology is paving the way for a dangerous future and talks about adopting the “defense forward” doctrine of the USA, which means “preemptively preventing and proactively searching for attacks.”

A careful look at the Ukrainian leadership approach in this war reveals that it is largely inspired by findings of such NATO reports on psychological and cognitive warfare.

Cognition refers to “the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses,” and Cognitive Warfare attempts to influence this process and its internal mechanism. A recent definition comes from Oliver Backes and Andrew Swab of Harvard’s Belfer Center, in their published work in Dec 2019 that says: “Cognitive Warfare is a strategy that focuses on altering how a target population thinks – and through that how it acts.”

If we look around, from a teenager to adults to senior citizens, what are the sources for acquiring knowledge and understanding through “thought, experience, and senses,” in this Google’s system of the world?

According to a recent report “Digital 2022 – Global Overview,” there are approx 4.95 billion internet users in the world (62.5% of the global population) and 4.62 billion active social media users, who spend on an average 6 to 7 hours daily online. India comes in the list of countries where people spend more time than the average on the Web and now Gen Z (the generation born between 1997 and 2012) is the biggest target audience of these platforms. Major activities, which information prosumers (one who both consume and produce) perform online, include keeping up-to-date with news/events, watching/producing videos, TV shows/ movies/ gaming, live streaming content and chatting with family/ friends and social networks. And most importantly, all these activities they perform not with a routine mindset, there are inbuilt elements of ‘addiction’ in these algorithms that are the product of ongoing research on psychology, neurology, sociology and science of influence, designed to affect the ‘wetware’ of the human brain, which is also called the “grey matter” of the brain in which opinions/ perceptions are formed and decisions are made.

If Media is psychological and cognitive warfare’s most useful weapon then Content is its ammunition. Advanced research in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI), psychology and neuroscience has the potential to impact the cognitive functioning of human brains and when this potential gets leveraged for the psychological operations in real-time through a device that people carry 24/7 in their hands, the results are simply remarkable!

Zelenskyy’s Leadership Approach – a Brief Case Study on ‘Persuasion’

In the middle of the Russia-Ukraine War, Netflix decided to stream Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s political series “Servant of the People” again! It is a political TV series created and produced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who stars a 30-year-old history teacher, who got unexpectedly elected as the President of Ukraine (after a video of him ranting about the corrupt system goes viral). The series, which is the product of Kvartal 95 studio (a studio founded by Zelenskyy in 2003) ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2019. It is interesting that, while the series was still on the air, in 2018, Kvartal 95 studio registered a political party similar to the title of the series “Servant of the People,” and the whole election campaign of Zelenskyy was orchestrated to establish this narration that Zelenskyy in reel life and real life was the same.

Zelenskyy ran the entire presidential campaign on a virtual mode, avoiding human contact with his electorate, and addressed his voters through YouTube shorts, TikTok and Instagram posts and garnered millions of views. There was news that he also spent a good amount of time of his campaign producing the next three episodes of the TV series. An article “The World Just Witnessed the First Entirely Virtual Presidential Campaign,” published in Politico magazine on April 24, 2019, mentions that: “He not only traded on the image of a complete outsider, he also did no face-to-face campaigning, made no speeches, held no rallies, eschewed travel across the country, gave no press conferences, avoided in-depth interviews with independent journalists and, until the last day of campaigning, did not debate.”

The article further notes that Zelenskyy’s “virtual-first strategy” allowed him to run his campaign “on general themes and vague promises and to avoid issuing detailed positions on policy issues,” and the entire campaign was focused on the “discontent with the way things are—and lambasting Ukraine’s business and political elites for making them that way.” And finally, it concludes thus, “the U.S. and the West can help ensure that the choice Ukrainian voters have taken in electing an ambitious but untested political newcomer pays off and does not plunge Europe into an accelerating conflict with Russia.”

In a nutshell, from the 2019 election to the 2022 War, the internet and Western help were always on the back of Zelenskyy, and if one keeps the virtual propaganda aside, it seems like a classic case of installing a puppet leadership!

ALSO READ: Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War (Part 2)

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