Information warfare technologies in political discourse

We attempt to examine the technology of «information warfare» in this paper. The dominant theme of the paper is that the outcome of the information warfare is important not only for the future of a state itself but for the future of the world balance of forces. The main task of geopolitical actors in information warfare is to introduce ideas corresponding to their interests into mass consciousness. All participants of political conflicts have common features in technologies of Information warfare. The information anomie is the indicator of the great geopolitical actors’ personified interests on the stage of «information warfare» the process resulted in destroying the communicative line: report-informationunderstanding and disrupting the social order in society. In this paper authors describe the following Information Warfare technologies: "Political volcano" technology; "SPIN" technology; "Widening media resource" technology; "specific gravity" technology; "Cold War 2.0" technology and Information cleaningup technology. It is assumed that in the future there will be new instructions on applying technologies of information warfare. To impart perspective to the paper we consider examples, opinions and trends.


Introduction
The world balance of forces has been destroyed as a result of the Ukrainian Crisis.The military tailoring in Ukraine brought about the beginning of building new architecture of the relationship between great geopolitical actors: Russia, the USA and the European Union.In the context of geopolitical interests, each of the actors with reference to Ukraine pursues the economic, military, ideological and political goals wherefore conflict of interests appeared.The repartition of Ukraine is the centre of these interests.The opposing sides make media war where the main weapon is the targeted usage of information to control and manipulate mass consciousness.The dominant weapon in Information warfare is mass media army.Media aggression on mass consciousness is inherently total.Considering that the information influences via mass media practically every second everywhere it must be admitted that the mankind has not used more powerful weapon during its whole history.The main strategic task in information warfare is to introduce the ideas, corresponding to the interests of specific geopolitical actors, into mass consciousness.The goal of the research is to study information warfare technologies.The Ukrainian conflict is taken as an example.We believe that Ukraine is the range for mastering the techniques of information war.The result of successful application of these methods firstly creates threat not only for the future of this state, but it is the beginning of new technology of "operated chaos" and the updated version of strategy "cold war -2.0".It is difficult to predict the consequences of applying the technology of this new type of war.It is undoubted that as the result of such information confrontation the stability of all world order system will be misbalanced.

Materials and methods
Nearly half an age ago Alvin Toffler described the future shock, which would "overwhelm people" in the XXIst century.In his opinion the "bombardment of the senses" in the global information space leads to a shock type which he named "information overload".We declare that Toffler described in fact the genesis of modern "information warfare", where the information overload obscures its understanding and as a consequence its interpretation.
According to Toffler, the intervention into mass consciousness starts "When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation, or a novelty-loaded context, however, his predictive accuracy plummets.He can no longer make the reasonably correct assessments on which rational behavior is dependent."[1,2].Hence, information attacks, to his opinion, create mass apathy, schizophrenia, loss of adequate decisionmaking ability or lead to outbreak of violence and vandalism, the politics of nihilism and alarm.

