The indictment filed by the United States Justice Department on February 16, 2018 against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian companies regarding attempts to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump for the US presidency, amounting to intervention in the country’s political system, is a phenomenon enabling interference in the “consciousness” of another country, in the form of “cognitive subversion.” Cognitive subversion exploits one of the basic principles of democracy, freedom of speech, particularly...
The IDF has intensified its cognitive-related activity recently and engaged in a significant buildup process in this realm. This has included developing a cognitive operations doctrine and engaging in developing technological tools, training human resources, and building organizational frameworks supporting the doctrine. The use of overt capabilities by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit enables direct discourse with many target audiences in enemy states on the social media, as well as with terrorist elements. This is effected using the...
This essay examines the idea of “Non-lethal warfare” and how it can and should be integrated in the framework of the IDF’s military campaigns. It addresses the organizational, conceptual, and cultural barriers obstructing such a policy, and the changes required in the IDF’s operating principles: establishing the guidelines; changing the concept of time in a military operational design; shifting from a structure of covert to overt campaigns that are connected to the civilian environment; and devising a supportive intelligence and...
The Russian interference in the presidential elections in the United States and in France raises questions about the need and ability of democratic countries to protect their election processes. This article indicates the importance of relating to elections in a democratic country as both critical infrastructure and as a critical process, and it presents the threats to elections posed by both cyber and cultural developments. This article addresses the reality in which the extensive use of social networks and direct communications...
The widespread popular belief, as well as the operating assumption of US law enforcement agencies, was that it was Russian hackers who broke into the computer network serving the Democratic National Convention, as part of a cyberattack aimed at Democratic Party institutions. Apparently as a result of tensions between Russia and the US, a cyberwar is already underway that goes beyond the ongoing activities of intelligence gathering and espionage. Causing damage to the democratic process, perhaps by means of tendentious exposure of...
