Trophy meanings
The current situation is determined by the global political instability of international relations. The main contradiction lies in the intense competition between the West, led by the United States, and the new centers of power, which are gaining influence, China and Russia.
As a result, for the first time after the end of the Cold War, an alternative vision of the world order is developing. In Europe, the Asia-Pacific Region and the Middle East, competition between states and their associations increasingly embraces the values and models of social development, human, cultural, scientific and technological potential. Opportunities and influence of the West are reduced with the strengthening of new poles of power.
The Trump administration will have to tackle acute domestic issues and the accumulated problems outside the US. Washington’s widely publicized reversal to Asia, which has been going on for five years, has no effect. In the Middle East, doubts are growing in the ability of Americans to play a leading role, instability is increasing. Secretly supported by the US terrorist groups entrenched in Iraq, Libya, Syria, West Africa. Russia is becoming an important player in the region, many are seeking cooperation with it.
Europe is bogged down in uncontrolled migration, the leading countries of the Old World are talking louder and louder about the inadequacy of the EU, its inability to withstand challenges and threats. Global instability is increasing due to the beginning of military rivalry in relatively new areas - in space and cyberspace. There is a growing likelihood that political problems will be exacerbated by serious climate change.
The probability of a world split along the axis of Russian-Chinese cooperation on the one hand and the Western bloc of states led by the USA on the other increases. The “ideal geopolitical response” promoted by Brzezinski in the form of a triple alliance or association between the United States, China and Russia does not yet seem to be real.
The situation indicates a different thing. In an effort to preserve leverage, the United States and its allies in confrontation with geopolitical rivals, primarily Russia, combine traditional military power with political, informational, financial and economic, and other components to fuel conflicts, which later become a source of armed confrontation and international terrorism.
As a result, according to General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, “the use of indirect asymmetric actions and methods of conducting hybrid wars makes it possible to deprive the opposing side of actual sovereignty without seizing the territory of the state by military force”. Information warfare is a classic kind of indirect action, story which has many centuries, but only in the context of globalization and the information technology revolution, subversive actions in this area acquire unprecedented severity, scope and relevance.
Strangulation
The National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation notes: “The increasing influence on the nature of the international situation is exerted by the growing confrontation in the global information space, caused by the desire of some countries to use information and communication technologies to achieve their geopolitical goals, including by manipulating public consciousness and falsifying history.”
The political will and cumulative resources of the United States and NATO make it possible to constantly conduct subversive information warfare operations, which generally cover two areas.
The first includes the technical means of collecting, processing, protecting, distributing and effectively using information, as well as influencing the corresponding enemy targets. Serious danger is just targeted disruption of the information infrastructure.
The second one provides for informational and psychological impact on the state and military leadership, personnel and the population as a whole.
The concept of “information warfare” (IW) is used in a broad sense to denote confrontation in the field of communications and the media in order to achieve various political goals. In the narrow - as appropriate military action to achieve advantages in collecting, processing and using information on the battlefield.
Consider the strategy of IV in relation to a broad interpretation of this concept.
IW as the most important military-political category is a set of ways to influence the consciousness of all segments of the population of the enemy state to distort the picture of world perception, weaken and destroy the foundations of national self-consciousness and the type of living arrangement. The purpose of the aggressor is to disorganize the resistance. Globally, IW aims to discredit states and peoples.
Karl von Clausewitz in his work “On War” notes: “War does not start, or in any case it is not necessary, acting rationally, to start a war until it has been established what we want to achieve through and during the war. The first is the meaning of war, the second is its goal. "
The meaning of IW in obtaining full control over the consciousness of the victim of aggression and, thus, the ability to influence his future. The goal is to replace the true national interests and values with false ones.
The war of meanings is a natural result of the transformation of contemporary conflicts, when, in the context of globalization and increased integration of economies, the presence of WMD in many countries, even a local armed conflict is unpromising because it is fraught with unacceptable damage. As a result, the United States formed a strategy that envisages not the rout of the enemy and the occupation of its territory, but the strangulation of the victim state followed by complete submission.
