The Cognitive Domain - and Cognitive Warfare and Cognitive Dissonance



The Cognitive Domain, the Cognitive War and Cognitive Dissonance

We have all seen or are all familiar with varied aspects of kinetic war, large and small, irregular and asymmetric.  Thankfully, the majority hasn’t had to directly participate in the actual kinetic part – but that’s a different issue you’ve seen me write about regarding the need for a wholly new form of conscription in this country.

We must begin to think differently about war, its definition, and about what type of war we are fighting.  As with anything ground into history, changing such definitions does not come easily, but we must. 

The major war, ongoing now for millennium plus, but never fully recognized in most literature or doctrine, is and will always be in the cognitive domain.  Cognitive War is the battle of ideas and ideology, and requires a substantially different approach – and set of intelligence and foundation data than kinetic action. BUT – this is a big but – the information that is necessary to conduct cognitive maneuver and warfare in the cognitive domain – provides an incredibly advanced foundation for far more effective kinetic operations.  While not directly, the great strategist Sun Tzu hints at this in the following statement.

“The general who wins a battle makes calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.  The general who loses a battles makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat...it is by attention to this point that I can forsee who is likely to win or lose.” (p. 11, The Art of War: Sun Tzu., edited and with forward by James Clavell, Delacorte Press, NY, © 1983)

But we are wedded to past actions and history, culture and policies, which now must be revisited in whole – less we perpetuate the conception that war is and remains solely a set of kinetic actions.  Our industrial age set of processes, policies, functions, technology, definition and tools need an update so our battles in the Cognitive Domain can move past the cognitive dissonance we’re experiencing currently in trying to figure out how to address the issues in Afghanistan, China, Russia, Iran, etc. 

First, the recent open letter by two stellar generals – offers a perspective on how to adjust the kinetic fight to win in Afghanistan. But to me, and I’m likely to get some arrows here on this one, is a perfect exemplar of the cognitive dissonance we’re experiencing – as related to the Cognitive Domain, Warfare and Maneuver. 

LTG William G. Boykin, LTG Thomas G. McInerney, Frank J. Gaffney and Stephen B. Young write (bold added): 

“It is time responsibly to end the loss of American lives and treasure in Afghanistan after 18 years of hard-fought, but ultimately ineffective warfare, while denying a victory to radical Islamic terrorists – be they the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda or others. An alternative “Secure Afghanistan” approach would greatly reduce the U.S. footprint in-country while both maintaining the lethality of American forces who remain and enhancing the capacity of the Afghan people and their security forces to defend against their Taliban and other enemies. Reduced to its essence, the Secure Afghanistan strategy would involve two proven techniques”
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Open_Letter_Secure_Afghanistan_Strategy_9819.pdf?utm_source=Daily%20on%20Defense%20091019_09/10/2019&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Daily%20on%20Defense&rid=14950106

Their approach makes sense, but for only one aspect of the overall war – kinetic.  But the real war remains for the hearts and minds, ideas and ideology.  Whether it’s the Taliban, ISIS, or communist China – if you are in a kinetic action – you have not only lost much of any strategic advantage, you are now stuck in perpetual spiral of conflict – until such time as a realization is made that the battlefield is not tactical, not kinetic, but cognitive and of wills, ideas and ideology. 

Let’s look at three definitions... 

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war
War definition is - a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. How to use war in a sentence.

cognitive (kɒgnɪtɪv ), adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Cognitive means relating to the mental process involved in knowing, learning, and understanding things. COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognitive...
Definition of cognitive dissonance. : psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously.

The first definition is that of war, and it is solely focused on armed conflict and hostilities. The second definition speaks to knowing, learning and understanding – essential elements in the Cognitive Domain. The last speaks to what we’re experiencing now – in that we see, hear and assess actions that conflict with what we’ve been taught and understand. 

Cognitive Warfare encompasses the above, but cognitive is then enabled further via varied tools (cyber, kinetics, cultural understanding, financial information and data, influence operations, psychological operations, etc. that cut across a variety of functional areas) in the conducting operations to achieve desired outcomes.  The cognitive warfare aspect is truly in its raw form a battle of ideologies between such as communism and democracy.  Activity in the cognitive domain encompasses good and bad. 

The bottom line is that we MUST begin to believe what we’re seeing and adjust what we know to be ineffective and initiate a more sustained and strategic approach to warfare in the Cognitive Domain – less we spend our treasures (people and other) stuck in the perpetual downward spiral we find ourselves in.  Kinetic action is, and will always remain, a tool within the Cognitive Domain. But it can’t be the hammer for everything that looks like a nail –whether it is or note.

The good news is that we’ve done some of this before, and we have a variety of capacity and capability in this domain – but we’re neither leveraging nor focusing those resources on the real problem.   

Edward L. Haugland, © 2019, all rights reserved.

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