Lieutenant General (Dr) RS Panwar, AVSM, SM, VSM (Retd)

This Occasional Paper examines how technology-enabled cognitive operations are reshaping the character of warfare in the twenty-first century, with particular focus on their implications for India and its armed forces. Beginning with classical ideas of influencing the adversary’s will, it traces the evolution from traditional psychological operations to contemporary concepts of hybrid and grey zone warfare, where non-kinetic tools—especially information, cyber, and neuro-technologies—are used to achieve strategic effects below the threshold of open conflict. The study explains how cyber influence operations, artificial intelligence, and emerging Neuroscience and Technology (NeuroS/T) capabilities expand the battlespace into the human and cognitive domains, creating powerful instruments for persuasion, manipulation, and coercion. It also reviews the cognitive warfare approaches of major powers and India’s adversaries, highlights the legal and ethical dilemmas arising from operations targeting entire populations, and recommends a whole-of-government architecture, tri-Service structures, and specialised human capital to build credible Indian capabilities in this critical domain.