Chapter 21: Information Wars and Disinformation

Since the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, the West has divided interstate relations into periods of peace and war. However, use of information by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) challenges that paradigm. The expansion of information technology enabled the PRC and Russia to conduct campaigns below the threshold of kinetic conflict but in a manner no less focused or impactful. If war is the continuation of politics by other means, state actions within the information space to challenge the West’s interests and alter its will are a form of war. To fully understand modern information warfare campaigns, they must be understood apart from current Western doctrine and rather as war fought in the cognitive realm. Analyzing doctrine, information infrastructure, and ongoing operations through this lens demonstrates that the PRC is actively campaigning against the existing liberal order and operating to win its war for supremacy without firing a shot. This chapter does not argue that the West must necessarily join a ‘war,’ but that failure to recognize the way adversaries are behaving prevents decision-makers from accurately judging the actions of these states and developing appropriate policies to advance their own state’s interests[1].