Welcome to Cognitive Warfare Research & OSINT Insights— with Sara Russo
What Do We Do Here? The Space
Cognitive Warfare Research & OSINT Insights is a curated research space dedicated to understanding how influence, perception, and decision-making operate in contemporary conflict and crisis environments.
The aim is to gather, organize, and reflect on open-source material related to cognitive warfare—academic research, doctrine and policy, OSINT-based analysis, and emerging debates—while remaining attentive to the fact that many of these topics are publicly accessible yet sensitive in practice. One of the objectives here is to build a clearer bridge with academia, contributing to a more systematic and conceptually grounded engagement with these topics.
All substantive content is published in a single research stream, with tags used to distinguish themes and types of material. This structure is intended to make it easier to navigate between academic scholarship, doctrine and policy, and open-source analysis, while preserving coherence and continuity.
This space supports both orientation and continuity: staying updated on key developments while situating them within broader conceptual, theoretical, and strategic frameworks.
Academic Research
Posts tagged Academic Research engage with peer-reviewed scholarship and established academic debates relevant to the study of cognitive warfare, influence, perception, and decision-making.
Its purpose is to provide a stable theoretical and conceptual grounding for the analysis and reflections shared elsewhere in this space. While other content may engage in exploratory synthesis, this section highlights work that has already undergone scholarly validation and contributes to cumulative knowledge across disciplines.
Tagged content may include:
Key peer-reviewed articles and books
Theoretical frameworks from security studies, organizational theory, psychology, and related fields
Conceptual debates shaping academic understandings of influence and cognition
Methodological contributions relevant to studying cognitive warfare and influence dynamics
This section functions as a reference and orientation layer, maintaining clear boundaries between established scholarship and exploratory analysis. Over time, it may also include references to my own peer-reviewed publications as they become available.
Suggestions for relevant academic literature are welcome and may be shared privately.
Doctrine & Policy
Posts tagged Doctrine & Policy focus on doctrinal, strategic, and policy references relevant to cognitive warfare, influence, and decision-making.
The aim is not to reproduce or advocate specific doctrines, but to map how influence-related concepts are framed, operationalized, and institutionalized across different national and organizational contexts. These materials provide essential insight into how cognitive and informational dimensions are formally articulated in policy and practice.
Content in this section may include:
Military and security doctrines
Policy papers and strategic frameworks
Official reports from national, multilateral, or international institutions
Conceptual models used in operational or strategic planning
Where appropriate, documents may be accompanied by short analytical notes highlighting:
Key concepts and assumptions
Convergences and divergences across doctrines
Tensions between formal guidance and observed practice
Implications for research on influence and cognitive warfare
This section is intended as a curated open-source repository supporting both research and professional reflection. Inclusion of a document does not imply endorsement, nor does it preclude critical analysis.
As doctrines evolve and new policy documents emerge, this collection will be updated accordingly. Suggestions for relevant material are welcome and may be shared privately.
About Me
I’m Sara Russo, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Higher Defence Studies (CASD), working on cognitive warfare, influence, perception, and decision-making across military, humanitarian, and organizational contexts.
My research focuses on how influence mechanisms operate across domains, how they are conceptualized in doctrine and scholarship, and how they manifest in practice through open-source dynamics. Alongside academic research, I’m interested in building careful, structured ways of thinking and sharing knowledge in a field that is often fragmented, politicized, or discussed only in closed settings.
This space reflects that approach: measured, analytical, and open to different forms of engagement, from quiet readership to selective contribution.
This space is intentionally iterative and evolving, designed to grow alongside ongoing research and dialogue.