IW as an important part of the strategies of the “color revolution” and hybrid war is a way to influence the information space of the opposing side to achieve strategic goals by randomizing the key areas of human activity: administrative-state (political) governance, cultural and ideological, socio-economic.
The focus is on the erosion of philosophical and methodological cognitive (cognitive) activity, the chaos of consciousness, the erosion of confidence in leaders and confidence in the future, the destruction of the system of national values and interests, the introduction of false economic and moral attitudes.
Therefore, modern conflicts become multidimensional. They combine informational, financial, economic, diplomatic, military and special effects on the enemy.
Such multidimensional conflicts are the “color revolutions” and hybrid wars, which are characterized by purposeful adaptive use of both forceful methods, economic strangulation, and subversive information technologies.
Leader Hunt
The intensity, scope, and content of the information impact are determined by the chosen IW strategy depending on the type of conflict that can evolve according to the scenario of a “color revolution” or a hybrid war.
In the first case, a deliberate informational and psychological impact on the leadership, military personnel and law enforcement officers, on the entire population of the target state for organizing a coup and bringing the country under external control is envisaged. The force is applied limitedly, usually within the capital and several large cities. The task is to intimidate and disorient the population, provoke mass unrest, disorganize the activities of state structures.
According to the experience of the “color revolutions” in the Middle East, in Kyrgyzstan, in Ukraine, charges of information against political leaders can be made of two types. If the head of state tried to maintain stability, using force, internal and external opponents denounce him as a bloody dictator, demanding arrest and trial. If he resorted to a soft influence on a politicized crowd, he is the head of the corrupt elite and must leave immediately. In any case, the leader and his entourage are awaiting either destruction or arrest, followed by a lawsuit and a predetermined harsh sentence.
In contrast to the "color revolution" hybrid war is characterized by a length of time and a wide range of destructive influences. They are aimed primarily at the gradual undermining of the economic and financial, administrative-political, military and cultural-ideological spheres of the victim state. Important features of the strategy include advance large-scale military preparations for the possible use of force. The goals, intensity and content of information operations are different, but in any case they are based on demolition or measurement. Russian military theorist Alexander Svechin noted: "The concepts of crushing and starvation apply not only to strategy, but also to politics, and the economy, and boxing, to any manifestation of the struggle and should be explained by the very dynamics of the latter." It is important to identify the features of each of the IW strategies in relation to the “color revolution” and the hybrid war, and to provide for the adaptation of methods and means of informational influence depending on the type of conflict.
Maidan generals
The IW strategy (that is, indirect actions in private) includes a system of political, socio-economic, informational, ideological and psychological measures to influence the consciousness of the country's population, law enforcement personnel and the army to undermine power. Implemented by provoking mass civil disobedience for the subsequent overthrow of the authorities and the transfer of the country under external control. It is based on a complex of false national values and interests, which, due to skillful manipulation of consciousness, are consistently suggested to the population and the ruling elite. The high rates of implementation, the offensive nature of the informational and psychological measures undertaken, aimed at decisive success in a relatively short time, make it possible to classify this strategy as a crush. In a conventional war, it is viewed as achieving victory through the complete defeat of the enemy, the destruction of his army and the destruction of the military-economic base.
The strategy of crushing in IW during the unfolding of the “color revolution” also envisages actions of a very decisive and dynamic nature, aimed at carrying out a coup and a change of power. However, there is no task to destroy the army and destroy the military-economic base of the state - the object of aggression.
The crown of the complex of information operations after the “color revolution” is military-political, social, economic instability created by the skillful provocation of public discontent and mass protests. Among the internal factors are corruption, a high income gap, the failure of national elites, ineffective social elevators, omissions in health care, education, justice, social security, unresolved inter-ethnic, inter-religious problems.
The effect of internal factors is complemented by foreign forces and part of the national media being manipulated, by means of traditional and public diplomacy, by special services. Particular attention is given to discrediting the army and law enforcement. The doctrine of the country's information security, recently approved by the president, refers to internal threats in the sphere of defense. It includes possible information and propaganda activities that undermine the prestige of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and their combat readiness.
