Cognitive Warfare and the AI-Driven Defense Ecosystem in Great Power Competition
13 pages · PDF · 06 November 2025 · Licensed single-user copy, watermarked to the buyer
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About this report
Cognitive warfare has rapidly emerged as a new arena of great power competition, characterized by battles for influence over perception and decision-making rather than dominance of physical territory.
It denotes warfare waged in the mind —both human minds and increasingly the algorithms that inform them—where adversaries seek to shape how targets think and decide . This concept goes beyond propaganda or cyberattacks; it is about gaining strategic advantage by controlling the “cognitive domain” of conflict. Major powers are recognizing this domain as critical.
Key questions this report answers
- How is cognitive warfare defined as a new arena of great power competition focused on perception and decision-making rather than physical territory?
- How do AI algorithms and the 'cognitive domain' interact to shape how targets think and decide, beyond traditional propaganda or cyberattacks?
- Which major powers are treating the cognitive domain as strategically critical, and how are they building AI-driven defense ecosystems?
- What are the strategic implications and outlook for defending against cognitive-warfare threats in an AI-enabled environment?
Who it's for
Strategy, corporate-development and investment teams that need an ecosystem-level view — budgets, industrial capacity and technology landscapes — before committing capital or capacity.
Methodology & sources
DFM reports are built from primary and official sources — TED procurement notices, CORDIS and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIB operations, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio, SIPRI data, official budget documents and company disclosures — read together with the underlying legal texts. Sources are cited in the document; the report reflects them as of its publication date (06 November 2025).
Format & delivery
13-page PDF, watermarked to you (name, e-mail, order number on every page). Delivered immediately after checkout on the confirmation page and by e-mail; the personal link is valid for 72 hours and up to 5 downloads (re-issued on request). Guest checkout — no account required. Single-user licence: see the Terms of Sale.
The full analysis, not the summary
The public briefing linked above tells you what this report found; the report itself shows the full evidence and reasoning behind it. It is the complete, dated document from the DFM research desk — sources cited, delivered as a licensed PDF you can keep and cite in your own work.
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