ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the usage of a number of different terms and concepts by policymakers and experts. It argues that the resurgence of concepts like information and political warfare is the result of the dominance of a narrow understanding of cyber warfare in the years leading up to the 2016 Russian election interference, which left observers with inadequate language and concepts to describe what took place in 2016. The chapter also argues that the concept of political warfare as articulated in the early years of the Cold War provides the best description of Russian activities. Russian officials’ use of the term “hybrid warfare” is most often in reference to US use of the term and reflects a misperception by the Russians that hybrid warfare is US strategy. American covert political and psychological warfare operations would continue through the rest of the Cold War, from Korea to Vietnam to South America.
