Behind NATOâs âCognitive Warfareâ: âBattle for Your Brainâ Waged by Western Militaries

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By Ben Norton – Oct 8, 2021
Western governments in the NATO military alliance are developing tactics of âcognitive warfare,â using the supposed threats of China and Russia to justify waging a âbattle for your brainâ in the âhuman domain,â to âmake everyone a weapon.â
NATO is developing new forms of warfare to wage a âbattle for the brain,â as the military alliance put it.
The US-led NATO military cartel has tested novel modes of hybrid warfare against its self-declared adversaries, including economic warfare, cyber warfare, information warfare, and psychological warfare.
Now, NATO is spinning out an entirely new kind of combat it has branded cognitive warfare. Described as the âweaponization of brain sciences,â the new method involves âhacking the individualâ by exploiting âthe vulnerabilities of the human brainâ in order to implement more sophisticated âsocial engineering.â
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Until recently, NATO had divided war into five different operational domains: air, land, sea, space, and cyber. But with its development of cognitive warfare strategies, the military alliance is discussing a new, sixth level: the âhuman domain.â
A 2020 NATO-sponsored study of this new form of warfare clearly explained, âWhile actions taken in the five domains are executed in order to have an effect on the human domain, cognitive warfareâs objective is to make everyone a weapon.â
âThe brain will be the battlefield of the 21st century,â the report stressed. âHumans are the contested domain,â and âfuture conflicts will likely occur amongst the people digitally first and physically thereafter in proximity to hubs of political and economic power.â
While the NATO-backed study insisted that much of its research on cognitive warfare is designed for defensive purposes, it also conceded that the military alliance is developing offensive tactics, stating, âThe human is very often the main vulnerability and it should be acknowledged in order to protect NATOâs human capital but also to be able to benefit from our adversariesâs vulnerabilities.â
In a chilling disclosure, the report said explicitly that âthe objective of Cognitive Warfare is to harm societies and not only the military.â
With entire civilian populations in NATOâs crosshairs, the report emphasized that Western militaries must work more closely with academia to weaponize social sciences and human sciences and help the alliance develop its cognitive warfare capacities.
The study described this phenomenon as âthe militarization of brain science.â But it appears clear that NATOâs development of cognitive warfare will lead to a militarization of all aspects of human society and psychology, from the most intimate of social relationships to the mind itself.
Such all-encompassing militarization of society is reflected in the paranoid tone of the NATO-sponsored report, which warned of âan embedded fifth column, where everyone, unbeknownst to him or her, is behaving according to the plans of one of our competitors.â The study makes it clear that those âcompetitorsâ purportedly exploiting the consciousness of Western dissidents are China and Russia.
In other words, this document shows that figures in the NATO military cartel increasingly see their own domestic population as a threat, fearing civilians to be potential Chinese or Russian sleeper cells, dastardly âfifth columnsâ that challenge the stability of âWestern liberal democracies.â
NATOâs development of novel forms of hybrid warfare come at a time when member statesâ military campaigns are targeting domestic populations on an unprecedented level.
The Ottawa Citizen reported this September that the Canadian militaryâs Joint Operations Command took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to wage an information war against its own domestic population, testing out propaganda tactics on Canadian civilians.
Internal NATO-sponsored reports suggest that this disclosure is just scratching the surface of a wave of new unconventional warfare techniques that Western militaries are employing around the world.
Canada hosts âNATO Innovation Challengeâ on cognitive warfare
Twice each year, NATO holds a âpitch-style eventâ that it brand as an âInnovation Challenge.â These campaigns â one hosted in the Spring and the other in the Fall, by alternating member states â call on private companies, organizations, and researchers to help develop new tactics and technologies for the military alliance.
The shark tank-like challenges reflect the predominant influence of neoliberal ideology within NATO, as participants mobilize the free market, public-private partnerships, and the promise of cash prizes to advance the agenda of the military-industrial complex.
