Cognitive warfare, propaganda and nudging with the use of soft power techniques: a challenge for Western democracies

Curator note

Since the war in Ukraine began in 2022 (or in 2014), it is not only on the battlefield that a fierce struggle is taking place. The war for the minds and hearts of all nations involved in the war is also being bitterly fought. “This is a propaganda war”, affirmed American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner John Pilger (SCMP, 2022). However, in other areas of society,people's thoughts and feelings are also the aimed at by targeted psychological influence. One example is the 400 “nudge units” spread around the world. These are teams of specialists in behavioral economics (Fusaro & Sperling-Magro, 2021) from the private sector as well as the political sector, who strive to promote the “right” decisions on the part of the population through unconscious control techniques in areas such as waste separation, climate protection, health or old age care.
.....All of this raises questions about the extent to which such control techniques can be
reconciled with the demands of a democratic society from the perspective of democratic theory and society as a whole. What is meant by “behavioral economics” anyway, how do the psychological mechanisms of steering work, how have they developed, and where do we stand today? These questions are explored in this article. First, the concepts of soft power, propaganda and nudging will be discussed. Then the basic features of the concept of democracy are explained, before the origins of modern propaganda in Western democracies are traced in the next step. This is followed by a look at the current situation of the practice of the targeted use of soft power techniques in Western democracies, which has already been addressed. Finally, this will be critically examined on the basis of the characteristics of democracy explained in the article, and the challenges (and dangers) posed to Western democracies by the use of modern propaganda and other psychological influence techniques will be elaborated.