Fighting Ideological War by Putting Thought in Motion with Impact
Lt Col Bruce K. Johnson, USAF*

Editorial Abstract: Colonel Johnson uses the term “cognetic” to mean putting thought into motion, ideally with global impact. Militant Islam has proven very adept at exploiting the cognetic realm to foment disillusionment and advance its agenda. The author urges the United States, starting with policy makers responsible for national security, to adopt and apply cognetic thinking in order to reorient US grand strategy so that the nation can wage and win ideological warfare.

Read the whole thing at http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...7/johnson.html

This article advocates adopting cognetic thinking to create a shared, systematic way of conceptualizing, communicating, and carrying out ideological warfare against militant Islam. It does so by applying principles of maneuver warfare so that we can understand our enemy’s use of global media as an ideological weapon of mass influence. Additionally, it encourages the use of cognetic thinking to conduct a rigorous risk-versus-return analysis of post-9/11 security policies vis-à-vis militant Islam in an effort to create a sustainable and effective grand strategy to win the long war. This requires championing policies that constructively build and maintain US and allied resolve to fight, attract the uncommitted to our side, and drain away militant Islam’s desire to continue fighting.


Cognetics is a new concept of ideological warfare, based on principles of maneuver warfare. Referred to as “blitzkrieg of the mind,” it occurs in a virtual place created by global media. Time and space, which constrain physical maneuver, are almost nonexistent here. The term cognetic effect expresses how the emotive content of messages delivered by global media influences public opinion and behavior. A force multiplier, cognetic effect empowers nonstate actors to influence public opinion and behavior on a global scale. By means of cognetics, the United States can win ideological warfare by advancing truth, dispelling rumors, correcting misinformation, and combating enemy psychological operations and perception influence.

Killing people and breaking things until the hostiles touch the pen and return to the reservation doesn't work so well when the hostiles don't have much to break and view their casualties as martyrs, and can convince the domestic target audience that the casualties are "innocent victims of Western imperialism."