Title: A guide to Russian propaganda. Part 5: Reflexive ControlEuromaidan Press | News and views from Ukraine
Headings: A guide to Russian propaganda. Part 5: Reflexive Control
A guide to Russian propaganda. Part 5: Reflexive Control
Examples of Reflexive control used in Russia’s war against Ukraine
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Content: Source: adapted from Ajir et al, “Russian Information Warfare & Implications for Deterrence Policy”
Russia’s strategy is based on a method called Reflexive control. The Soviet and Russian intelligence community have researched it for half a century. Reflexive Control is best known to the western public thanks to the works of Timothy Thomas. The theoretical basis for Reflexive control was laid down by Vladimir Lefebvre, a Russian researcher who developed Reflexive control as the Soviet answer to Game theory used in the USA for military purposes. While Game theory allowed predicting outcomes of decisions of social players, Reflexive control allows the subject to direct his object towards making a decision in the subject’s interest, and without the object being aware of the manipulation. Today, Russian military and social researchers continue developing the theoretical basis of Reflexive control. With Reflexive Control, Russia changes its opponent’s view of the world, so he is tricked into making the self-defeating decisions Russia wants without even knowing it. Russia achieves this by creating a simulacrum, or “virtual reality.” This simulacrum influences the decision-making centers of the object of manipulation.