Adversary Approaches to Political Warfare, Information, and Propaganda

How do the approaches by Russia and China to modern political warfare—in particular, the exploitation of the information environment to manipulate, coerce, and control—potentially provide a model for the U.S. to understand and counter modern political warfare? At the core of these efforts for the PRC, what is the Communist Party/People's Liberation Army (CCP/PLA's) propaganda apparatus structure, strategy, and capabilities?

The “Mission Command” of national influence campaigns is difficult to operationalize. How do adversaries decide, manage, and coordinate operations or take advantage of emergent opportunities? What is their likely planning cycle for these operations, and how far out are they preparing for the operational environment? What tools, methods, and virtual networks are used to coerce and control populations?

There are many ways in which current technologies shape the ways that people receive information. The ability to create realistic, believable information, events, documents, pictures, and video based on a computer prompt makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction. Furthermore, the combination of virtual reality and augmented reality offers the ability to virtually see, ‘be with,’ and respond in real-time to another person anywhere in the world. What are the second- and third-order effects of such technologies on information operations and strategic influence campaigns?

If distinguishing the truth becomes increasingly difficult, will there be a corresponding reaction in which groups or individuals care less about the ‘truth’ or simply distrust everything not seen to occur with their own eyes? What are the implications of such distrust? Will societies become less vulnerable to disinformation, but also less receptive to strategic messaging? Can populations be inoculated against the tactics adversaries employ, and how can the defense enterprise disrupt malign information and activities through exposure?

Finally, how might virtual interactive experiences be utilized to develop strategic influence? Training and education with partners and allies can provide a form of relationship building that may lead to strategic influence. Does virtual training and education build the same relationships, and have the same strategic effects, as in-person interactions?

• Auten, Lt. Col. Graham C., "Harmonious America: The Tentacles of the Leviathan," AF Fellows paper (US Department of State), 2025. 

  • Auten addresses this by analyzing how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exploits the information environment to attack America's strategic "center-of-gravity": the public's belief in American ideals and democratic institutions. He argues that China employs gray zone tactics, cultural diplomacy, and social media manipulation to sow domestic division and cast doubt on American exceptionalism. To counter this malign influence, Auten proposes a two-pillar strategy: first, "Promote American Made Ideals" by having national leaders actively reinforce a unifying domestic narrative centered on liberty and democratic values; and second, "Preserve American Built Peace" by strengthening coalitions with likeminded nations to defend the liberal international order against authoritarian subversion.

• Bliss, Maj. Miles A., "Flash--Deploying Information Warfare Countermeasures," AFGC thesis, 2025.

  • Bliss addresses this by analyzing how China and Russia have operationalized information warfare as a central, industrialized pillar of their national strategies through doctrines like China's "Three Warfares" and Russia's modernized "Active Measures". He explains that these adversaries use centralized, well-funded operations to deploy methods such as computational propaganda, 'bot' networks, astroturfing, data-driven targeting, doxing, and generative AI to create cloned news websites that sow discord and erode trust. To counter these tactics and protect Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO), Bliss argues that operational planners must treat public perception as "key terrain," fully operationalizing the Joint Concept for Operating in the Information Environment (JCOIE) to aggressively anticipate and shape the information battlespace rather than remaining in a defensive, reactive posture.

• Clark, Capt. Evan S., "Chinese Information Warfare Strategy Pertaining to Annexation of Taiwan," SOS AUAR, 2021, 16 pgs. 

• Corwin, Andrew G., "Maskirovka Use by Russian Army at the Strategic, Operational and Tactical Levels during the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine," AWC paper, 2024, 10 pgs.

• Crouch, Lt Col. Carrianne, "Information Is Power: For Russia, It Is Really All about Defense" AWC PSP, 2020, 46 pgs.

• D'Amore, Maj. Adanto A., "Air Force Operations Security in the Twenty-First Century: An Unaddressed Vulnerability," ACSC paper, 2022.

  • ​Subsequently published as an AU Press Wright Flyer Paper, "Air Force Operations Security in the Twenty-First Century: An Unaddressed Vulnerability," (2022).