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The term "information war" was used by the military first.It appeared in 1976 in the report for the Boeing Company.Thomas P. Rona, the author of the report entitled "Weapon system and information war", worked for Boeing at that time [3].Later he was an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy under Ronald Reagan's rule and an Acting Science Advisor to President George H.W. Bush.This term was introduced by the author to describe information use as a weapon.
Using such an effective term, journalists selected a variety of epithets to it.They were: "war of the XXIst century ", "new weapon", "new-type war", "media aggression" and others.Late in the XXth century the term "information war" (IW) outstepped the strictly publicistic discourse and became actively used in political discourse.In the early XXIst century Paul Virilio underlined the characteristic feature of the information war: "In information war environment everything is very indefinite, information and disinformation are indistinguishable and it is impossible to differ aggression from accident.A report is not blacked out as it was in the electronic war, because it became informative.It means that "information" does not determine message content, but it determines its feed-back speed" [4].In other words, the information dissemination speed is a key factor, determining the effectiveness of information warfare.The effectivity of impact in its turn is measured by the information addressee's feedback.Consequently, those, who are ahead and bring into discredit hostile's information, simultaneously impress mass with ideas corresponding to their own focus of interest.As G. Pocheptsov, one of the Russian authoritative researchers of the information warfare, emphasizes: "the goal of the successful information war will be the change in choosing a hostile side and his/her behaviour, doing it in such a way that a hostile subject does not notice that his/her choice and behavior were exposed" [5].
Today, we are of the opinion that a detailed study of the information war (IW), which has developed around the events in Ukraine, is the long term problem for specialists of different branches of knowledge.This is primarily due to the outcome of the information warfare, which is important not only for the future of Ukraine itself, but for the future of the world balance of forces.Z.Brzezinski, a prominent American ideologist explicitly stated that circumstance.Analyzing the modern world geopolitical situation he pointed out: "Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia.Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.Russia without Ukraine can still strive for an imperial status."[6].But if Toffler's prognosis over the last semicentenary has been confirmed in many cases, Z. Brzezinski's "optimism" about the world American hegemony is scattered under circumstances, which are built on the world chessboard.Nevertheless the historical foreboding did not let an ambitious politician down."If Moscow regains control over Ukraine, with its 52 million people and major resources as well as its access to the Black Sea, Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia." [6].
But before determining the technologies of IW, it is necessary to delineate the focus of main actors' interests.The categorical answer to this question was given by Z.Brzezinski when he fairly noticed:" Hegemony is as old as mankind" [6]..
3 Discord Crossroads: Conflict around Ukraine When we talk about geopolitical interests of the USA, the key thought is built around the idea of maintaining the status of the world leader.In other words, this is the idea of maintaining a unipolar model of the world, connected primarily with the wish to deprive the chief competitor for the world supremacy -Russiaof market outlets, at that concentrating the stroke maximally on economy.The interest of the USA to Eurasia is dictated by the internal economic crisis.Consequently, the goal of the USA is to expand their influence in the region, which was a sweet spot all the time for conquest and strengthening of their hegemony.
The interest of Russia focused uppermost on developing a geopolitical centre, where economic, military, ideological and politic goals cross.As early as II century b.c.e., Modu, a legendary founder of the Xiongnu empire, in response to his neighbors' demand to give them a part of uninhabited lands, severely answered: "Land is a foundation of a state".That is why the interests of Russia in returning its territory are more than evident, but these interests with good intentions are transforming into an archaic model of "traditional supremacy" [7], where there is no space for federalism as the way of optimum compromise of rights in all equivalent sub-federal units.
If the USA and Russia pursue great-power goals, then the absolute for the European Union (EU) is to make "wild fields" from Ukraine, which can be easily sliced, in so doing the European Union guarantees itself a low-paid manpower, new free economic territory, a "life ring" for solving its internal problems.Herewith the European Union is not interested in federalization of Ukraine; its main task is to prevent chaos in the centre of Europe.
What concerns Ukraine, stating in colloquial language, it gets lost in "having an axe to grind".Broken, disorganized, lost its prime target to unseat authoritarian regime, the Ukrainian society is agonizing clinging either to the West, either the USA or to Russia.The oligarchic politics of the previous president was actually in conflict with his country citizens' interests.As far as "the light at the end of the tunnel" has not already been seen, the currently existing dead-end diplomatic landscape leads to the catastrophe for sure.
It is necessary to underline that such a brief review does not reflect all variety of goals of main actors.The goal of this review is to denote the authors' point of view of the existing conflict of interests around Ukraine and to show how one, who is able to use alignment of forces, can describe the technologies of IW

"Political volcano" technology
Firstly, we will discuss the technology of "political volcano".In the recent past, the defiladed psychological impact, disinformation, fear monger, phantoms' games etc. all those methods were the prerogative of American political strategists.The experience gained in conducting a series of "color" and "velvet" revolutions was the foundation of counter-technologies of the Russian political constructors.In the present information war, the success of using those methods had already been contested by the idea and purpose to deflect citizens' attention away from current economic, political, social sphere issues.It was organized by Russian political technologists who wrote made-to-order screenplays for the acting government [8].However neither of the sides is notable for its extra selectiveness and cleanliness in the choice of tools and methods.It is worth laying emphasis that in this information war the Russian constructors are not behind either their American or their western colleagues.Ukrainian technologists have to study more and more in order to be at least at a competitive level.In the conflict around Ukraine new scenarios of "political volcano" are used.It is connected with economic as well as non-economic actions.For instance, imposing of financial and economic sanctions on Russia by the USA and the EU affects energetic, mining, financial sectors of Russian economy, suppresses exports, imports, investment, private financial services; forces entrepreneurship and political elite to block bank accounts, neutralizes big business structures, excludes or refuses entry (making black lists).The USA and the EU try to intimidate Russia with sanctions.But Russia answered every sanction by its countermeasures.For instance, it accepts the impossibility of loan repayment to American banks, its refusal of American currency, it recommends Russian citizens to sell the USA treasury obligations.Moreover, as many experts from Russia, the USA and the EU consider that imposing sanctions will lead to debt annexation, that is to inter-refusal trans-border liabilities.Against the background of this IW, Ukraine threatens to refuse using Russian gas and disown all accumulated debt, which looks like acting in the interests of EU, seeking steady traffic.It demonstrates the disability of the Kiev power.The examples of non-economic sanctions are: cancelling Sochi G8 summit and business meetings, refusal to receive delegations (The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service, parliamentarians in order to discuss Syrian problem); recall of ambassadors; isolating Russia from participating in major international organizations; boycotting international sport events [9].According to economic policy experts, the threat of applying the claimed sanctions will cripple the whole system of global economy, undo major companies, destabilize commodity and stock markets, and what is more, the USA and the EU have no real ability to isolate Russia.

