Russian tanks rolled toward the borders of Georgia, the battle had already begun-shaped decisively by large-scale cyberattacks and cognitive warfare. Weeks before the first shots, cyberspace erupted with coordinated attacks crippling Georgian government and media websites, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and defacements. Simultaneously, state-controlled and aligned media saturated both domestic and international audiences with fabricated narratives portraying Georgian aggression, warnings of impending genocide in South Ossetia, and accusations blaming the U.S. for encouraging Georgian belligerence through NATO membership promises.
EXPERT OPINION - In order for the U.S. to successfully compete for global influence against its adversaries and to avoid a kinetic fight, we must excel at cognitive warfare; that is military activities designed to affect attitudes and behaviors. This type of warfare is a subset of irregular warfare (IW) and combines sensitive activities to include information operations, cyber, and psychological operations to meet a goal. To develop these kinds of operations, the U.S. needs intelligence professionals who are creative and experts in their field.