• Davenport, Maj. Tyler, "Winning without Fighting: Lessons from China's Irregular Warfare Strategy," AFGC thesis, 2025.

  • Addressed by Davenport's examination of how China operationalizes its "Three Warfares" framework—comprising psychological, public opinion, and legal warfare—to create an information advantage and influence global perceptions. He details how China wages a persistent campaign against Taiwan's political cohesion and public trust by manipulating elections through social media applications like TikTok, automated bot accounts, and AI-generated deepfakes. This is paired with psychological warfare, where the PLA conducts constant military flyovers and naval exercises in the Taiwan Strait to intimidate citizens and foster domestic instability. To counter this political warfare, Davenport recommends that the U.S. expand its capabilities in the cognitive and information domains by collaborating with private-sector social media and tech platforms to identify hostile influence operations, expose state-backed disinformation, and proactively shape global narratives around Western values and the rule of law.

• Freeman, Lt. Col. Angela M., "Russian Information Operations and Propaganda: Traditional to Bots," AWC elective paper, 2020, 10 pgs. 

• Gaxiola, Kaitlin S. Stark, "Russian Military Ethics: Their Impact on Russian Leadership Decision-Making and Why it Matters to the United States," SAASS thesis, 2025, 46 pgs. 

  • Answers this by explaining that Russia weaponizes state-controlled media to spin false propaganda narratives—such as framing the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a "liberation" from neo-Nazis—to maintain domestic support and justify its unethical actions. To disrupt these malign activities, Stark recommends that the U.S. military proactively leverage the Information Instrument of Power (IOP) and share credible intelligence publicly. By offensively exposing Russia's falsehoods and war crimes before disinformation takes root, Stark argues the U.S. can strip away Russia's justifications and maintain the moral high ground on the international stage.

• Hawkins, Maj. John I., "Comrades in the Comments Section: Russia's Cyber Influence Effects on the US and Europe," GCPME thesis, 2024, 32 pgs. 

• Higgins, Jenna E., "The Missing Instrument: Information Power in Australia's Strategy of Denial," SAASS thesis, 2025, 99 pgs.

  • Higgins provides insights into countering adversary information warfare by detailing how China actively exploits the information environment to frame Western security pacts, such as AUKUS, as exclusionary and destabilizing to the Indo-Pacific. She explains that Beijing uses strategic narrative warfare to delegitimize the alliances of middle powers like Australia and Japan, portraying them merely as "puppets" of U.S. containment strategies rather than independent sovereign actors. To counter this adversarial manipulation, Higgins recommends that allied governments shift from reactive defense to a proactive information strategy by establishing centralized bodies to anticipate disinformation, improving societal media literacy, and clearly distinguishing their independent regional policies from those of the United States.

• Hinton, LCDR Steven P., "Combating Influence operations: Identifying Malign Influence in the Conventional and Cyber Domains," AFGC thesis, 2024, 46 pgs. 

• Keohane, Maj. Christopher M., "Arguing with the Dragon: Taiwan's Counter Disinformation Campaigns and Deterring Conflict," AFGC thesis, 2025, 54 pgs. 

  • Keohane answers this by analyzing China's disinformation campaigns across the Indo-Pacific, demonstrating how China uses media manipulation to sow societal discord, influence elections, and promote pro-China narratives in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He answers the question of how to counter these approaches by arguing that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) should emulate the successful counter-disinformation model developed by the Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC). By leveraging the target audience analysis, cultural expertise, and interagency coordination capabilities of Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Keohane demonstrates how the U.S. can create rapid, culturally attuned messaging that builds public resilience against Chinese cognitive warfare.

• Kraft, Maj. Michael, "Red Lines and Headlines: How the People's Republic of China Employs the 'Three Warfares' for Deterrence," ACSC thesis, 2025, 45 pgs. 

• Kurka, Maj. Jacob J., "What Can the United States Learn from the People's Republic of China's Information Operation Campaigns against the World's Largest Democracy?" GCPME thesis, 2025, 33 pgs. 

• Lange, Maj. Patrick, "Russian Information Warfare: Context and Perspective," ACSC elective paper (Putin's Russia), 2020, 13 pgs. 