"SPIN" technology
The Russian translation of "spin" means to turn around, whirl or to net.In physics, "spin" means intrinsic moment of momentum when atomic particles have quantum nature and do not connected with moving particles as integer.In medicine "spin" means an infectious agent.The origin of the term "spin therapy" in the communication theory is connected with "brain washing" technology, based on the use of the initial impact for proving, spinning up, changing the meaning as a tool of political strategy.That is why in political communication theory the spin therapy is interpreted as "promotion", "weaving a plot", "treating" identically the notion "PR campaign".The USA use this technology to make the image of a democratic reformer, to justify supporting Ukrainian disturbances, to spin up an "operated chaos" strategy, to foment Russophobia.The EU proceeds with saving face of a humane referee, supports legal taboo in the international arena, and applies a "double standards" technique.Russia uses "spin therapy" to prove annexation of the Crimea, to support the national idea and to deflect citizens' attention away from current economic, political, social sphere issues [10].The Ukrainian political technologists, who have not yet acquired "spin" skill, represent mockery of actions without guiding lines of further development, and consequently fail.

"Widening media resource" technology
Development of this technology, first of all, is connected with creating transnational media empires, which create such reality that allows them to drill new practices of manipulating mass consciousness.The characteristic feature of widening media resources is the use of the USA Foreign Service site as a mass media.Before it was customary to express one's official position in phone conversations, at summits, personal meetings of state leaders, and only the part of the interpreted official information could swim in the publicity.It is necessary to emphasize one more point: the western and the American political technologists use an old method of misrepresentation -discrediting.The example is the following: in the present day, IW is discrediting not only the acting Russian government, but also even In this case a widening media resource has a "mirror effect".The more foreign politicians criticize V. Putin's actions, the more Russians are sure of correctness of the Russian government policy.In the "war of words" about Russian aggression, bias of western mass media, misrepresentation of facts, demonstrative deliberate silencing and unwillingness to evaluate information objectively, the percentage of the Russians dissatisfied with the USA and EU policy are common phenomena [9].The Russians view sceptically the European policy as an example of democracy and disbelieve free western press.This is proved by polling data.According to the poll held in March-April 2014 by Levada center 58% of the Russian respondents consider that the reaction of the West to the events in the Crimea is stipulated by hostility to Russia and attempts to seize this moment and take Russia on the rebound.20% of respondents are sure that the West does not understand the situation in Ukraine.53% of respondents have a particular dislike for the USA and the EU."Against the USA there are 61% respondents.By comparison, only 26% treat them favourably".Because of the annexation of the Crimea by the Russian Federation, the approval rating of V. Putin's activity raised to the record level -82.3% [11,12,13].

Increasing information "specific gravity" technology
"Specific gravity" technology means that information obtains pseudo-significance due to highlighting key points.In the first place there is the key idea to give life to the image of the enemy in order to provide assistance and legitimacy of the actions on the part of the government.The recipe to enliven the "phantom" of the enemy from within and without as it is in Ukraine, whips up fear and horror, making people not only criticize and disapprove, but conduct certain protest movement which were organized in the country.Propagation of xenophobia, chauvinism whips up mass hysteria and, as a consequence, the country is divided and at a civil war.The given technology is used by other participants of the Ukrainian conflict.It can be illustrated by the goals of the "Cold war 2.0" authors.There is a paradox in the information field around Ukrainian conflict.The USA actions are aimed to reanimate "Cold War", to make the EU impose tough sanctions on Russia.As a result, the Europeans actively resist the USA pressure and oppose its aggressive propaganda.This fact is approved by the analysis of publications in international periodicals.For instance, public-opinion polls and interviews found one more factor making Berlin follow gentler line: the population distrust in America prevails, people view with scepticism the idea of following Washington in geopolitical conflict.The results of the poll held by "Infratest dimap" show that the Germans' trust to the USA has reached the lowest level since the Iraq campaign [14].

