The NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) held a workshop on cognitive warfare at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in Kjeller, Norway on 08-11 November 2022.
The NATO Science and Technology Board (STB) has identified cognitive warfare as a major topic that needs to be promoted and strengthened within the Collaborative Programme of Work (CPoW), in line with Nations’ medium-term priorities.
The workshop was the first to be held as a “CPoW Challenge”, a new STB tool for creating momentum in CPoW planning and development. CPoW Challenges provide programmatic focus for the medium-term, and influence the composition of expertise in the STO Panels and Group in the longer-term.
Cognitive warfare achieves overt and covert objectives above and below the threshold of war, affecting how we think, act, and make decisions. It does this by exploiting facets of cognition (human and technology) to disrupt, undermine, influence or modify human decision-making.
Some 75 participants from 16 NATO Allies, Partners and NATO entities attended the workshop, which was introduced by Dr Bryan Wells, the NATO Chief Scientist, Dr Kenneth Ruud, the Director General of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and Norwegian Principal STB Member, and Mr Ole Felix Dahl, the Deputy Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence. There were also introductory presentations from NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the NATO Centre of Excellence on Strategic Communications, the STO Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Panel and the STO Information Systems Technology (IST) Panel, as well as a number of National presentations.
The workshop focussed in particular on novel modus operandi, cognitive effects, situational awareness and sense making, and technological enablers within the context of cognitive warfare. The outcomes of the workshop will be reflected in new Technical Activity Proposals (TAPs) to be taken forward in the CPoW. |