Russia’s Information Warfare: Exploring the Cognitive Dimension Article Swipe

the location of bases, and extraction of resources in formerly frozen and lifeless landscapes in the poles.The role of climate change in creating new arenas of great power competition is a continuing theme in this issue.Icecaps melting, as discussed in "The American Polar Pivot: Gaining Advantage in Great Power Competition," by Ryan Burke and Jahara Matisek, presents new opportunities for expanding global influence for polar-oriented nations.Russia is rapidly expanding its presence in the Arctic, while the United States races to reopen abandoned Cold War-era Arctic bases or to create new fleets of icebreakers to compete with Russia's expanding fleet.The authors advocate an American polar pivot to counter the emerging Russian threat, particularly with the Russian Federation's construction of new polar bases and the construction of a fleet of icebreakers as well as the Chinese development of its first nuclear-powered icebreaker.They argue that America must pivot its focus to navigate and defend interests in the increasingly militarized Arctic and Antarctic, maintaining that America must be at the forefront of defending new routes of navigation due to melting icecaps.Great power competition could also foster cooperation against common threats.For example, climate change as an emerging threat to great power status is addressed in depth in Kevin Johnston's article, which advocates cooperation among great powers, specifically China and the United States, to counteract the worldwide effects of climate change.This is especially important for the Department of Defense, as many bases are near areas subject to flooding, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events.Climate change is a global threat that could dramatically shift great power arrangements in ways yet seen in the history of our planet.Aside from the physical and financial damage caused by these increasingly unpredictable extreme weather events that impact national security, the Department of Defense will also need to upgrade its current facilities to withstand damage during these events-at great cost.A variety of strategies have been adopted by our adversaries to challenge America's role as the world's sole superpower.As Daniel De Witt explains in his article "Competing through Competition: Leveraging Security Competition to Counter Chinese and Russian Influence in Africa," these tactics include China's incentive-based system of buying alliances through infrastructure improvement in countries across the world, while Russia remains content to challenge America and its allies through proxy, frozen conflicts throughout the world, thus destabilizing America and its allies.America must find its own way in this newly emerging world order of great power competition by adopting innovative solutions to secure global peace and democracy.There are many solutions to some of the emerging threats the United States will face in the future found in this volume of MCU Journal.Some of the solutions offered come from adversaries' adoption of new strategies in the 10 From the Editors MCU Journal face of a changing world.As Sun Tzu once said: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." 5 The remainder of the journal rounds out with a selection of review essays and book reviews that continues our focus on great power competition but also highlights continuing challenges in national security and international relations.The coming year will be busy for the MCU Journal editors as we work to provide issues on a diverse range of topics relevant to the study of militaries and defense.The upcoming Spring 2020 issue offers a diverse presentation of innovation and the changing character warfare, particularly plans and theories for future warfare, the potential or planned advances in technology, how the Services envision or plan for it, and key nation-states' future war strategies.We look forward to hearing your thoughts on these topics and to your future participation.Join the conversation on the MC UPress Facebook and MC_U Press Twitter pages or communicate with us via email at