The Cognitive Domain: State of Play, Technological Frontiers, and Strategic Imperatives in 21st-Century Warfare

The report establishes that revisionist powers — notably the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation — have developed and operationalized mature, offensive cognitive warfare doctrines.

It examines how AI enables cognitive warfare at scale and argues that building societal resilience through education and institutional trust represents the primary defense mechanism against these attacks.

The Threat Landscape

Revisionist powers have developed and operationalized mature, offensive cognitive warfare doctrines. These campaigns target not just military decision-makers but civilian populations, seeking to erode trust in institutions and democratic processes.

The AI Factor

AI enables cognitive warfare at scale — personalizing influence operations, generating synthetic media, and identifying psychological vulnerabilities at the population level. Traditional counter-messaging approaches cannot match the speed and scale of AI-enabled influence operations.

The QBC Response

Highgift AI's Quantum-Based Cognition framework directly addresses this threat surface by modeling the architecture of persuasion from first principles — enabling detection, attribution, and countermeasure design at the speed of modern influence operations.