At the preparatory stage, the aggressor country organizes a protest movement by introducing into the consciousness of the country's population, especially national elites, youth, political and military leadership, distorted historical and ideological ideas, false values and interests, motivations and slogans, selected according to national peculiarities. This may take decades, for example, in Ukraine from the beginning of the 90-s to the Maidan in 2004 and 2014. This process continues today. Moreover, attempts are being made to extend it to the CSTO and EAEU member states, using, in particular, the EU Eastern Partnership.
At a certain stage of the “color revolution”, in order to accelerate events and sharply exacerbate the situation, a powerful information attack is carried out, which can cause a public outcry and take people to the street. This may be a throw-in, based on true or false allegations of abuse in the higher echelons of power, an unwarranted court decision or politically motivated murder, unpopular legislative measures. Law enforcement agencies are being provoked to disproportionate use of force, militants and protest groups mobilize through used channels, a crowd is formed, on whose behalf they put forward ultimatum demands on the authorities. Engaged media, various NGOs, and opportunities for diplomacy are used to fuel anti-government sentiments and incitement to insurrection. The special services are actively working with the opposition. This fits well with the strategy of destruction, that is, based on the relatively high dynamics of increasing pressure on the authorities. The subsequent stages are implemented within a few weeks and provide for a powerful ram attack on the authorities.
The seriousness of the threat of such an IW is realized in the highest echelons of power of our state, which is reflected in the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, where inspiring “color revolutions” is one of the main threats to the state and public security of the country.
In the hybrid war, the strategy of starvation is used, based on the expectation of achieving victory by consistently weakening the enemy, depleting his economy and political will. A gradual reduction in the combat readiness of the army is carried out due to the destruction of the military-industrial complex, deprivation of the ability to recover losses and maintain the Armed Forces at the required level, personnel manipulation, blocking communications and attempts at international isolation.
Following this strategy, the aggressor state for a long time without a formal declaration of war uses technologies of information and psychological influence to violate the unity and territorial integrity of the state, to destabilize the internal political and social situation. An important place is given to discrediting traditional spiritual and moral values, reformatting the cultural and ideological sphere. Disruptive information and communication technologies are oriented primarily against the political and military leadership, national elites, youth, military personnel and the population of the target country as a whole.
The change of the paradigm of modern conflicts from linear to non-linear makes it possible to achieve large-scale results in a hybrid war with relatively small initial costs. An important place is given to the systematic undermining of the international authority and influence of the country, the systematic discredit of whole nations. This is evidenced, for example, by the Russian analyst David Spector, who considers the rabid Russophobia practiced in the West as a kind of new anti-Semitism, which was intensively heated up in its time in fascist Germany. Between these phenomena there is a certain continuity, and the role of the Jews of the beginning of the last century is now partly performed by the Russians.
Thus, during the hybrid war against Russia in the medium and long term, the strategy of extinction is implemented, when along with the undermining of the economy, the use of sanctions continues to disintegrate the ruling elites, reducing the ability and the will of the army and the population to resist changes imposed from the outside.
As a result, the strategies of contrition and starvation in IW are formed into a kind of destructive tandem (hybrid war - “color revolution”), which is purposefully used to undermine the fundamental foundations of the world order, destabilize individual countries in order to achieve their surrender, subjugate the aggressor and establish Western dominance. The combination of the strategies of crushing and starvation is based on mechanisms for the step-by-step strengthening and exploitation of criticality in order to randomize the situation in the target country.
Defense is on the offensive
The Russian model of combating hybrid war should be structured taking into account the non-linear configuration of the attacking forces and means and reflect the following key tasks of protecting the state:
the transition from the form of covering the space of the military-political, economic and cultural-ideological spheres to the functional control over the strategically most important elements;
ensuring the possibility of the operational concentration of critical efforts and resources in the most threatened place. Today it is the front of IW and the cyber security of the relevant infrastructure;
continuous intelligence in close cooperation with the structures of political and military government and the armed forces for the rapid creation and use of advantages in a threatened direction;
personnel capable of developing and implementing a hybrid warfare strategy.