NATOâs Fall 2021 Innovation Challenge is hosted by Canada, and is titled âThe invisible threat: Tools for countering cognitive warfare.â
âCognitive warfare seeks to change not only what people think, but also how they act,â the Canadian government wrote in its official statement on the challenge. âAttacks against the cognitive domain involve the integration of cyber, disinformation/misinformation, psychological, and social-engineering capabilities.â
Ottawaâs press release continued: âCognitive warfare positions the mind as a battle space and contested domain. Its objective is to sow dissonance, instigate conflicting narratives, polarize opinion, and radicalize groups. Cognitive warfare can motivate people to act in ways that can disrupt or fragment an otherwise cohesive society.â
NATO-backed Canadian military officials discuss cognitive warfare in panel event
An advocacy group called the NATO Association of Canada has mobilized to support this Innovation Challenge, working closely with military contractors to attract the private sector to invest in further research on behalf of NATO â and its own bottom line.
While the NATO Association of Canada (NAOC) is technically an independent NGO, its mission is to promote NATO, and the organization boasts on its website, âThe NAOC has strong ties with the Government of Canada including Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence.â
As part of its efforts to promote Canadaâs NATO Innovation Challenge, the NAOC held a panel discussion on cognitive warfare on October 5.
The researcher who wrote the definitive 2020 NATO-sponsored study on cognitive warfare, François du Cluzel, participated in the event, alongside NATO-backed Canadian military officers.
The panel was overseen by Robert Baines, president of the NATO Association of Canada. It was moderated by Garrick Ngai, a marketing executive in the weapons industry who serves as an adviser to the Canadian Department of National Defense and vice president and director of the NAOC.
Baines opened the event noting that participants would discuss âcognitive warfare and new domain of competition, where state and non-state actors aim to influence what people think and how they act.â
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The NAOC president also happily noted the lucrative âopportunities for Canadian companiesâ that this NATO Innovation Challenge promised.
NATO researcher describes cognitive warfare as âways of harming the brainâ
The October 5 panel kicked off with François du Cluzel, a former French military officer who in 2013 helped to create the NATO Innovation Hub (iHub), which he has since then managed from its base in Norfolk, Virginia.
Although the iHub insists on its website, for legal reasons, that the âopinions expressed on this platform donât constitute NATO or any other organization points of view,â the organization is sponsored by the Allied Command Transformation (ACT), described as âone of two Strategic Commands at the head of NATOâs military command structure.â
The Innovation Hub, therefore, acts as a kind of in-house NATO research center or think tank. Its research is not necessarily official NATO policy, but it is directly supported and overseen by NATO.
In 2020, NATOâs Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) tasked du Cluzel, as manager of the iHub, to conduct a six-month study on cognitive warfare.
Du Cluzel summarized his research in the panel this October. He initiated his remarks noting that cognitive warfare âright now is one of the hottest topics for NATO,â and âhas become a recurring term in military terminology in recent years.â
Although French, Du Cluzel emphasized that cognitive warfare strategy âis being currently developed by my command here in Norfolk, USA.â
The NATO Innovation Hub manager spoke with a PowerPoint presentation, and opened with a provocative slide that described cognitive warfare as âA Battle for the Brain.â
âCognitive warfare is a new concept that starts in the information sphere, that is a kind of hybrid warfare,â du Cluzel said.
âIt starts with hyper-connectivity. Everyone has a cell phone,â he continued. âIt starts with information because information is, if I may say, the fuel of cognitive warfare. But it goes way beyond solely information, which is a standalone operation â information warfare is a standalone operation.â
Cognitive warfare overlaps with Big Tech corporations and mass surveillance, because âitâs all about leveraging the big data,â du Cluzel explained. âWe produce data everywhere we go. Every minute, every second we go, we go online. And this is extremely easy to leverage those data in order to better know you and use that knowledge to change the way you think.â
Naturally, the NATO researcher claimed foreign âadversariesâ are the supposed aggressors employing cognitive warfare. But at the same time, he made it clear that the Western military alliance is developing its own tactics.
Du Cluzel defined cognitive warfare as the âart of using technologies to alter the cognition of human targets.â
Those technologies, he noted, incorporate the fields of NBIC â nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science. All together, âit makes a kind of very dangerous cocktail that can further manipulate the brain,â he said.
