Terrorist Threats Outside of Warzone: Clashing Narratives, Foreign Information Manipulation & Influence, and Post-Truth
- EU and strategic partners,
- EU strategy and foreign policy,
- Europe in the World,
- European defence / NATO,
The illegal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine (IRWAAU) produced a number of valuable lessons in how terrorism might evolve in the Cognitive Domain, and possible associated kinetic and non-kinetic consequences, and consequently lessons also for counter-terrorism.
In this chapter we will deal with two headline themes in these areas, as well as present at the outset what possible ‘enablers might become factors in terrorism. These are the key constituent components that make the transfer of the tools and experiences employed by Russia into the terrorism sphere possible and even make their adoption by terrorists probable. In particular we will highlight the role of Cognitive Warfare (in addition to the use of new, disruptive, technologies).
This paper was originally published by the Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT) in chapter 8 of the book “The Effects Of The Russia-Ukraine War On Countering Terrorism”, Sadik, Giray (ed.) (2025). The full text can be found on their website.
(Photo credit: Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT))