COURSE 1 — THE HUMAN COGNITIVE DOMAIN: HOW COGNITION IS SHAPED, INFLUENCED & TARGETED Module 1 — Cognitive & Influence Warfare: Competing in the Cognitive Domain Wars have always sought to affect what adversaries think and do. What has changed is the scale, speed, precision, and access through which human cognition can now be reached. This foundational module introduces cognitive warfare and influence warfare as related but distinct forms of strategic competition. Students examine how they differ from information warfare, information operations, psychological operations, propaganda, and strategic communication, while exploring where these disciplines intersect. The module establishes cognition as the ultimate focus of cognitive warfare and introduces the biological, psychological, and social dimensions that shape human perception, judgment, decision-making, and behavior. Students begin with the central question that will guide the certificate: How can an actor shape the conditions under which another person, organization, military, or society perceives reality and makes decisions? Module 2 — The Human Mind as Operational Terrain The human mind is not a passive receiver of information. It selects, filters, predicts, interprets, remembers, forgets, and assigns meaning. Students examine how attention, perception, emotion, memory, identity, judgment, and decision-making interact across biological, psychological, and social systems. The module introduces subconscious processing and predictive cognition and explores why people can encounter the same information yet construct very different interpretations of reality. Students also examine an important principle: effective influence does not always require changing what someone believes. It may instead work through assumptions, expectations, emotions, identities, and mental models that already exist. Module 3 — Biological Dimensions: Brain, Body, Attention & Cognitive Performance Cognition begins with a biological system—and that system has limits. Students examine the brain and nervous system as they relate to attention, memory, emotion, threat detection, executive control, motivation, and decision-making. The module explores how stress, fatigue, sleep deprivation, pain, sensory stimulation, cognitive overload, and neurochemistry can affect cognitive performance and potentially create conditions of vulnerability. Students will also explore emerging neurotechnologies and distinguish scientifically demonstrated capabilities from exaggerated claims about direct manipulation of the brain. The strategic question is straightforward but consequential: What happens to decision-making when the biological systems supporting cognition are stressed, overloaded, exhausted, distracted, or disrupted? Module 4 — Psychological Dimensions: Perception, Emotion, Identity & Decision-Making Influence is rarely applied to an empty mind. People already possess beliefs, identities, memories, expectations, values, fears, and assumptions through which new information is interpreted. Students examine predictive processing, mental models, cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, cognitive dissonance, emotion, risk perception, and decision-making under uncertainty. The module also incorporates psychological orders and sacred values—exploring how identity, foundational narratives, worldview, and deeply held values can influence how people interpret information. Students consider why some messages resonate, others are rejected, and still others generate backlash. The objective is to understand not simply what information people receive, but the psychological architecture through which they give that information meaning. Module 5 — Social Dimensions: Trust, Identity, Networks & Collective Behavior Cognition does not occur in isolation. Humans interpret the world through families, communities, cultures, institutions, networks, leaders, peers, and groups. Students examine social identity, conformity, social proof, authority, trust, credibility, legitimacy, group polarization, collective memory, grievance, belonging, and perceptions of threat. They explore how individual interpretations can develop into collective beliefs—and how those beliefs can spread through social networks and influence organizational or societal behavior. This module further discusses agents of influence, networks, population analysis, and imagined communities. Students learn why influence may depend less on finding the perfect message than on understanding who is trusted, how communities are connected, and how meaning travels through a social system. Module 6 — Narrative & Influence Warfare: Shaping Meaning, Perception & Behavior Facts describe events. Narratives help people decide what those events mean. This module examines how influence warfare operates across biological, psychological, and social dimensions to affect perception, interpretation, judgment, and behavior. Students explore strategic narratives, foundational narratives, historical memory, symbols, identity, emotion, networks, trusted messengers, subtlety, consonance, and resonance. The module incorporates the strongest elements of the Five Pillars of Influence, and Seven Influence Tradecraft. Students examine why enduring influence often does not look like influence at all. Rather than simply telling an audience what to believe, sophisticated influence may alter context, reinforce existing assumptions, activate identities, introduce doubt, or change the meaning assigned to events. Module 7 — Cognitive Terrain & Influence Vulnerability Mapping Before