Information warfare

“Information warfare”, while not an entirely new concept, remains controversial. However, it is widely used in media discourse. Thomas N. Rona officially introduced the term “information warfare” into the literature in a 1976 report presented to the Boeing Company titled “Weapon Systems and Information Warfare,” proposing the following definition: “Information warfare refers to the use of information to achieve goals, as well as the competition, rivalry, opposition, or war waged between adversaries at strategic, functional, and tactical levels, encompassing peace, crisis, escalation of crisis, conflict, war, termination of war, and reconstruction/renewal.” This definition may be very broad, as it involves many actors and actions in a state of war. Despite this characteristic, however, it is more human-centric than technological or military.

In its broadest context, information warfare is a concept that refers to the use of information management and information technologies to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent. In Sun Tzu’s book “The Art of War,” it is mentioned that information plays a crucial role in your victory over the enemy and that it is a “soft power.” Winning a war may require a lot of information, but it certainly requires better information than that of the opponent. Information warfare means ensuring that our information is reliable and accurate. At the same time, it means denying information superiority to an enemy. This implies denying information or manipulating the information available to the enemy.

This concept, first used in the USA, has taken on a more technological and militaristic character. Some researchers have stated that information warfare is not a term with a single meaning, but rather a term that includes different types of warfare such as electronic warfare, psychological warfare, economic information warfare, or cyber warfare. While American scientists are inclined to use such linguistic structures, Russian scientists focus more on the human dimension when using the concept of information warfare. (I will address the conceptual differences regarding information warfare between the USA and Russia in future articles.) In this war of hearts and minds, keeping broadcasting technologies such as TV or radio under control is an important goal. This trend has become more complex with the advent of information technologies and the World Wide Web. Because it is truly difficult to keep information under control or to utilize it, the process of sharing, disseminating, and receiving information must be reshaped. Above all, the term information warfare has lost its military character with the development of information technologies that have taken over every moment of our social life today.

In a rapidly developing society where people cannot keep up with new technology and news flows, the importance of information warfare as a concept is constantly increasing, especially as information warfare continues to become an inseparable part of modern conflicts. The rise of digitality in 21st-century society and the rapid development of media and information and communication technologies are creating a new playing field for international actors such as the USA, the Russian Federation, and China.

The union of media and political power appears today as an almost unbreakable “duo.” The key to a successful geopolitical war lies in professionally applying or utilizing information. People do not know what is better, what is more useful to read, listen to, and watch in order to understand the truth or the genuine reality. Therefore, this ambiguity makes reality even more uncertain in times of war. In this situation, people are governed more by their emotions and instincts; the logical part of the mind has shut down. It is a fact that this is a perfect moment for national and international political actors. Because they emerge to brainwash people, to provide incomplete information and misinformation, and to engage in high-level propaganda—in other words, to apply complex information warfare techniques.

American professor George J. Stein states: “The target of information warfare is the human mind, especially those minds that make key decisions in war or peace.” Therefore, in addition to influencing the masses, directing information toward decision-makers is vitally important. Influencing or changing a way of thinking or behavior may not be easy, but they constitute the primary focus in the context of information warfare.

Traditionally, the first information war is considered to be the First Gulf War, which began with the entry of coalition forces into Kuwait in 1991. This war brought “war scenes” from Iraq to the global public. In their book “Seeing through the Media: The Persian Gulf War” (1994), Lauren Rabinovitz and Susan Jeffords suggest that the First Gulf War process was a “media event,” with terms used by the American media such as “reconstructing history, controlling the dissemination of information, creating social consensus, and strengthening national identity.”