Du Cluzel went on to explain that the exotic new method of attack âgoes well beyondâ information warfare or psychological operations (psyops).
âCognitive warfare is not only a fight against what we think, but itâs rather a fight against the way we think, if we can change the way people think,â he said. âItâs much more powerful and it goes way beyond the information [warfare] and psyops.â
De Cluzel continued: âItâs crucial to understand that itâs a game on our cognition, on the way our brain processes information and turns it into knowledge, rather than solely a game on information or on psychological aspects of our brains. Itâs not only an action against what we think, but also an action against the way we think, the way we process information and turn it into knowledge.â
âIn other words, cognitive warfare is not just another word, another name for information warfare. It is a war on our individual processor, our brain.â
The NATO researcher stressed that âthis is extremely important for us in the military,â because âit has the potential, by developing new weapons and ways of harming the brain, it has the potential to engage neuroscience and technology in many, many different approaches to influence human ecology⌠because you all know that itâs very easy to turn a civilian technology into a military one.â
As for who the targets of cognitive warfare could be, du Cluzel revealed that anyone and everyone is on the table.
âCognitive warfare has universal reach, from starting with the individual to states and multinational organizations,â he said. âIts field of action is global and aim to seize control of the human being, civilian as well as military.â
And the private sector has a financial interest in advancing cognitive warfare research, he noted: âThe massive worldwide investments made in neurosciences suggests that the cognitive domain will probably one of the battlefields of the future.â
The development of cognitive warfare totally transforms military conflict as we know it, du Cluzel said, adding âa third major combat dimension to the modern battlefield: to the physical and informational dimension is now added a cognitive dimension.â
This âcreates a new space of competition beyond what is called the five domains of operations â or land, sea, air, cyber, and space domains. Warfare in the cognitive arena mobilizes a wider range of battle spaces than solely the physical and information dimensions can do.â
In short, humans themselves are the new contested domain in this novel mode of hybrid warfare, alongside land, sea, air, cyber, and outer space.
NATOâs cognitive warfare study warns of âembedded fifth columnâ
The study that NATO Innovation Hub manager François du Cluzel conducted, from June to November 2020, was sponsored by the military cartelâs Allied Command Transformation, and published as a 45-page report in January 2021 (PDF).
The chilling document shows how contemporary warfare has reached a kind of dystopian stage, once imaginable only in science fiction.
âThe nature of warfare has changed,â the report emphasized. âThe majority of current conflicts remain below the threshold of the traditionally accepted definition of warfare, but new forms of warfare have emerged such as Cognitive Warfare (CW), while the human mind is now being considered as a new domain of war.â
For NATO, research on cognitive warfare is not just defensive; it is very much offensive as well.
âDeveloping capabilities to harm the cognitive abilities of opponents will be a necessity,â du Cluzelâs report stated clearly. âIn other words, NATO will need to get the ability to safeguard her decision making process and disrupt the adversaryâs one.â
And anyone could be a target of these cognitive warfare operations: âAny user of modern information technologies is a potential target. It targets the whole of a nationâs human capital,â the report ominously added.
âAs well as the potential execution of a cognitive war to complement to a military conflict, it can also be conducted alone, without any link to an engagement of the armed forces,â the study went on. âMoreover, cognitive warfare is potentially endless since there can be no peace treaty or surrender for this type of conflict.â
Just as this new mode of battle has no geographic borders, it also has no time limit: âThis battlefield is global via the internet. With no beginning and no end, this conquest knows no respite, punctuated by notifications from our smartphones, anywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.â
The NATO-sponsored study noted that âsome NATO Nations have already acknowledged that neuroscientific techniques and technologies have high potential for operational use in a variety of security, defense and intelligence enterprises.â
It spoke of breakthroughs in âneuroscientific methods and technologiesâ (neuroS/T), and said âuses of research findings and products to directly facilitate the performance of combatants, the integration of human machine interfaces to optimise combat capabilities of semi autonomous vehicles (e.g., drones), and development of biological and chemical weapons (i.e., neuroweapons).â
The Pentagon is among the primary institutions advancing this novel research, as the report highlighted: âAlthough a number of nations have pursued, and are currently pursuing neuroscientific research and development for military purposes, perhaps the most proactive efforts in this regard have been conducted by the United States Department of Defense; with most notable and rapidly maturing research and development conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).â
Military uses of neuroS/T research, the study indicated, include intelligence gathering, training, âoptimising performance and resilience in combat and military support personnel,â and of course âdirect weaponisation of neuroscience and neurotechnology.â
This weaponization of neuroS/T can and will be fatal, the NATO-sponsored study was clear to point out. The research can âbe utilised to mitigate aggression and foster cognitions and emotions of affiliation or passivity; induce morbidity, disability or suffering; and âneutraliseâ potential opponents or incur mortalityâ â in other words, to maim and kill people.
