Cognition encompasses the states and processes involved in knowing, which in their completeness include perception and judgment, as well as all conscious and unconscious processes by which knowledge is accumulated, such as perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning. How might mental health, spirituality, and individual resiliency function as protective factors against cognitive warfare, especially as China continues to bolster its capabilities? How does China see its core socialist values intersecting with cognitive warfare? Does China believe its values inform this kind of warfare, other types of warfare, or its own protection against adversary activity?
To effectively counter these adversarial capabilities, how can the military enterprise identify and address aspects of cognition that affect both its personnel and its organizations? At the individual level, how can the military measure and build force resilience, and can researchers better understand the mental processes that lead to post-traumatic stress and suicidality as well as post-traumatic growth? Furthermore, might research into cognition provide insights for force and family preservation programs?
At the organizational level, how does the military support cognitive decision-making on teams and across the enterprise? What role does cognition play in terms of the assessment of risk? Finally, how can the military work to encourage and incorporate divergent and creative thinking within the force? What might the benefits be of incorporating creative problem-solving, what are the risks of such encouragement, and how can those risks be mitigated?
- Binzer, Maj. Hank, "Mitigating Moral Injury: Front-Line Defense against the Increased Risk of Moral Injury in Modern Military Operations," AFGC thesis, 2026, 36 pgs.
- Binzer provides a critical distinction between the mental processes that lead to PTSD versus moral injury. He clarifies that while PTSD is tied to fear conditioning and hyperarousal from a distinct traumatic event, moral injury develops cumulatively and is rooted in moral emotions like shame, betrayal, and repetitive moral rumination. He points out that moral injury is an independent risk factor for suicidal ideation, even when controlling for PTSD. To effectively build resilience against this, Binzer argues that current resilience-based approaches are inadequate because they focus on stress endurance rather than ethical conflict. He recommends explicitly embedding moral injury awareness and ethical content into existing resilience frameworks so that personnel are equipped to process moral ambiguity and make meaning of their experiences, rather than simply trying to endure them.
- Coffey, Lt. Commander Travis E., "Holistic Care: An Evidence-Based Approach to Suicide Prevention in the Navy," AFGC thesis, 2025.
- Coffey answers this by explaining that suicide typically stems from a complex interaction of life circumstances, including premilitary adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and operational stressors, rather than a single issue. To foster post-traumatic growth and combat suicidality, he argues that the military must shift from a purely medicalized framework that views service members as "broken" to a holistic strategy that emphasizes personal resilience, strengths, and finding purpose. He recommends integrating evidence-based therapies, such as Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) and Problem-Solving Training (PST), while also leveraging spiritual readiness and community support to help survivors navigate the trauma of suicide loss and turn unhealthy coping mechanisms into post-traumatic growth.
- Ojala, Wayne A., "Air Force Embedded Service Delivery: Reducing High Risk Behavior," AFGC thesis, 2025.
- Ojala answers this by demonstrating that embedding Military and Family Readiness Center (M&FRC) professionals directly into high-risk units intercepts suicidal ideation by building trust, breaking down barriers to care, and proactively addressing root stressors. Rather than waiting for struggling service members to seek help, Ojala illustrates how deploying multidisciplinary teams to the operational edge successfully intercepts Airmen experiencing extreme psychological distress, including those on the brink of suicide. He uses quantitative data from Little Rock Air Force Base (LRAFB) to show that this embedded model directly correlates with a decrease in suicides—dropping from four in 2018 to zero in 2021 within the targeted squadrons—proving that physical proximity to support networks is a critical factor in mitigating high-risk behaviors and suicidality.