World in Transition: Cognitive Aggression in the Information Environment

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World in Transition series #4: Cognitive Aggression in the Information Environment

In the information environment, states and other actors seek to shape what populations see, how they respond and, ultimately, how governments make decisions. They may seek to manipulate systems rather than destroy them, bending them towards desired outcomes through interventions that are small, cumulative and difficult to detect.

For Australia, these developments raise difficult questions about national resilience, effective governance and statecraft. In an era of intensifying geopolitical tension, cognitive aggression may seek to delay, divert or distort decision-making. Yet responses that overreach may themselves fuel escalation or undermine the open societies they are intended to protect.

How should Australia distinguish between intentional and unintentional harms, and between active interference and the background noise that characterises contemporary information environments? How can and should Australia respond to the dynamics of cognitive aggression without treating every act of strategic competition as an act of war?

Join us in examining how, from competition to armed conflict, information and influence are reshaping the strategic environment Australia must navigate, and consider the implications for statecraft in practice.

World in Transition is a flagship UNSW Canberra initiative examining how a rapidly evolving global environment is reshaping Australia’s strategic landscape.