The Neuropolitical Imaginaries of Cognitive Warfare
(2023) ISA 2023 Annual Convention- Abstract
- What are the political implications of seeing the human mind as a key source of insecurity? The idea that the cognitive realm represents a ‘new domain of war’ is an emerging concern among Western security professionals which can be read against a background of advancements in the neurosciences, the introduction of psychographic targeting and a preoccupation with online disinformation. Drawing on material from the 2020 NATO Innovation Hub challenge on cognitive warfare and introducing the concept of ‘neuropolitical imaginaries’ to examine the co-production of neuroscience technology and politics in a context of war, this article demonstrates how neuroscience technologies in the defense sector serve to re-imagine politics. By interrogating... (More)
- What are the political implications of seeing the human mind as a key source of insecurity? The idea that the cognitive realm represents a ‘new domain of war’ is an emerging concern among Western security professionals which can be read against a background of advancements in the neurosciences, the introduction of psychographic targeting and a preoccupation with online disinformation. Drawing on material from the 2020 NATO Innovation Hub challenge on cognitive warfare and introducing the concept of ‘neuropolitical imaginaries’ to examine the co-production of neuroscience technology and politics in a context of war, this article demonstrates how neuroscience technologies in the defense sector serve to re-imagine politics. By interrogating the intertwinement between national security, politics and the neuroscience at the heart of visions for cognitive warfare, it shows how interventions to protect human thought processes draw on critical tropes from popular culture portraying the mind as increasingly vulnerable in the information age. When tied to neuroscientific visions, such critical discourses serve to depoliticize and atomize human thought processes, explaining political decision-making by reference to the advanced capabilities of foreign agents or innovative domestic security interventions, offering a paradoxical vision of politics dependent on, but simultaneously disconnected from, the human mind. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c5ca2d2f-3229-42a2-a130-3d4c7cec20e2
- author
- Ördén, Hedvig LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-03-15
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- conference name
- ISA 2023 Annual Convention
- conference location
- Canada
- conference dates
- 2019-03-15 - 2023-03-18
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c5ca2d2f-3229-42a2-a130-3d4c7cec20e2
- date added to LUP
- 2023-09-05 10:38:45
- date last changed
- 2024-03-20 08:22:05
@misc{c5ca2d2f-3229-42a2-a130-3d4c7cec20e2,
abstract = {{What are the political implications of seeing the human mind as a key source of insecurity? The idea that the cognitive realm represents a ‘new domain of war’ is an emerging concern among Western security professionals which can be read against a background of advancements in the neurosciences, the introduction of psychographic targeting and a preoccupation with online disinformation. Drawing on material from the 2020 NATO Innovation Hub challenge on cognitive warfare and introducing the concept of ‘neuropolitical imaginaries’ to examine the co-production of neuroscience technology and politics in a context of war, this article demonstrates how neuroscience technologies in the defense sector serve to re-imagine politics. By interrogating the intertwinement between national security, politics and the neuroscience at the heart of visions for cognitive warfare, it shows how interventions to protect human thought processes draw on critical tropes from popular culture portraying the mind as increasingly vulnerable in the information age. When tied to neuroscientific visions, such critical discourses serve to depoliticize and atomize human thought processes, explaining political decision-making by reference to the advanced capabilities of foreign agents or innovative domestic security interventions, offering a paradoxical vision of politics dependent on, but simultaneously disconnected from, the human mind.}},
author = {{Ördén, Hedvig}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
title = {{The Neuropolitical Imaginaries of Cognitive Warfare}},
year = {{2023}},
}