In general, an in-depth study of the phenomenon and its inclusion in the doctrinal documents on ensuring the national security of Russia is required.
As a result, for the first time after the end of the Cold War, an alternative vision of the world order is developing. In Europe, the Asia-Pacific Region and the Middle East, competition between states and their associations increasingly embraces the values and models of social development, human, cultural, scientific and technological potential. Opportunities and influence of the West are reduced with the strengthening of new poles of power.
The Trump administration will have to tackle acute domestic issues and the accumulated problems outside the US. Washington’s widely publicized reversal to Asia, which has been going on for five years, has no effect. In the Middle East, doubts are growing in the ability of Americans to play a leading role, instability is increasing. Secretly supported by the US terrorist groups entrenched in Iraq, Libya, Syria, West Africa. Russia is becoming an important player in the region, many are seeking cooperation with it.
Europe is bogged down in uncontrolled migration, the leading countries of the Old World are talking louder and louder about the inadequacy of the EU, its inability to withstand challenges and threats. Global instability is increasing due to the beginning of military rivalry in relatively new areas - in space and cyberspace. There is a growing likelihood that political problems will be exacerbated by serious climate change.
The probability of a world split along the axis of Russian-Chinese cooperation on the one hand and the Western bloc of states led by the USA on the other increases. The “ideal geopolitical response” promoted by Brzezinski in the form of a triple alliance or association between the United States, China and Russia does not yet seem to be real.
The situation indicates a different thing. In an effort to preserve leverage, the United States and its allies in confrontation with geopolitical rivals, primarily Russia, combine traditional military power with political, informational, financial and economic, and other components to fuel conflicts, which later become a source of armed confrontation and international terrorism.
As a result, according to General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, “the use of indirect asymmetric actions and methods of conducting hybrid wars makes it possible to deprive the opposing side of actual sovereignty without seizing the territory of the state by military force”. Information warfare is a classic kind of indirect action, story which has many centuries, but only in the context of globalization and the information technology revolution, subversive actions in this area acquire unprecedented severity, scope and relevance.
Strangulation
The National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation notes: “The increasing influence on the nature of the international situation is exerted by the growing confrontation in the global information space, caused by the desire of some countries to use information and communication technologies to achieve their geopolitical goals, including by manipulating public consciousness and falsifying history.”The political will and cumulative resources of the United States and NATO make it possible to constantly conduct subversive information warfare operations, which generally cover two areas.
The first includes the technical means of collecting, processing, protecting, distributing and effectively using information, as well as influencing the corresponding enemy targets. Serious danger is just targeted disruption of the information infrastructure.
The second one provides for informational and psychological impact on the state and military leadership, personnel and the population as a whole.
The concept of “information warfare” (IW) is used in a broad sense to denote confrontation in the field of communications and the media in order to achieve various political goals. In the narrow - as appropriate military action to achieve advantages in collecting, processing and using information on the battlefield.
Consider the strategy of IV in relation to a broad interpretation of this concept.
IW as the most important military-political category is a set of ways to influence the consciousness of all segments of the population of the enemy state to distort the picture of world perception, weaken and destroy the foundations of national self-consciousness and the type of living arrangement. The purpose of the aggressor is to disorganize the resistance. Globally, IW aims to discredit states and peoples.
Karl von Clausewitz in his work “On War” notes: “War does not start, or in any case it is not necessary, acting rationally, to start a war until it has been established what we want to achieve through and during the war. The first is the meaning of war, the second is its goal. "
The meaning of IW in obtaining full control over the consciousness of the victim of aggression and, thus, the ability to influence his future. The goal is to replace the true national interests and values with false ones.
The war of meanings is a natural result of the transformation of contemporary conflicts, when, in the context of globalization and increased integration of economies, the presence of WMD in many countries, even a local armed conflict is unpromising because it is fraught with unacceptable damage. As a result, the United States formed a strategy that envisages not the rout of the enemy and the occupation of its territory, but the strangulation of the victim state followed by complete submission.
IW as an important part of the strategies of the “color revolution” and hybrid war is a way to influence the information space of the opposing side to achieve strategic goals by randomizing the key areas of human activity: administrative-state (political) governance, cultural and ideological, socio-economic.
