Summer Myatt
As technology advances and warfare tactics evolve, new threats — and strategies for combating those threats — are emerging on the battlefield.
Just in the past couple of years, the United States’ defense priorities have transitioned away from counterterrorism and traditional weapons systems and toward the near-peer competition and newly arising components of conflict like information warfare, cyber warfare and electronic warfare, among others.
Learn more about how information warfare is changing the future of global conflict by joining the Information Warfare Forum hosted by ExecutiveBiz on March 15. Register here.
Information warfare can be defined as any operation that uses the management of information and communication technology to gain an advantage over an adversary — this can encompass anything from misinformation to cyber attacks and other, less visible “gray zone” tactics.
According to Juliane Gallina, associate deputy director for digital innovation at the CIA and previous Wash100 Award winner, these kinds of strategies will continue to gain momentum and prominence in conflicts of the future.
“Adversaries have indeed shifted away from thinking about traditional weapons systems as a way to maintain competitive advantage over their competition, and what they’re shifting toward are things that are more insidious, more disruptive and more threatening to American democracy,” she said in an exclusive video interview with Executive Mosaic, referencing the rise of disinformation and misinformation.
The world has seen information warfare tactics on display as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the Russian government is “supporting operations that impersonate international media outlets as part of its disinformation campaigns,” which have increased since the beginning of the conflict one year ago.
The U.S. military is also taking note of Russia’s use of information warfare to inform its own strategies going forward. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger has directed the service’s leaders to analyze the use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to use that analysis to guide the Marine’s modernization strategy, Force Design 2030.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Information Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy is working on publishing the service’s policy on information warfare, the Marine Corps Warfighting Publication-8 Information, the final draft of which is due in June. The policy document aims to prepare Marines for information warfighting and notably recognizes information warfare as a component of warfighting.
Lt. Gen. Glavy is scheduled to keynote the ExecutiveBiz Information Warfare Forum on March 15. Register here to hear more insights from the Marine Corps DCI.
