Crafting an Information Warfare and Counter-Propaganda Strategy for the Emerging Security Environment

The cyber warfare and influence campaigns that are being waged against the United States represent a national security challenge of generational proportions. In talking about influence campaigns, we too often focus on the digital and technical aspects on the internet and social media. While those aspects are critical and indeed have served as an accelerant to speed up communications and effects, we should keep in mind that information warfare is about information, not just the medium. Our understanding of this form of warfare should also include the psychological, cognitive, and cultural aspects of the messages. In 1950, President Harry Truman said, "the cause of freedom is being challenged throughout the world today and propaganda is one of the most powerful weapons they have in this struggle. Deceit, distortion, and lies are systemically used by them as a matter of deliberate policy." President Truman spoke of a conflict of ideas that is still occurring today. And, it is a conflict that is largely ignored. Information warfare and propaganda efforts are not new. The tools have changed, but enemy doctrine has not. Information warfare is shaping the international environment. There may not be overt and open fighting, but there is certainly open conflict. Information warfare is being waged in an aggressive ongoing competition over territory, resources, and people in the Crimea, in the South China Sea, in Iraq, and in Syria. People are being desensitized to the reality of actions around them, increasing the likelihood of misunderstanding and miscalculation.