attempting to understand an influence or cognitive operation, individuals must understand the terrain on which it is operating. This integrative module teaches students to assess cognitive terrain by bringing together the biological, psychological, social, and informational dimensions studied throughout the first seven modules. Students examine critical decisions and behaviors, cognitive functions, identities, sacred values, foundational narratives, trusted relationships, influential networks, environmental pressures, information dependencies, access pathways, vulnerabilities, and protective factors within a leader, organization, military force, institution, or population. Crucially, students learn to distinguish general human susceptibility from an actual exploitable vulnerability and to consider alternative explanations, intelligence gaps, indicators, and analytic confidence. By the end of Module 7, students have the analytical framework they need to examine how actual actors operate within the cognitive domain. Module 8 — Information Environment Architecture: Accessing & Amplifying Cognition Today's information environment provides unprecedented access to human attention, behavior, relationships, preferences, and patterns of interaction. Students examine digital platforms, social media, search engines, recommendation algorithms, personalization, behavioral data, microtargeting, bots, synthetic personas, influencers, artificial intelligence, and cross-platform information flows. The module examines how these systems interact with biological attention, psychological vulnerabilities, and social networks to influence what people encounter, how frequently they encounter it, who appears to endorse it, and how important or credible it seems. Students also examine deception, disinformation, synthetic content, artificial amplification, and information saturation—not merely as problems of false information, but as potential mechanisms for producing confusion, uncertainty, distrust, emotional activation, cognitive overload, and distorted perceptions of reality. COURSE 2 — APPLIED COGNITIVE & INFLUENCE WARFARE Module 9 — The United States: Doctrine, Institutions, and Coordination This module examines how the United States understands and addresses competition in the cognitive domain. Students explore the roles of the Department of Defense, intelligence community, interagency partners, academia, and private sector in protecting decision-making, military effectiveness, institutional trust, and societal resilience. Students examine how information operations, psychological operations, cyber operations, intelligence, neuroscience, behavioral science, strategic communication, and emerging technologies contribute to cognitive and influence capabilities—and the coordination challenges created by divided authorities, institutional boundaries, domestic legal protections, and the absence of a fully integrated national cognitive-warfare doctrine. Module 10 — Russia's Cognitive Warfare and Reflexive Control This module examines Russia's approach to cognitive and influence warfare through reflexive control, information confrontation, strategic deception, ambiguity, narrative, and manipulation of an adversary's decision-making environment. Using the Russia–Ukraine war as a central case, students examine how history, identity, fear, grievance, uncertainty, social division, narrative preconditioning, and perceptions of escalation can be used alongside cyber, diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military activity. Rather than simply identifying Russian messages, students ask a more sophisticated question: What does Russia want the target to perceive, conclude, decide, or do—and what biological, psychological, and social conditions could make that effect possible? Module 11 — China's Cognitive Warfare and the Three Warfares This module examines China's evolving approach to cognitive-domain operations and the pursuit of strategic and cognitive advantage. Students study psychological warfare, media warfare, and legal warfare under the Three Warfares framework alongside artificial intelligence, behavioral data, surveillance, economic leverage, diplomatic pressure, and military signaling. The module also examines the roles of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Liberation Army, United Front networks, state-controlled media, private companies, and overseas communities in shaping perceptions of legitimacy, sovereignty, national power, and the future international order. Module 12 — Iran's Cognitive Warfare and Proxy Ecosystems & North Korea's Cognitive Warfare and Regime Survival This module examines how Iran conducts cognitive and influence activities through interconnected state institutions, military organizations, media systems, cyber capabilities, religious networks, and regional proxies. Students explore how themes of resistance, martyrdom, sovereignty, victimization, religious legitimacy, and opposition to foreign domination are adapted for different audiences. The module also examines ambiguity, deniable actors, psychological pressure, coercive signaling, and calibrated escalation as mechanisms for influencing adversary perceptions and decisions while managing the risks of direct military confrontation. This module also examines North Korea's use of cognitive control and cognitive warfare in support of regime survival. Students examine how isolation, information control, leadership mythology, ideological education, surveillance, fear, punishment, and continuous portrayals of external threat contribute to the