Watching the Yuri Bezmenov clip, in context of Trump subversion/sedition/insurrection, we can see how Putin & kremlin have so divided & infiltrated our society that both far-right anti-marxist factions & progressive anti-fascist activists can see from their POV "ideological subversion" now fully operational. Putin's poison cherry on top is agent shitzenpants driving us insane day after day w/his psychotic ranting & whining & threats. There's an entire feature film called "Active Measures" which exposes more history & details of the psychological war we're undergoing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD6jroVA38
Illuminating article, Matt. Timely too. Bezmenov’s warnings from years ago about “ideological subversion” help to confirm and clarify my growing concern that America is under a corrosive slow-motion below-the-radar cognitive attack — a systematic attack from within and afar — in ways you and Bezmenov note, in accord with his four stages of a subversion strategy: 1) demoralization, 2) destabilization, 3) crisis, 4) "normalization.”
My sense, however, is that the strategies and tactics that Russia is using today go beyond and are broader than ”information warfare” and “political warfare.” They reflect what Arquilla and I called “netwar" in our old RAND analyses — netwar being an information-age mode of conflict short of war in which the protagonists use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and related technologies.
I gather (but lack sufficient sources to fully verify) that sometime last decade or earlier Russian theorists and strategists, after first attributing the so-called Color Revolutions and Arab Spring movements to U.S. usage of Gene Sharp's non-violent pro-democracy playbook, later claimed explicitly that U.S. applications of “net-centric” and “netwar” strategies were what lay behind the collapse of the Soviet Union and the diminution of Russia during the late 1990s and into the early 2010s.
Today, Moscow seems to be replicating netwar strategies, including through political warfare, in its efforts in order to amplify our homegrown disarray and to cultivate cohorts near and far. And they are doing so in the slow-moving sub-rosa ways you and Bezmenov illuminate.
I agree with you that “Someday this nation will recognize that global non-military conflict must be pursued with the same intensity and preparation as global military conflicts.” Now is the time to do so, and yet it’s still puzzlingly anguishingly difficult to make a case that gets heard and acted upon.
I’ve been pretty astonished in listening to Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” podcast and the expanded version of the same material in her book aptly named “Prequel.”
History is rhyming loudly into our faces, particularly in the way several elected officials within our own government seem to be amplifying the messaging and propaganda of an adversary. It’s hard to believe that we largely failed to hold those people accountable the “first” time, and now a variation of the same playbook can be even more effective and without proper recourse.
Sent. By the way, I suggest listening to the audio for Session One, Panel 1 for Filimonov's presentation: https://soundcloud.com/warstudies/kcsc-panel-1?in=warstudies/sets/kcsc-conference The PPT I sent (to the at the mac dot com address I have) was his.
Watching the Yuri Bezmenov clip, in context of Trump subversion/sedition/insurrection, we can see how Putin & kremlin have so divided & infiltrated our society that both far-right anti-marxist factions & progressive anti-fascist activists can see from their POV "ideological subversion" now fully operational. Putin's poison cherry on top is agent shitzenpants driving us insane day after day w/his psychotic ranting & whining & threats. There's an entire feature film called "Active Measures" which exposes more history & details of the psychological war we're undergoing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLD6jroVA38
Illuminating article, Matt. Timely too. Bezmenov’s warnings from years ago about “ideological subversion” help to confirm and clarify my growing concern that America is under a corrosive slow-motion below-the-radar cognitive attack — a systematic attack from within and afar — in ways you and Bezmenov note, in accord with his four stages of a subversion strategy: 1) demoralization, 2) destabilization, 3) crisis, 4) "normalization.”
My sense, however, is that the strategies and tactics that Russia is using today go beyond and are broader than ”information warfare” and “political warfare.” They reflect what Arquilla and I called “netwar" in our old RAND analyses — netwar being an information-age mode of conflict short of war in which the protagonists use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and related technologies.
I gather (but lack sufficient sources to fully verify) that sometime last decade or earlier Russian theorists and strategists, after first attributing the so-called Color Revolutions and Arab Spring movements to U.S. usage of Gene Sharp's non-violent pro-democracy playbook, later claimed explicitly that U.S. applications of “net-centric” and “netwar” strategies were what lay behind the collapse of the Soviet Union and the diminution of Russia during the late 1990s and into the early 2010s.
Today, Moscow seems to be replicating netwar strategies, including through political warfare, in its efforts in order to amplify our homegrown disarray and to cultivate cohorts near and far. And they are doing so in the slow-moving sub-rosa ways you and Bezmenov illuminate.
I agree with you that “Someday this nation will recognize that global non-military conflict must be pursued with the same intensity and preparation as global military conflicts.” Now is the time to do so, and yet it’s still puzzlingly anguishingly difficult to make a case that gets heard and acted upon.
Onward.
Superb essay, Matt.
I’ve been pretty astonished in listening to Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” podcast and the expanded version of the same material in her book aptly named “Prequel.”
History is rhyming loudly into our faces, particularly in the way several elected officials within our own government seem to be amplifying the messaging and propaganda of an adversary. It’s hard to believe that we largely failed to hold those people accountable the “first” time, and now a variation of the same playbook can be even more effective and without proper recourse.