This paper aims to contextualize the Russian interference in the American elections as a special type of political warfare that autocracy can use against a democracy. It builds on the insights of the so-called Gerasimov doctrine that somehow previewed the forthcoming normalization of societal cohesion attacks as well as “the weaponization of everything”. A major component of the wars of the 21st century will be about influencing the cognitive domain where the critical battleground remains the mind while “hacking the minds” of strategic societal audiences the big prize.
