The Straits Times
01 April 2018
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- National Security Implications
National Security Implications
The future of war is fought from the inside out with information, not bullets.
It involves foreign operatives and bots spreading false narratives to divide a country on its most sensitive fissures – infiltrating institutions, destabilising governments and subverting democratic elections, thereby achieving insidious objectives.
In describing the threat, several speakers, including two who spoke to the committee in private sessions due to national security implications, testified that state-led disinformation campaigns might have already begun on Singapore’s shores.
“If you are the chief of general staff of any country, near or far, it will be a serious error not to incorporate these tenets (of information warfare) into the planning for your military doctrine,” said S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies‘ Dr Shashi Jayakumar, adding that these methods are low-cost, highly efficient and difficult to detect.
CENS
