Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 5, Number 1, Spring / Summer 2020 | Page 22

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
often been recognized as one of the core
components of information warfare. If
psychological operations occur within
the human mind and have always existed,
why has it not been officially recognized
as a domain of war? The answer
is that historically, as an instrument of
war, influencing public opinion within
an enemy state was expensive, slow, data-poor,
and attributable (Hwang and
Rosen 2017). This is no longer true, and
the reason admittedly has everything to
do with cyberspace and its underlying
foundation of advanced technology.
The combined use of technology
with these human-related dimensions
exponentially amplifies the influence
that a message has on decision-making.
If cyber-enabled psychological operations
are undertaken with the objective
of achieving information superiority,
the effects will not be found within
cyberspace—they will be found in the
sixth, and currently unrecognized psychological
domain. While the ultimate
target in the cyber domain is the underlying
EMS that makes up our virtual
world and everything that depends on
it to work, it is within the psychological
domain that the human mind is
targeted through constantly evolving
methods of cyber-enabled psychological
warfare.
It is important to note that the
sixth domain should be called the psychological
domain, rather than the
cognitive domain. Cognition is “the
mental action or process of acquiring
knowledge and understanding through
thought, experience, and the senses”
(Oxford Online Dictionary, s.v. “cognition,”
https://www.lexico.com/en/
definition/cognition). This involves the
biological and neurological processes
linked to attention, executive function,
memory, visuospatial function, and language.
In contrast, psychological refers
to “of, affecting, or arising in the mind;
related to the mental and emotional
state of a person” (Oxford Online Dictionary,
s.v. “psychological,” https://www.
lexico.com/en/definition/psychological).
Cognition can be viewed as a faculty
of being human that is one aspect
of psychology studies. This distinction
is important because cyber-enabled information
warfare does not attack only
the underlying cognition of the human
brain, but the broader psychology of
an individual, including their mental
state; perception; cognitive, emotional,
and social processes; and behavior. Furthermore,
there is a body of research
that illustrates how the growing use of
technology can affect human cognitive
abilities (Wilmer, Sherman, and Chein
2017), such as attention span and memory.
Therefore, our cognition is being
targeted as an indirect result of peoples’
increasing reliance on technology,
making us more vulnerable to future
targeted cyber-enabled psychological
operations.
Using Allen and Gilbert’s proposed
definition and subsequent components
of a domain, the psychological
domain has all the required characteristics
to be formally recognized. First, the
human mind is a sphere of interest for
those inclined to manipulate its decision-making
processes, behaviors, and
emotions. Second, within this sphere,
activities, functions, and operations
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