"Cold War 2.0" technology
The American and European recipe of "Cold War 2.0" technology is admission of Russia as a main opponent, who advocates the barbarian image threatening the stability of the peace on the planet.The great experience of applying this technology accumulated by the American political strategists was successfully tested in Georgia, Syria, Libya and Iraq.The Ukrainian technology is based on the spinning the image of Russia as an invader striving for hostile takeover of the territories and the power of the fraternal state.Russia, in response to upgrading of the program "Cold War" by the USA, reacts with countermeasures.Above all, the call of President Putin to all global community "to play by the rules", that is to turn back to the partnership on the basis of dialogue, stop threatening, reveals realities of multipolar world and interests of the parties.In February 2007, in Munich, V. Putin criticized openly unilateral actions of the USA in foreign policy [15].Among the comments of famous politicians having the same point of view, we should highlight the fair and unbiased speech of Gregor Gisy, a member of the Bundestag.He said: "Sanctions are not the expression of a strategy, but the expression of the lack of a strategy.Diplomacy is the only way.If the crisis was resolved one day, one advantage could be that all sides would finally respect international law again."[16].
There is one more counter measure, which is funded by BRICS, guaranteeing Russia not only a tenable, steady, geopolitical influence, but also being ahead of the curve of the USA.

Information cleanup technology
This technology means bringing information space under total control (mass media, Internet).The USA started using this technology in the XXth century as a method of following state information policy.The outstanding political technologist, Joseph Nye, pointed out the necessity to control information space totally as it is an essential resource of applying "soft power".From his and his followers' point of view, political information becomes a resource of "soft power" in the mode of "virtual diplomacy" [17,18].Using this resource, it is possible to reach the goal not by suppressing, but by persuading.Consequently, as Nye supposes, information dominance is necessary in global policy.It is understandable that it is possible to succeed this in different ways, one of which is "information cleansing".The core of this phenomenon is eliminating the resources in global space, which do not reflect the attitude corresponding to state interests.The goal is to succeed using political, economic leverage as the source of information.In such a manner, imaginary freedom of speech, pluralism of comments and evaluations are formed.In the information war around Ukraine, the USA used a characteristic technique -placing important information on current events on the back in order not to attract general reader's attention.We use anti-dissidence reframing as a Russian example.
The new recipe of such struggle is the limit of the Internet space.In 2014 the current "Information, information technologies and information security law" was changed [19].Definitely, it is connected with the risk of information dissemination in the Internet and serves as prohibition, prescribing the providers to block those Internet-resources, which incite to mass disorder.Many chats, blogs, e-Media etc. offend against law because there is no exact wording in the law of what is incitement.According to the experts, this measure is essential but not a panacea, because it is focused on the struggle with consequences, but not with the cause.Ukrainian politicians do "information cleansing" as well, making providers black out Russian TV channels, closing oppositional, anti-Maidan periodicals around Ukraine.

Conclusion
In the XX century the ideological, political information confrontation was not called as a war.In information war of the XXIst century on the arena of world geopolitics there is an ideological rivalry and information warfare with new weapon: info-bullets, info-bombs, info-mines and info-guns leading to information anomy.The main feature of this process is a destruction of a communicative chain: mass media distorts the information context.As a result, there is a change of the context meaning and loss of feedback.Personifying political, ideological and social contradictions in information war, mass media represents them not as collision of social interests (stratum, local groups), but as collision of the large geopolitical actors' personified interests.The social and political consciousness turns into "a ghetto of free opinions".A chaotic process of information anomy bears the destructive consequences, which result in consolidation of violation in society, loss of identity, lack of solidarity and a dialogue between subjects of communication [20].Existence of global information flows creates an overload, which was predicted by E. Toffler, and at the same time the vector of IW directed to a concrete target cannot be concentrated only on the opponent audience.At the same time manipulation with consciousness also misleads one's own audience.The technology of "operated chaos" used by the USA in Ukraine is a potential menace to the whole world.At the beginning of the XXIst century Paul Virilio expected these consequences when he wrote that the mankind had imperious visions and would receive the weapon which made those dreams become reality![4].We assume that in the near future there will be new instructions on applying technologies of information warfare in comparison with which "198 methods of nonviolent actions" by Gene Sharp will seem a child's play [21].

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the president of Lithuania deprived Russian journalists T. Mitkova and D. Kiselyov of their national rewards).