Morrell and Kosal publish article in the Journal of Information Warfare

Posted July 8, 2021

Sara Morrell, graduate student at the Nunn School, and Dr. Margaret Kosal, Associate Professor at the Nunn School, have published their article “Military Deception and Strategic Culture: The Soviet Union and Russian Federation” in the Journal of Information Warfare (JIW).

The authors argue that strategic culture shapes political-military organizational activity through a process of socialization, yet little is known about strategic culture’s impact on information operations. This paper explores the influence of Russian-Soviet strategic culture on military deception operations during World War II, the Soviet Afghan War, and the conflict in Ukraine. It finds that the hierarchical characteristic of Russian-Soviet strategic culture contributes to the centralization of deception operations. This work shows that, in the context of foreign policy toward Russia, not only does one need to consider technological innovations for traditional military use, but also advances below the threshold of declared war.

Read the full article here.