CMDR COE Cognitive Warfare Course – Another Tool to Support NATO Deterrence and Defence

Date: (20-06-2026)

The Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence successfully conducted the 2026 iteration of its Cognitive Warfare Course from 15 to 19 June 2026 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The course brought together over 25 military and civilian participants from five countries, representing a wide range of positions within NATO and national defence and security organisations, as well as academia, public institutions, and non-governmental organisations.

This year’s course was delivered in the context of NATO’s evolving approach to cognitive warfare and its direct relevance to Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA). As NATO continues to strengthen its ability to operate across all domains and environments, the cognitive dimension is increasingly important for maintaining decision advantage, protecting cohesion, strengthening resilience, and enabling effective action in peace, crisis, and conflict.

The course aimed to expand understanding of the cognitive dimension and its implications for security, defence, and society. It explored a wide range of topics, from the neurobiology and psychophysiology of human behaviour to the characteristics of the information environment, adversarial strategies for exploiting vulnerabilities, and approaches democratic societies can adopt to strengthen resilience.

Opening the course, the CMDR COE Director, Colonel Orlin NIKOLOV, emphasised that cognitive warfare is not simply another form of disinformation, nor solely a communication, cyber or technological problem. It is a security challenge that targets how individuals, groups, institutions and societies perceive reality, interpret events, build trust, make decisions and act. In this sense, the cognitive dimension directly affects NATO’s ability to deter, defend, operate and make decisions under pressure.

Over five intensive days, participants examined the neurological and psychological architecture of human cognition, cognitive biases and heuristics, identity, perception, meaning-making, social systems, cultural frameworks and group dynamics. The course also addressed the historical evolution of cognitive and information confrontation, as well as Russian, Iranian and Chinese approaches to strategic influence and cognitive operations.

A key focus was the practical contribution to the cognitive aspect of resilience. Participants discussed the cyber dimension of cognitive warfare, communication strategies for pre-bunking and inoculation, NATO’s approach to cognitive warfare, AI-driven transformation in the information space, OSINT and analytical approaches to tracking influence operations, and frameworks for countering AI-enabled cognitive operations.

The practical component of the course included syndicate work, group deliberations, national coordination discussions, and a capstone exercise focused on recommendations for a national cognitive resilience framework. These activities enabled participants to translate theory into practical approaches that support planning, training, decision-making, interagency coordination, and civil-military cooperation.

Throughout the course, one message remained clear: technology accelerates cognitive operations, but the human being remains central. Perception, trust, attention, judgement, identity, and cohesion are decisive factors for operational effectiveness, societal resilience, and Allied unity.

By bringing together military and civilian practitioners, researchers, public institutions, and civil society representatives, the course reaffirmed the unique value of CMDR COE as a platform where knowledge, operational experience, and cross-sector cooperation are transformed into preparedness. In doing so, the Centre contributes to NATO’s broader efforts to strengthen cognitive resilience, support multi-domain thinking, and reinforce deterrence and defence.

CMDR COE thanks all lecturers, instructors, facilitators, and participants for their valuable contributions to the successful delivery of the Cognitive Warfare Course 2026.

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CMDR COE Cognitive Warfare Course – Another Tool to Support NATO Deterrence and Defence

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