All in the Mind

Prasun K. Sengupta

The Communist Party of China (CPC) believes that the cognitive domain is imperative to achieving victory in any conflict. While kinetic attacks have a specific physical target, in the cognitive domain the target is the mind. In conflict, great physical damage can be achieved, but if the adversary still has the will to fight, it cannot be defeated. Unlike a kinetic attack, the battle for the cognitive domain happens regardless, during peace or war.

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Ideally, perceptions and narrative can be controlled in a way to achieve strategic objectives without the need for actual conflict. Like many conceptual ideas, the CPC implements the cognitive domain is not something uniquely Chinese, but rather a concept first developed by the United States’ department of defence in its report to Congress in 2001 titled ‘Network Centric Warfare’. Since that time, coverage of the cognitive domain in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) official media has been an area of discussion and analysis.

Recently, China’s Academy of Military Sciences (AMS) published a work titled Taking the pulse of cognitive domain operations, which breaks down how to succeed in the cognitive domain with eight operational characteristics. This work provides insight into the possible strategic mindset of the PLA, particularly how technology, information dominance, and both military and civilian components have a role to play in the battle to seize the commanding heights of the cognitive domain.

To understand the cognitive domain, it is imperative to understand cognition first. In the PLA Daily article titled A Perspective on the Evolution Trend of Cognitive Warfare, cognition is defined as ‘the process by which people acquire, process, and apply information and knowledge.’ Cognition is how we respond mentally to some form of stimuli. If an adversary is able to control cognition it can disrupt decision-making and overall strategy, which is the goal of cognitive domain operations. An article in the PLA Daily titled A brief analysis of the basic meaning of cognitive domain operations defines the term: ‘Cognitive domain operations take the human brain as the main combat space and focus on striking, weakening, and dismantling the enemy’s will to fight, using human psychological weaknesses such as fear, anxiety and suspicion as a breakthrough point, focussing on soft-kill methods to create an atmosphere of insecurity, uncertainty and mistrust within the enemy, and increasing their internal friction and decision-making doubts.’ Cognitive domain operations take the people’s will, belief, thinking