The report quoted US Major General Robert H. Scales, who summarized NATOâs new combat philosophy: âVictory will be defined more in terms of capturing the psycho-cultural rather than the geographical high ground.â
And as NATO develops tactics of cognitive warfare to âcapture the psycho-cultural,â it is also increasingly weaponizing various scientific fields.
The study spoke of âthe crucible of data sciences and human sciences,â and stressed that âthe combination of Social Sciences and System Engineering will be key in helping military analysts to improve the production of intelligence.â
âIf kinetic power cannot defeat the enemy,â it said, âpsychology and related behavioural and social sciences stand to fill the void.â
âLeveraging social sciences will be central to the development of the Human Domain Plan of Operations,â the report went on. âIt will support the combat operations by providing potential courses of action for the whole surrounding Human Environment including enemy forces, but also determining key human elements such as the Cognitive center of gravity, the desired behaviour as the end state.â
All academic disciplines will be implicated in cognitive warfare, not just the hard sciences. âWithin the military, expertise on anthropology, ethnography, history, psychology among other areas will be more than ever required to cooperate with the military,â the NATO-sponsored study stated.
The report nears its conclusion with an eerie quote: âTodayâs progresses in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC), boosted by the seemingly unstoppable march of a triumphant troika made of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and civilisational âdigital addictionâ have created a much more ominous prospect: an embedded fifth column, where everyone, unbeknownst to him or her, is behaving according to the plans of one of our competitors.â
âThe modern concept of war is not about weapons but about influence,â it posited. âVictory in the long run will remain solely dependent on the ability to influence, affect, change or impact the cognitive domain.â
The NATO-sponsored study then closed with a final paragraph that makes it clear beyond doubt that the Western military allianceâs ultimate goal is not only physical control of the planet, but also control over peopleâs minds:
âCognitive warfare may well be the missing element that allows the transition from military victory on the battlefield to lasting political success. The human domain might well be the decisive domain, wherein multi-domain operations achieve the commanderâs effect. The five first domains can give tactical and operational victories; only the human domain can achieve the final and full victory.â
Canadian Special Operations officer emphasizes importance of cognitive warfare
When François du Cluzel, the NATO researcher who conducted the study on cognitive warfare, concluded his remarks in the October 5 NATO Association of Canada panel, he was followed by Andy Bonvie, a commanding officer at the Canadian Special Operations Training Centre.
With more than 30 years of experience with the Canadian Armed Forces, Bonvie spoke of how Western militaries are making use of research by du Cluzel and others, and incorporating novel cognitive warfare techniques into their combat activities.
âCognitive warfare is a new type of hybrid warfare for us,â Bonvie said. âAnd it means that we need to look at the traditional thresholds of conflict and how the things that are being done are really below those thresholds of conflict, cognitive attacks, and non-kinetic forms and non-combative threats to us. We need to understand these attacks better and adjust their actions and our training accordingly to be able to operate in these different environments.â
Although he portrayed NATOâs actions as âdefensive,â claiming âadversariesâ were using cognitive warfare against them, Bonvie was unambiguous about the fact that Western militaries are developing these tecniques themselves, to maintain a âtactical advantage.â
âWe cannot lose the tactical advantage for our troops that weâre placing forward as it spans not only tactically, but strategically,â he said. âSome of those different capabilities that we have that we enjoy all of a sudden could be pivoted to be used against us. So we have to better understand how quickly our adversaries adapt to things, and then be able to predict where theyâre going in the future, to help us be and maintain the tactical advantage for our troops moving forward.â
âCognitive warfare is the most advanced form of manipulation seen to dateâ
Marie-Pierre Raymond, a retired Canadian lieutenant colonel who currently serves as a âdefence scientist and innovation portfolio managerâ for the Canadian Armed Forcesâ Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security Program, also joined the October 5 panel.
