Dissuasion, Disinformation, Dissonance: Complexity and Autocritique as Tools of Information Warfare

The paper argues that the cyber terrain offers opportunities for developing strategies and tactics of information warfare which are based on the techniques already deployed by anti-establishment actors: détournement, satire, and the appropriation and subversion of pre-existing media artefacts. It also argues that the inherent complexity, diversity, and apparent anarchy of the online realm aids, rather than threatens, the effective exercise of influence. Finally, it contends that information warfare and influence must be conducted through media, which are integral to the experience of the intended targets, and suggests that recent developments in gaming merit investigation.