The focus is on the erosion of philosophical and methodological cognitive (cognitive) activity, the chaos of consciousness, the erosion of confidence in leaders and confidence in the future, the destruction of the system of national values and interests, the introduction of false economic and moral attitudes.
Therefore, modern conflicts become multidimensional. They combine informational, financial, economic, diplomatic, military and special effects on the enemy.
Such multidimensional conflicts are the “color revolutions” and hybrid wars, which are characterized by purposeful adaptive use of both forceful methods, economic strangulation, and subversive information technologies.
Leader Hunt
The intensity, scope, and content of the information impact are determined by the chosen IW strategy depending on the type of conflict that can evolve according to the scenario of a “color revolution” or a hybrid war.
In the first case, a deliberate informational and psychological impact on the leadership, military personnel and law enforcement officers, on the entire population of the target state for organizing a coup and bringing the country under external control is envisaged. The force is applied limitedly, usually within the capital and several large cities. The task is to intimidate and disorient the population, provoke mass unrest, disorganize the activities of state structures.
According to the experience of the “color revolutions” in the Middle East, in Kyrgyzstan, in Ukraine, charges of information against political leaders can be made of two types. If the head of state tried to maintain stability, using force, internal and external opponents denounce him as a bloody dictator, demanding arrest and trial. If he resorted to a soft influence on a politicized crowd, he is the head of the corrupt elite and must leave immediately. In any case, the leader and his entourage are awaiting either destruction or arrest, followed by a lawsuit and a predetermined harsh sentence.
In contrast to the "color revolution" hybrid war is characterized by a length of time and a wide range of destructive influences. They are aimed primarily at the gradual undermining of the economic and financial, administrative-political, military and cultural-ideological spheres of the victim state. Important features of the strategy include advance large-scale military preparations for the possible use of force. The goals, intensity and content of information operations are different, but in any case they are based on demolition or measurement. Russian military theorist Alexander Svechin noted: "The concepts of crushing and starvation apply not only to strategy, but also to politics, and the economy, and boxing, to any manifestation of the struggle and should be explained by the very dynamics of the latter." It is important to identify the features of each of the IW strategies in relation to the “color revolution” and the hybrid war, and to provide for the adaptation of methods and means of informational influence depending on the type of conflict.
Maidan generals
The IW strategy (that is, indirect actions in private) includes a system of political, socio-economic, informational, ideological and psychological measures to influence the consciousness of the country's population, law enforcement personnel and the army to undermine power. Implemented by provoking mass civil disobedience for the subsequent overthrow of the authorities and the transfer of the country under external control. It is based on a complex of false national values and interests, which, due to skillful manipulation of consciousness, are consistently suggested to the population and the ruling elite. The high rates of implementation, the offensive nature of the informational and psychological measures undertaken, aimed at decisive success in a relatively short time, make it possible to classify this strategy as a crush. In a conventional war, it is viewed as achieving victory through the complete defeat of the enemy, the destruction of his army and the destruction of the military-economic base.
The strategy of crushing in IW during the unfolding of the “color revolution” also envisages actions of a very decisive and dynamic nature, aimed at carrying out a coup and a change of power. However, there is no task to destroy the army and destroy the military-economic base of the state - the object of aggression.
The crown of the complex of information operations after the “color revolution” is military-political, social, economic instability created by the skillful provocation of public discontent and mass protests. Among the internal factors are corruption, a high income gap, the failure of national elites, ineffective social elevators, omissions in health care, education, justice, social security, unresolved inter-ethnic, inter-religious problems.
The effect of internal factors is complemented by foreign forces and part of the national media being manipulated, by means of traditional and public diplomacy, by special services. Particular attention is given to discrediting the army and law enforcement. The doctrine of the country's information security, recently approved by the president, refers to internal threats in the sphere of defense. It includes possible information and propaganda activities that undermine the prestige of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and their combat readiness.
