Cognitive Resilience: Be Aware and Prepare – what lessons could be taken from Ukraine’s experience for Western partners

With the more blurred way of contemporary warfare, which goes far beyond traditional conventional wars into areas of manipulation with human consciousness, the question of how a human mind is resilient to such malign influence from an adversary becomes ever more important. New terms like ‘cognitive warfare’ (CW) and ‘cognitive resilience’ (CR) have already come into practice and nowadays are being developed into respective military doctrines. Unlike psychological operations, cognitive activities are not directed at conscious mind, but at that of subconscious mind where the main drivers for decisions are emotions. This penetration takes place through hyper-personalized targeting integrating and exploiting neuroscience, biotechnology, information and cognitive techniques (NBIC), mainly using social media and digital networks for neuro-profiling and targeting individuals. In third year of full-scale invasion of russia into Ukraine the society still demonstrates remarkable level of resilience. Is Ukraine’s example unique or has it some cross-cultural features that determine cognitive resilience of its Western allies? Can we talk about some basic level of common cognitive resilience intrinsic to all different countries within NATO or EU? Has US become very much exposed to risks of cognitive manipulation from outside?