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In the 21st century, warfare is beginning to take shape not only through purely physical conflicts, but also through systems integrated with cognitive, cyber, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Modern conflicts and battlefields can be said to include operations that target information, cognition, and the human spirit, alongside the use of military force. This new form of warfare is called cognitive warfare in the literature. The fundamental purpose of cognitive warfare can be described as influencing the adversary’s decision-making process, manipulating the psychology of the target population, and weakening political will. NATO’s 2025 Cognitive Warfare Report highlights that modern conflicts and wars are increasingly action-oriented and that the decisive arena is no longer geographical. Rather, it is based on the strategic realities of how individuals and groups perceive, interpret, decide, and act.
Within this framework, it can be argued that today’s mass media, the increasing use of AI-enabled technologies, and the undeniable influence of social media effectively form a new operational front in warfare. Cognitive warfare extends to social foundations such as trust, shared epistemic standards, and institutional legitimacy. From a force development perspective, AI platforms will be utilized in parallel with elements of cognitive warfare, both for threat/attack purposes and countermeasures. In other words, techniques that enable adversary influence can also be exploited through reverse engineering to support defensive cognitive security (e.g., detecting anomalies in influence networks or recognizing patterns of coordinated deceptive behavior).
At this stage, while neuroscience and neurotechnology are emerging as tools to influence the mind by influencing the brain, AI platforms have become the primary means of influencing the mind by manipulating the information ecosystem. Therefore, the operational challenge is not just about AI generating persuasive content. It’s also about AI’s ability to optimize narratives in real time across all channels, automate social media interactions (using swarms of bots or hybrid actors), generate artificial credibility (deepfake videos, fake expert profiles, fabricated evidence), and exploit cognitive biases and psychological vulnerabilities (salience effects, fear conditioning, polarizing dynamics).
In this context, cognitive warfare can be seen as a process of preparing the ground before a physical attack. In NATO documents, the cognitive domain is discussed as the sixth domain of operations, following land, sea, air, cyber, and space. Tensions between the United States and Iran, particularly the recent military conflict, clearly demonstrate how important cognitive warfare has become in modern war doctrine. As of February 28, the attacks launched by the United States against Iran have included not only conventional military force, but also the use of intensive cyberattacks, cognitive warfare integrated with information operations, and targeted attacks with AI support. The key question here is how did the United States utilize an AI-integrated system that combines data-driven targeting and AI-integrated cognitive warfare as a strategic tool throughout Operation Epic Fury, the attack launched against Iran?