construction of political reality. The module then turns outward to strategic deception, cyber operations, military demonstrations, coercive messaging, and manipulation of perceived risk. Students compare two fundamentally different objectives: controlling the cognitive environment of a domestic population and influencing the decision-making of a foreign adversary. Module 13 — Europe and NATO: Cognitive Warfare and Democratic Resilience This module examines how NATO and European states understand cognitive warfare within the broader context of hybrid threats, societal resilience, strategic competition, and collective defense. Students explore NATO's developing approach to the cognitive dimension of warfare as well as European initiatives addressing foreign interference, disinformation, election security, institutional trust, and civil preparedness. Lessons from Estonia, Finland, Ukraine, and other European democracies demonstrate how cognitive resilience intersects with national security. The module also confronts one of the program's most important questions: How can democratic societies defend their cognitive environment without undermining freedom of expression, political pluralism, privacy, or public trust? Module 14 — Non-State Actors and Decentralized Cognitive Operations States do not have a monopoly on cognitive or influence capabilities. Students examine how terrorist organizations, extremist movements, cartels, ideological communities, influencers, and decentralized online groups exploit identity, belonging, grievance, fear, humiliation, social isolation, and perceived injustice to recruit supporters, reinforce commitment, encourage action, and weaken opposition. The module also examines memetic communication, algorithmic amplification, online radicalization, leaderless networks, synthetic personas, and how decentralized communities can generate significant cognitive effects without possessing a traditional hierarchy or formal command structure. Module 15 — Corporate Cognitive Warfare and the Commercial & Entertainment Battlespace The cognitive domain extends well beyond national security. Corporations, technology platforms, entertainment companies, brands, and media producers all operate within environments where attention, perception, identity, trust, and behavior have strategic and economic value. This module examines corporations and entertainment industries as targets, participants, and powerful actors within the broader cognitive environment. Students explore how advertising, branding, behavioral data, platform design, algorithms, influencers, film, television, streaming, gaming, and popular culture can shape perceptions and social norms. Particular attention is given to social impact entertainment—the intentional use of entertainment and storytelling to increase awareness, influence attitudes, encourage discussion, or contribute to social and behavioral change. Participants examine how narratives and characters can engage emotion, identity, empathy, and social identification, allowing entertainment to influence how audiences understand issues without resembling traditional persuasive communication. The module also examines corporate reputation, consumer trust, employee and investor confidence, coordinated reputation attacks, activist pressure, synthetic media, market manipulation, behavioral targeting, and algorithmic control over visibility. Students ultimately consider an increasingly important distinction: when does ordinary persuasion, storytelling, or advocacy become strategic influence—and what ethical responsibilities accompany the ability to shape perception and behavior at scale? Module 16: Law, Ethics & the Future Cognitive Battlespace This module examines the legal and ethical challenges created by efforts to understand, influence, monitor, or protect human cognition. Students will explore freedom of expression, privacy, surveillance, informed consent, data protection, domestic and foreign operational authorities, military constraints, platform governance, neuroethics, and emerging concepts of cognitive liberty and neurorights. The module considers where legitimate persuasion may cross into manipulation or coercion and how democratic societies can strengthen cognitive security without controlling political thought or suppressing lawful disagreement. Particular attention will be given to proportionality, accountability, transparency, human agency, and the risk that capabilities developed for cognitive defense could themselves be misused. Building from these legal and ethical foundations, participants will then look toward the future cognitive battlespace and examine how emerging science and technology may transform cognitive and influence warfare. Topics include artificial intelligence, generative persuasion, synthetic identities, autonomous cognitive agents, behavioral prediction, population neuroanalytics, brain-computer interfaces, neurostimulation, biotechnology, wearable sensors, human-machine integration, and synthetic cognitive modeling. Students will distinguish emerging capabilities from speculative claims while considering how technological advances could make cognitive effects increasingly personalized, scalable, persistent, and difficult to detect or attribute. The program concludes by asking students to look beyond today's threats and consider what may come next: How will governments, militaries, corporations, and societies protect human judgment, autonomy, and decision-making as the ability to understand and potentially influence human cognition becomes increasingly sophisticated?