journal article
Russian Information Warfare: Explaining Defense Logic, Roots, and Strategies; [جنگ اطلاعاتی روسیه؛ تبیین منطق دفاعی، ریشهها و راهبردها]
Abstract
This study challenges the dominant narrative of Russia’s unilateral aggression by examining the strategic, historical, and doctrinal logic that underlies its information warfare. The central question is to what extent these activities can be interpreted as a “defensive counter-narrative” in response to Western policies and discourses. The main premise is that Russia's intelligence strategy is not an act of unprovoked aggression but rather an asymmetric, defensive response to perceived geopolitical and intelligence threats from the West. The research was conducted using qualitative narrative analysis and drawing on a wide range of sources, including official and declassified documents from the US and Russian governments, military doctrines, reports from Western think tanks, and academic studies on media bias. The findings show that Russia’s strategy is rooted in a “strategic culture of encirclement” inherited from the Cold War and evolved through the integration of concepts such as “cognitive warfare” and “reflexive control”. From Moscow's perspective, tools such as the use of “frozen conflicts” and information tactics within the framework of “active defense” are employed to counter Western efforts to undermine Russian sovereignty through soft power tools. The study concludes that the Russian-Western intelligence confrontation constitutes a self-reinforcing cycle of strategic misunderstandings, in which each side interprets its actions as defensive while viewing the actions of the other as offensive. This “war of narratives” is less a competition over objective truth and more a clash of opposing strategic cultures, where narratives themselves become the primary weapons of conflict. © The Author(s).
Author keywords
cognitive warfare; cognitive warfare; information warfare; informationwarfare; narrative analysis; narrative analysis; nato; nato; reflexive control; reflexive control; russia; russia; strategic culture; strategic culture; جن اطلاعاتی، تحلیل روایی، فرهن راهبرد ، کنترل انعکاسی، جن شناختی، ناتو، روسیه