• Martin, Jeremy, "Dispute Resolution with Chinese Characteristics: People's Liberation Army Legal Warfare and Chinese Legal Culture," SAASS thesis, 2023, 127 pgs. 

• Odom, Maj. Richard K., "Russia & China's EMS and Cyber Maneuver: Different Histories, Complementary Strategies," ACSC CAOSS (Cyber Concentration) paper, 2025, 14 pgs. 

• O'Donnell, Capt. Brian, "BBP on Offensive Unclassified Information Warfare," SOS AUAR, 2024, 2 pgs. 

• Peacock, Col. Robert, "China's Three Warfares: Breaking Ideological Boundaries," AWC Strategic Studies Paper, 2019, 30 pgs. 

• Randall, Justin, "National Instruments of Power at Risk: Mitigating the Effects of China's Cyber Strategy on National Security," GCPME thesis, 2024, 43 pgs. 

• Repka, Capt. Gregory, "War of Words: Understanding and Defending against Chinese Disinformation Campaigns," SOS AUAR 2021, 7 pgs. 

• Reyes, Richard, "Bullet Background Paper on A Holistic Approach to Deter Psychological Attacks," SOS AUAR, 2023, 7 pgs. 

• Robinson, Lt. Col. Bart, "China Dream Strategic Narrative," AWC Elective Paper, 2023, 12 pgs. 

• Schnell, Maj. Andrew T., "The 2008 Russo-Georgian War: An Analysis of the Effect of Information Operations on Kinetic Operations," AF Fellows paper (Johns Hopkins), 2023, 27 pgs. 

• Torrentez, Maj. Mariani B., "Assessing the Character of Modern and Future Warfare: A Defense Proposition," AF Global College, 2025, 39 pgs. 

• Wang, Lt. Col. Timmy, "Black Cats: Republic of China Air Force U-2 Squadron," SAASS thesis 2025, 91 pgs.  

  • Wang answers this by detailing the psychological and political warfare methods the CCP used on captured ROCAF U-2 pilots Robin Yeh and Jack Chang. Instead of executing the pilots, the CCP held them captive for nearly two decades, subjecting them to ideological indoctrination, labor reform during the Cultural Revolution, and even an arranged marriage in an attempt to politically convert them and score an ideological propaganda victory on the international stage. Wang explains that the U.S. countered this political warfare by eventually leveraging the CIA to secure the pilots' secret escape to the United States after their temporary release to Hong Kong, thereby denying the CCP a propaganda victory and demonstrating to the world that the U.S. does not abandon its partners.

• Wiedmeier, LCDR Victoria, "Narrative Warfare across Eras: Lessons from Nazi Germany, Russia and Hamas," AF Global College, 2025, 46 pgs.

• Welch, Col. Christopher M., "Russian Disinformation in Europe and Its Implications for NATO's Future Strategy," AWC PSP, 2022, 39 pgs. 

• Wright, Nicholas D., ed. "Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia and the Global Order," Published as an AU Press Fairchild Paper, 2019, 291 pgs. 

•  

• Auten, Lt. Col. Graham C., "Harmonious America: The Tentacles of the Leviathan," AF Fellows paper (US Department of State), 2025. 
  • Auten provides insight into the CCP's propaganda strategy by tracing its roots to foundational ideological texts that guide Chinese influence operations. He highlights Wang Huning's book America Against America, which identifies perceived vulnerabilities in the U.S. sociopolitical system, and Document Number 9, an internal CCP directive that characterizes Western "universal values" and democratic institutions as existential threats to Party rule. Auten demonstrates that China operationalized these ideological perspectives—alongside the unconventional, whole-of-society tactics advocated in the PLA text Unrestricted Warfare—into a comprehensive capability that utilizes propaganda, economic coercion, and disinformation to discredit democratic governance and reshape global norms in Beijing's favor.
• Kraft, Maj. Michael, "Red Lines and Headlines: How the People's Republic of China Employs the 'Three Warfares' for Deterrence," ACSC thesis, 2025, 45 pgs. 
• Randall, Justin, "National Instruments of Power at Risk: Mitigating the Effects of China's Cyber Strategy on National Security," GCPME thesis, 2024, 43 pgs.