Public lecture on Weaponisation of Information and Cognitive Resilience

On 16 May the OSCE Academy MA students and alumni had a chance to listen to a public lecture titled “The weaponisation of information and cognitive resilience”, delivered by Dr. Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Dr. Hansen talked about how information and its technical dissemination as well as its content have become increasingly objects of inquiry in studies of securitization and weaponization. Following military terminology he further differentiated into kinetic and non-kinetic dimensions of warfare and highlighted that today the majority of conflicts is non-kinetic. Dr. Hansen also discussed with students the importance of what is labelled cognitive resilience, i.e. the capacity to withstand the influence of mis- or disinformation. This has become more important considering  that the volumes of information and access of individuals to it is growing, yet the current legislation stays inefficient, making information consumers vulnerable. Participants were interested in the interpretation of cyber security by  European and Post-Soviet states; the difference between data and information and when the first becomes the last; in how individuals can protect themselves in the cyberspace and how media literacy should be introduced to children; and finally, whether the kinetic dimension of warfare can eventually be transformed into non-kinetic forms.

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