Modern Political Warfare: A Look at Strategy and TTPs

Political warfare is back. Political warfare or political war is the “use of political means to compel an opponent to do one’s will, political being understood to describe purposeful intercourse between peoples and government affecting national survival and relative advantage.” Political warfare among nation-states is practiced with hostile intent and is by definition an offensive art. Political warfare has been reintroduced to the threat environment because as a strategy it can be implemented cheaply, possesses a high reproducibility, can be automated, waged largely through technical means and has a good rate of return. This presentation seeks to define political warfare as a strategy and then walk through common TTPs.