1st Edition
Cognitive Warfare Grey Matters in Contemporary Political Conflict
This book explores the conceptual, historical, and ethical issues of information conflict to present a detailed analysis of cognitive warfare.
Is it possible for liberal democracies to deliberately use information on civilian populations to impact political and social institutions? While information conflict has been a part of political conflict, warfare, and international relations for as long as there has been political competition, given that our modern political and social lives are saturated by information, we are now faced with a pressing set of reasons to understand cognitive warfare, and to place it in a wider historical and technological context. This book identifies a series of conceptual and ethical challenges facing liberal democracies around modern information conflict. Drawing from historical practices, it suggests that two values – human dignity and political autonomy – can explain why some acts of cognitive warfare might be judged to be good, while other acts are judged to be bad.
This book will be of much interest to students and researchers of intelligence studies, ethics, security studies, and International Relations.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Part I: Information, Democracies, and Cognitive Warfare
1: On Grey Matters in Cognitive Warfare
2: The Information Age and Democracy
3: Beyond Information, Influence, and Interference
4: On Information, Intelligence, and Power
Part II: Histories of Cognitive Warfare
5: Grey Matters in International Relations: From Military Deception to Political Conflict, to Cognitive Warfare
6: Grey Matters in Domestic Activities: Subversives, Terrorists, Institutional Actors, People
7: Grey Matters in Technologies: From Terrorism to Insurrection
Part III: Ethics and Cognitive Warfare
8: Hypocrisy, Grey Matters, and Norms in Cognitive Warfare: Matters of Inconsistency and Why Inconsistency Matters
9: Foundational Moral and Political Values
10: The Limits and Futures of Cognitive Warfare
Index
Biography
Adam Henschke is an Assistant Professor with the Philosophy Section at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
"[This] is the first book-length investigation of a critically important topic - states' use of disinformation and information manipulation to target the beliefs and attitudes of foreign citizens through platforms such as social media. Dr. Henschke explains the ethical, political, and conceptual dimensions of this topic and compellingly demonstrates how these tactics erode the foundation of liberal democracy by undermining citizens' trust in political and social institutions and the concept of truth itself. This is an important and timely book that should be essential reading for scholars, students, and anyone who is interested in the preservation of democratic political and social institutions"
Jessica Wolfendale, Professor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, United States
"An original, engaging, and insightful work. Henschke says intelligent and insightful; things about a number of important issues on modern information conflict — issues that are only going to become more important."
Richard Schoonhoven, Associate Professor, US Military Academy, West Point, United States
"At a time when many liberal democracies are increasingly in peril, (particularly the United States), Henschke's excellent book provides a comprehensive analysis of how the malignant impact of cognitive warfare continues to undermine trust in their core political and social institutions. Its a timely wake up call for how cognitive warfare's use of technologies continues to make truth expendable and corrodes human dignity and political autonomy."
Patrick F. Walsh, Professor, Charles Sturt University, Australia
