Russia is waging a new kind of war with the United States, and you could be one of the ground troops.
In February, 2013, Gen. Valery Gerasimov — Russia’s chief of the General Staff, comparable to the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — published an article, titled “The Value of Science Is in the Foresight,” in the weekly Russian trade paper Military-Industrial Kurier. That document is now gaining recognition in Western societies as “the most useful articulation of Russia’s modern military strategy,” in the words of Molly K. McKew, an expert on information warfare and former adviser to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government.
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In roughly 2,000 words, Mr. Gerasimov outlines a new theory of modern warfare, which turns hackers, media, social networks, and businessmen into weapons of war — and keys to victory.
“The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown,” Mr. Gerasimov writes, “and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness. … All this is supplemented by military means of a concealed character.”
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the “Gerasimov Doctrine,” as some are now referring to it, is its claim that campaigns of disinformation are not merely a complement to conventional arms but the way to win. The new objective of war is to create an environment of permanent unrest and conflict within an enemy state.
The Russian security state identifies America as its primary global adversary.
First Published November 12, 2017, 1:00 p.m.