At the preparatory stage, the aggressor country organizes a protest movement by introducing into the consciousness of the country's population, especially national elites, youth, political and military leadership, distorted historical and ideological ideas, false values and interests, motivations and slogans, selected according to national peculiarities. This may take decades, for example, in Ukraine from the beginning of the 90-s to the Maidan in 2004 and 2014. This process continues today. Moreover, attempts are being made to extend it to the CSTO and EAEU member states, using, in particular, the EU Eastern Partnership.
At a certain stage of the “color revolution”, in order to accelerate events and sharply exacerbate the situation, a powerful information attack is carried out, which can cause a public outcry and take people to the street. This may be a throw-in, based on true or false allegations of abuse in the higher echelons of power, an unwarranted court decision or politically motivated murder, unpopular legislative measures. Law enforcement agencies are being provoked to disproportionate use of force, militants and protest groups mobilize through used channels, a crowd is formed, on whose behalf they put forward ultimatum demands on the authorities. Engaged media, various NGOs, and opportunities for diplomacy are used to fuel anti-government sentiments and incitement to insurrection. The special services are actively working with the opposition. This fits well with the strategy of destruction, that is, based on the relatively high dynamics of increasing pressure on the authorities. The subsequent stages are implemented within a few weeks and provide for a powerful ram attack on the authorities.
The seriousness of the threat of such an IW is realized in the highest echelons of power of our state, which is reflected in the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, where inspiring “color revolutions” is one of the main threats to the state and public security of the country.
In the hybrid war, the strategy of starvation is used, based on the expectation of achieving victory by consistently weakening the enemy, depleting his economy and political will. A gradual reduction in the combat readiness of the army is carried out due to the destruction of the military-industrial complex, deprivation of the ability to recover losses and maintain the Armed Forces at the required level, personnel manipulation, blocking communications and attempts at international isolation.
Following this strategy, the aggressor state for a long time without a formal declaration of war uses technologies of information and psychological influence to violate the unity and territorial integrity of the state, to destabilize the internal political and social situation. An important place is given to discrediting traditional spiritual and moral values, reformatting the cultural and ideological sphere. Disruptive information and communication technologies are oriented primarily against the political and military leadership, national elites, youth, military personnel and the population of the target country as a whole.
The change of the paradigm of modern conflicts from linear to non-linear makes it possible to achieve large-scale results in a hybrid war with relatively small initial costs. An important place is given to the systematic undermining of the international authority and influence of the country, the systematic discredit of whole nations. This is evidenced, for example, by the Russian analyst David Spector, who considers the rabid Russophobia practiced in the West as a kind of new anti-Semitism, which was intensively heated up in its time in fascist Germany. Between these phenomena there is a certain continuity, and the role of the Jews of the beginning of the last century is now partly performed by the Russians.
Thus, during the hybrid war against Russia in the medium and long term, the strategy of extinction is implemented, when along with the undermining of the economy, the use of sanctions continues to disintegrate the ruling elites, reducing the ability and the will of the army and the population to resist changes imposed from the outside.
As a result, the strategies of contrition and starvation in IW are formed into a kind of destructive tandem (hybrid war - “color revolution”), which is purposefully used to undermine the fundamental foundations of the world order, destabilize individual countries in order to achieve their surrender, subjugate the aggressor and establish Western dominance. The combination of the strategies of crushing and starvation is based on mechanisms for the step-by-step strengthening and exploitation of criticality in order to randomize the situation in the target country.
Defense is on the offensive
The Russian model of combating hybrid war should be structured taking into account the non-linear configuration of the attacking forces and means and reflect the following key tasks of protecting the state:
the transition from the form of covering the space of the military-political, economic and cultural-ideological spheres to the functional control over the strategically most important elements;
ensuring the possibility of the operational concentration of critical efforts and resources in the most threatened place. Today it is the front of IW and the cyber security of the relevant infrastructure;
continuous intelligence in close cooperation with the structures of political and military government and the armed forces for the rapid creation and use of advantages in a threatened direction;
personnel capable of developing and implementing a hybrid warfare strategy.
In general, an in-depth study of the phenomenon and its inclusion in the doctrinal documents on ensuring the national security of Russia is required.
Information