Abstract: This article is devoted to the research on applicability of the key principles of the traditional war philosophy of China, such as the tactic of disinformation-psychological effect upon the enemy, principle of benefit, “subdue the enemy without fighting”, “using the weak to defeat the strong”, “attacking weakness rather than strength”, doctrine of “people’s war” and “thirty-six stratagems” towards cyber operations and cyber conflicts. The authors also explore the fundamental ideas of traditional war philosophy used by modern war theoreticians of China in development of theory of cyber/information warfare. Specific examples of implementation of traditional concepts in cyberspace are presented. This topic is relevant and has practical importance, since study of conducting cyber operation in other countries, especially in China with a vast conceptual foundation, is necessary for development of own doctrine for conducting cyber/information operations. The main conclusion consists in the thesis that Chinese doctrine of cyber/information warfare is being actively developed based on the ancient philosophy of war intrinsic to Chinese culture. In one way or another, while searching for solutions to today’s problems, Chinese theory of cyber/information warfare looks for solutions in its historical military practice.

Keywords: military-philosophical thought, cyberwar, philosophy, cyberspace, cyberattacks, cyberoperations, informatization, cybersecurity, The Art of War, stratagems

Abstract: The article considers the influence of space distribution of information, informational resources and processes of informational exchange on geopolitical processes. It provides the characteristic of the system of geopolitical relations transformation under the influence of the increasing importance of information in different spheres of geopolitics subjects’ activities. The article describes the key models of geopolitical interactions with the consideration of informational component and their development due to the increasing importance of the informational component of the general sphere of human life. The article shows the role and place of informational space as a space of geopolitical relations in the course of a competitive struggle between geopolitical subjects. The character of the modern geopolitical relations is determined by the transformation of a traditional geopolitics realized by geopolitical subjects (subjects of geopolitical relations). As geopolitical subjects this article considers any structured communities of people who are the subjects of geopolitical relations, i.e. have common interests in the preservation and winning of control of particular areas (territories, spheres) and the resources (energy) allocated in these areas, and who create different institutions for this purpose (including states) and possess a potential for it

Keywords: management, politics, Russia, information, informational management, informational geopolitics, social medium, informational exchange, informational security, cooperation.

Abstract: The research is aimed at theoretical characterizing of information-psychological influence as a new phenomenon in a political sphere. The main tasks of the study are: the description of history of information wars and cyber wars development; the study of the methods and technologies, used in these conflicts; the study of an experience of foreign countries in these spheres. The author reveals the differences between information wars and classical political campaigns of various nature and analyzes the phenomenon of cyber wars from the viewpoint of the theory of politics and the theory of international relations. The methodology of the research is based on the system, structural-functional, comparative-historical, comparative-political, geopolitical and cultural-civilizational approaches, and the methods of political communicativistics, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, modeling and observation. After a swift development of social sciences in the twentieth century, including the sphere of international relations, political psychology and political communicativistics, and the development of political technologies given actual impossibility of total wars due to the development of weapons of mass destruction, the necessity had appeared to create new methods of struggle on the international arena which led to the emergence of a theory of information wars. The additional impetus to the development of methods of psychological resistance was given by the situation after the Second World War within the Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations, when the world was divided into two camps contesting with each other, among other things, in the sphere of ideology. The complex of the abovementioned factors and the swift development of Mass Media had led to the appearance of a new area of international politics – a cyberspace.

Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, information-psychological operation, information war, the USA, soft power, information contest, political communication, conflict, information security

Abstract: Currently little attention is paid to the scientific studies of the phenomena of propaganda, psychological warfare, psychological operations and their influence upon the politics. Additionally the depressive situation with studies of this matter is made worse by some authors, who while not providing quality phenomenon studies, make their conclusions based upon the popular conspiracy theories without due application of scientific methodology. In order to study the said issue it is first necessary to define the terminology, which shall be used in this scientific theoretical article, namely: propaganda, psychological operation, psychological warfare. Generally, one may state that during a rather short period of time (less than a century) the methods of psychological warfare went through a long evolution starting with the propaganda and finishing with the complicated psychological operations events, when the object of influence may even not understand the influence upon his psyche.

Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, Russia, geopolitics, information warfare, psychological operation, state, interests, values, security.

Abstract: This article is devoted to the studies of the genesis of the phenomenon and definition of the information war. Information war is to a considerable degree a publicist term, which was formed by the concepts of post-industrial (information) society (era) by Daniel Bell, Alvin Toffler, Manuel Castells, etc., and on the other hand due to reflection of objective matters in journalism, such as formation of the information sphere, new types of mass media, faster spread of information and greater influence of information on the other spheres of social life. At the same time, the term “information war” reflects at least two key tendencies: firstly, it is projection of the tension from the military (force) sphere to the information sphere, and, secondly, it is realization of an advantage in an information sphere in the force dimension of a conflict. The term “information war” is taken from the Western military-related discourse. It was introduced by Thomas P. Rona in 1976 in his report for the Boeing company, which was entitled: “Weapon System and Information War”. In this report he stated that information infrastructure becomes one of the most important and most vulnerable sectors of American economy.

Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, the USA, soft power, conflicts, diplomacy, state, interests, security, information war.

Abstract: After the nuclear parity was achieved between the USA and the USSR, it became clear that the large-scale wars with the use of large armies and mass use of heavy armored vehicles, aviation and infantry among the large states became almost impossible, which made both the USA and the USSR search for other means for an armed confrontation. Partly, such a confrontation in a bipolar world was expressed in a chain of local conflicts, where if one of the superpowers supported one of the parties, it was very likely that the other superpower would support the other party to the local conflict. Development of electronics and science allowed to form the systems of precision kill weapon systems and “clever” arms, and their impact at the current stage of its development was comparable to the weapons of mass destruction, which allowed to wage conflicts faster, while made them more complicated and much more costly. However, at the time of the First and Second World Ware there appeared an idea that the victory in a war is achieved not so much in destruction of armies of the opposing party, but rather through influencing the population of the opposing party in order to bring it into such a position, when the people are so demoralized and tired by the war, that it is impossible to continue the war.

Keywords: international relations, foreign policy, the USA, geopolitics, conflicts, diplomacy, state, information war, security, values.

Abstract: The events in Libya (the antigovernment revolt and the following intervention of the international forces) had a major effect on the communication support of the foreign policy of the ALBA states. This effect manifested itself in the escalation of the information warfare between the member-states of the ALBA integration alliance, on the one side, and the USA and the EU, on the other. The support of the Gaddhafi regime became part of the communication policy of Latin-American leaders (Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Evo Moralez, Raphael Correa, Daniel Ortega) proclaiming as its goal the creation of a new world order.

Keywords: EU, Latin America, ALBA, information wars, USA, Russia, cyber-technology, image, media