âLong gone are the days when war was fought to acquire more land,â Raymond said. âNow the new objective is to change the adversariesâ ideologies, which makes the brain the center of gravity of the human. And it makes the human the contested domain, and the mind becomes the battlefield.â
âWhen we speak about hybrid threats, cognitive warfare is the most advanced form of manipulation seen to date,â she added, noting that it aims to influence individualsâ decision-making and âto influence a group of a group of individuals on their behavior, with the aim of gaining a tactical or strategic advantage.â
Raymond noted that cognitive warfare also heavily overlaps with artificial intelligence, big data, and social media, and reflects âthe rapid evolution of neurosciences as a tool of war.â
Raymond is helping to oversee the NATO Fall 2021 Innovation Challenge on behalf of Canadaâs Department of National Defence, which delegated management responsibilities to the militaryâs Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program, where she works.
In highly technical jargon, Raymond indicated that the cognitive warfare program is not solely defensive, but also offensive: âThis challenge is calling for a solution that will support NATOâs nascent human domain and jump-start the development of a cognition ecosystem within the alliance, and that will support the development of new applications, new systems, new tools and concepts leading to concrete action in the cognitive domain.â
She emphasized that this âwill require sustained cooperation between allies, innovators, and researchers to enable our troops to fight and win in the cognitive domain. This is what we are hoping to emerge from this call to innovators and researchers.â
To inspire corporate interest in the NATO Innovation Challenge, Raymond enticed, âApplicants will receive national and international exposure and cash prizes for the best solution.â She then added tantalizingly, âThis could also benefit the applicants by potentially providing them access to a market of 30 nations.â
Canadian military officer calls on corporations to invest in NATOâs cognitive warfare research
The other institution that is managing the Fall 2021 NATO Innovation Challenge on behalf of Canadaâs Department of National Defense is the Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM).
A Canadian military officer who works with CANSOFCOM, Shekhar Gothi, was the final panelist in the October 5 NATO Association of Canada event. Gothi serves as CANSOFCOMâs âinnovation officerâ for Southern Ontario.
He concluded the event appealing for corporate investment in NATOâs cognitive warfare research.
The bi-annual Innovation Challenge is âpart of the NATO battle rhythm,â Gothi declared enthusiastically.
He noted that, in the spring of 2021, Portugal held a NATO Innovation Challenge focused on warfare in outer space.
In spring 2020, the Netherlands hosted a NATO Innovation Challengefocused on Covid-19.
Gothi reassured corporate investors that NATO will bend over backward to defend their bottom lines: âI can assure everyone that the NATO innovation challenge indicates that all innovators will maintain complete control of their intellectual property. So NATO wonât take control of that. Neither will Canada. Innovators will maintain their control over their IP.â
The comment was a fitting conclusion to the panel, affirming that NATO and its allies in the military-industrial complex not only seek to dominate the world and the humans that inhabit it with unsettling cognitive warfare techniques, but to also ensure that corporations and their shareholders continue to profit from these imperial endeavors.
Featured image:Â file photo.
Benjamin Norton is the founder and editor of the independent news website Multipolarista, where he does original reporting in both English and Spanish. Benjamin has reported from numerous countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, and more. His journalistic work has been published in dozens of media outlets, and he has done interviews on Sky News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El Financiero Bloomberg, Al Mayadeen teleSUR, RT, TRT World, CGTN, Press TV, HispanTV, Sin Censura, and various TV channels in Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Benjamin writes a regular column for Al Mayadeen (in English and Spanish). He was formerly a reporter with the investigative journalism website The Grayzone, and previously produced the political podcast and video show Moderate Rebels. His personal website is BenNorton.com, and he tweets at @BenjaminNorton.
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