Resilience against the Weaponized Narrative and Disinformation: Defending America’s national security against adversary information operations

Recent advances in cognitive science have demonstrated flaws that multiply vulnerability to disinformation. This is particularly true for the cutting-edge modernization of disinformation, the weaponized narrative. Adversaries use this vulnerability to manipulate the Americans and undermine America’s national security. National security is not, and cannot be, based solely on defense capabilities. Security also requires the will to use existing capabilities to defend national interests. If an adversary can persuade the American public to remain uninvolved in a given event, that adversary has defeated the U.S., in a practical sense, without ever having a direct clash. The U.S. could be neutralized, and national security compromised, by persuading enough Americans that Crimea, the South China Sea, Syria, or any other event is not important enough to address.