COGNITIVE OPERATIONS AND WARFARE IN THE CONTEMPORARY SECURITY LANDSCAPE: DRIVERS, DYNAMICS, AND IMPLICATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63978/3083-6476.2025.2.2.03Keywords:
challenges and threats in the cognitive space, information aggression, cognitive operations, cognitive war, cognitive confrontation, hybrid war, Russian-Ukrainian war, strategic destabilization, asymmetric actions, information and psychological influence, national securityAbstract
The modern security environment is no longer limited to the physical space of combat; it includes information, media, digital and social dimensions, in which multidimensional cognitive wars are unfolding with a whole range of cognitive operations aimed at undermining national unity, discrediting state institutions, blurring the idea of truth, imposing narratives of defeat, despair or surrender on society. The latest trends of 2024–2025 indicate the evolution of the cognitive operations toolkit. That is why the study of the prerequisites, dynamics and consequences of cognitive operations, as well as the development of theoretical and applied models of protection against them are critically necessary, because this opens up space for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of security studies, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, information technology and military strategy. Thus, the purpose of the article is a comprehensive study of the nature and mechanisms of cognitive operations and wars in the modern security environment using the example of the cognitive confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an analysis of their prerequisites and dynamics of development, an assessment of possible consequences for national and international security, taking into account modern challenges and threats. The main results of the study are: an analysis of terminology in the field of cognitive operations and cognitive wars; disclosure of the features of the main cognitive operations of Russia against Ukraine; identification of the main characteristics of the ongoing cognitive confrontation between Russia and Ukraine; conducting an analytical generalization on the cognitive operations that Ukraine has implemented or is implementing against Russia, as well as an assessment of their degree of effectiveness and the consequences of the expected results. The materials of the article will be useful to specialists in the field of national security, strategic communications, military affairs, analysts, specialists in international relations and scholars in the field of political, psychological and military sciences.
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