The Sources of Russian Information Warfare
Abstract
The 2014 annexation of Crimea and the pro-Russian insurgency in Eastern Ukraine involved the coordinated use of military and non-military measures facilitated by extensive manipulation of the information environment. In the immediate aftermath of these conflicts, US and NATO security officials branded Russias asymmetric approach as Hybrid War, a new doctrine that emphasizes information warfare to shape the conflict environment and support other asymmetric military and non-military measures to achieve political objectives. This thesis finds that the Russian emphasis on information warfare in conflict and the specific information warfare practices employed by Moscow in 2014 are not recent military innovations. Russian information warfare traces to the role of information in Russian history and culture, deception techniques practiced by the Soviet military and security community, and lessons from modern conflicts like the 2011 US-NATO intervention in Libya. This thesis analyzes these three primary sources and discusses application during the 2014 conflicts in Ukraine and Crimea. Based on these findings, this thesis concludes with recommendations for US and Western security officials to both acknowledge and effectively confront Russian information warfare in defense of security interests in the Eastern European theater.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1098323
Entities
People
- Andrew D. Anderson
Organizations
- Air University