How our adversaries are winning the information front and why that is bad for democracy

“I’m just amazed at what people believe,” told me a friend at the heart of the military effort against Iran. “When I have a break and check my phone, I am just astonished at the narratives people are buying. The world I see portrayed in the media is like night and day from what I see from the inside.”

While he wouldn’t tell me more – as well he shouldn’t – his brief reflection has stuck with me. It reminded me that the war is being fought on multiple fronts, and that all of us are targets in the information war fought to manipulate us to take action in the political sphere. And in the information war, unfortunately, our adversaries (some of which are current allies in the war with Iran) have a distinct advantage, and they are expertly using that advantage to further tear our societies apart.

As Israel and the United States invested in their ability to project hard power across the globe, Qatar, Iran, Russia, and China honed their ability to fight multi-front information wars, recognizing that the Achilles’ Heel of open societies is their ability to maintain public support for military campaigns. As Barak Herscowitz explains in Prophecy, “These influence campaigns do not need to convince everyone, only to sow enough doubt to widen........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)