journal article
Cognitive warfare in the biotechnological age: threats and challenges to international law
Abstract
This article examines how cognitive warfare, namely strategies manipulating perceptions, emotions and beliefs through disinformation, propaganda and cyber operations, funda mentally challenges international legal frameworks governing both the use of force (jus ad bellum) and the conduct of hostilities (jus in bello). Unlike conventional warfare, cognitive operations target the psychological domain without crossing kinetic thresholds, complicat ing traditional concepts of ‘attack’, ‘harm’ and ‘ruses of war’. The analysis focuses partic ularly on biotechnological narratives as instruments of cognitive warfare, examining how scientific disinformation about pathogens, genetic research and precision medicine can achieve strategic military objectives whilst causing severe psychological harm to civilian populations. Drawing on examples from the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts, this article demonstrates how States can weaponise health-related narratives in broader power struggles. Through doctrinal analysis and case scenarios, this study reveals critical gaps in current humanitarian law’s capacity to address non-kinetic operations that none theless cause substantial mental harm. The traditional categories of ruses of war, perfidy and terror prove inadequate for regulating information-based operations in the cognitive domain. This article concludes that protecting civilians in contemporary conflicts requires reconceptualising core humanitarian law principles to address psychological harms whilst adapting legal frameworks for an increasingly multipolar world where warfare is fought primarily in the psychological realm. © 2025 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Author keywords
biotechnology; cognitive warfare; international humanitarian law; mental harm; scientific disinformation