ABSTRACT
War's nature may be enduring; its character is prone to change in each era as well as in each encounter. IS' ruthless exploitation of synthetic and connected elements allowed it to generate kinetic effects at a regional and even global level, greatly enhancing its resilience to withstand external attacks. Traditional tricks of the political warfare trade are being applied to great effect, albeit in thoroughly modernised guises. The manipulation of societal discourses is nothing new and has been practiced by Western and non-Western powers alike long before it started to be amply documented during the Cold War. Military commanders and their political leaders must now, certainly more than before, consider how citizen journalists or hostile state actors report on military operations, and anticipate how information will be faked, tweaked, and manipulated by adversaries. The heated debates are not only testament to the explosion of information exchange in a globally connected world.
