COGNITIVE WARFARE IN THE AGE OF AI: A DESK-BASED STUDY THROUGH NARRATIVE REVIEW, STRATEGIC CASE ANALYSIS, AND GLOBAL POLICY EVALUATION

Abstract

This study theorizes cognitive warfare as an intentional and organized form of psychological exploitation, intentionally intensified by artificial intelligence (AI) and used by sovereign states to disrupt democratic solidarity, erode epistemic trust, and change socio-political narratives. We want to show cognitive warfare, not just as information distortion, but as an organized system acting on human cognition through automation, affect, and narrative. This study utilized a desk-based approach and seeks to blend a narrative literature review with a comparative case study and a synthesis of policy documents. It studies three cases focusing on the cognitive or psychological element: Russia's disinformation activities for democratic elections; AI-enabled psychological operations in the Russia-Ukraine war; and China's long-range influence campaign aimed at political culture and democratic resilience in Taiwan. The findings identify a convergent architecture of enhanced cognitive warfare across the three cases which involved (1) technological convergence that consists of synthetic media and algorithmic amplification; (2) psychological manipulation of the audience's emotional and cognitive complex of biases, namely fear (e.g., Jan 6th insurrection), repetition (e.g., slogans, denier hashtags), and identity appeal; and (3) narrative engineering designed to change collective memory, and legitimacy and trust in institutions. These operations are beyond the ambit of the term "cybersecurity", which is usually concerned with technical stability and infrastructure, not cognitive vulnerabilities. This paper calls for security and defense strategies to go back and reposition a new security paradigm around psychological resilience, epistemic integrity, and informational sovereignty. It calls for an interdisciplinary approach to study these intensively AI amplified psychological operations in contemporary hybrid conflict by bringing together cognitive science, algorithmic accountability, and strategic communications.