French original cover image of David Klinger's book "War of Information" (Al Jazeera)
In an era where armies no longer need to cross borders to change regimes or subvert societies, a new type of war is emerging – a war that is invisible to the eye but fought on the level of thought. An artificial intelligence expert can reshape the consciousness of millions within a small algorithm by pressing a button. This is not a prediction of the future, but the reality we experience every day through each notification that appears on our phones and screens.
From the war in Ukraine to Gaza, from U.S. elections to campaigns sweeping across Arab platforms, we have seen how "content" has become a new weapon, how the most popular "topics" have evolved into battlefields manipulated by network laboratories and digital armies, which precisely understand our likes, dislikes, and the roots of our anger.
French author David Klinger takes us into a terrifying world in his book "War of Information: How States Control Our Minds": a war without visible means, from images designed to spread doubt, to fake news more persuasive than the truth, to algorithms that shape political emotions according to national interests.
Klinger writes: "We are currently experiencing an unexpected war, without a declaration of war, without front lines, and without clear enemies." "It is an endless war because its weapons are information itself, and its broadest battlefield is humanity – you and me, when we are both the target and the means."
David Klinger is a professor at Sciences Po Paris, specializing in the history of propaganda and strategic media. He has written several important works, including "Mind Control" and "War of Information: How States Control Our Minds" (2023), and is regarded as one of the leading researchers in the field of communication and media control in Europe.
The Conflict Enters a New Phase
In his book "War of Information," Klinger argues that history has entered a new phase of conflict, where military strength and economic advantages alone are no longer sufficient to win. Information control has become the deadliest weapon for states. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West believed that the "age of truth" had arrived, with the Internet and media globalization making lies impossible to hide. But the opposite has happened. Although information has escaped state control, it has fallen into the hands of those who control the channels of information dissemination.
David Klinger believes that this new power is not only manifested at the national level, but also in the alliance between governments and large technology companies (social media sites).
The author first raises a key question: "How does information become a weapon?"
He answers this question through a detailed analysis of how media has evolved from a source of news to a tool for psychological control. In his view, the dissemination of information is no longer aimed at informing, but at guiding, persuading, and cultivating specific emotions. With the arrival of the digital revolution, every country - in fact, every political or economic entity - now has its own algorithms, programmers, and armies of social bots to wage an endless war aimed at shaping public perception.
Klinger reexamines the concept of "political warfare" proposed by American diplomat George Kennan. In political warfare, all non-military means - from propaganda to economic and cultural manipulation - are used to achieve national goals. But today, this war has no time or geographical boundaries; it spreads across cyberspace, global media, and social networks, which deceive users into believing they have freedom while monitoring and reshaping them.
Klinger points out that in this context, "war has no beginning or end, because it no longer takes place on the battlefield, but in people's minds."
In this sense, the book details how "information power" has risen to rival military power, and how countries such as Russia and the United States have transformed knowledge into influence, propaganda into a system of ideas, and fake news into an effective diplomatic weapon.
How Are Media Narratives Constructed?
Klinger believes that "narrative construction" has become the essence of the war of information. Today, every war begins with carefully crafted news and carefully selected images. Since public perception is a battlefield, major powers regard public opinion as a military objective that must be suppressed.
The author presents numerous cases, starting with the Gulf War in 1991. At that time, the United States used a massive media machine to justify the war in Iraq and launched the first organized disinformation campaign in modern history. The story of "babies being taken out of incubators in Kuwait" became one of the most notorious lies that led Western public opinion toward war. A 15-year-old girl testified before Congress, crying as she told the story, later discovered to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States.
Klinger uses this example to illustrate how media constructs the process of truth. What is truly important is not the truth of the event, but the content packaged as facts, on which moral and political consensus is built. Therefore, the power of images goes beyond the events themselves, and official narratives determine who is the victim and who is the perpetrator.
With the popularity of satellite television in the 1990s and the rise of digital media in the new millennium, "content" has become a tool of psychological engineering. Mainstream media such as CNN and later social media networks together construct a unified worldview, hiding their diversity and differences under the banner of freedom and openness. According to the author, "mass media have become the cloak of globalization," that is, the uniform cloak of collective consciousness.
Who Controls the Tools of Control? Is It the State, the Corporations, or the Cyber Army?
Klinger believes that this new power is not only manifested at the national level, but also in the alliance between governments and tech giants. Companies such as Google, Meta, and (formerly) Twitter now possess capabilities that intelligence agencies lack: monitoring people's emotions, analyzing their desires, and predicting their behavior.
This is exactly the entry point of the war of information, as the author says, reflecting the "commodification of attention" – turning people's thoughts into economic and political resources. Every click, share, or comment is not an innocent act, but part of a constant monitoring and influencing system. He believes that this explains why simple bot programs can manipulate election results or trigger a digital civil war in a fragile country.
The author of "War of Information" believes that although information has freed itself from state control, it has fallen into the hands of those who control the means of dissemination.
On the other hand, major powers are developing their own cyber armies. Russia has established "bot factories," managing thousands of fake accounts and flooding platforms with news aimed at undermining trust in Western institutions. The United States remains the most skilled at creating "soft power" through Hollywood, media, and cultural diplomacy. Within these countries, "freedom" itself has become a tool of propaganda.
Case Studies of the Digital Battlefield
Klinger moves from analysis to documentation, presenting some of the faceless wars of the 21st century.
He believes that the struggle for global awareness is more intense in Ukraine than the ground fighting. Images of destruction and resistance are widely spread to build the narrative of Ukraine against Russia, while Russia uses the rhetoric of "de-Nazification" to justify its invasion. On both fronts, algorithms play the role of invisible soldiers.
The author also explores the increasingly important role of artificial intelligence in shaping propaganda. Language models capable of generating realistic text and convincing images make content indistinguishable from the truth. Klinger paints a bleak future in which we cannot distinguish the truth of information, nor determine whether the information is intended to deceive us.
In an intriguing chapter, he discusses the use of "influence operations" (psychological warfare) by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. In these operations, propaganda messages were disseminated through local radio stations and social media to influence people's thoughts before mobilizing them. He comments, "Now, it's not just airplanes dropping bombs, but words."
Based on this, in his view, the overall structure of the war of information becomes clear: the boundaries between war and peace, truth and propaganda, and humans and machines are increasingly blurred.
Critical Perspective
Klinger's book "War of Information" is renowned for its combination of academic rigor and journalistic appeal. This book is not a dry recounting of news history, but a deep analysis of an era that has lost the ability to distinguish reality from appearance. The author successfully makes readers feel as if they are on the battlefield, with every click and share seeming to participate in an unavoidable global war.
The greatest strength of this book is its grand theoretical framework. It spans from the Cold War to the Gulf War, from Russia to China and the United States, revealing that "information hegemony" has become a new world order. Klinger skillfully connects the roots of traditional propaganda with the tools of digital deception, arguing that all myths about freedom or national security originate from ancient psychological control methods, albeit more subtle and complex today.
However, the book tends to adopt a completely pessimistic perspective, depicting the world as ruled by propaganda machines, with no space for individual resistance. The author almost negates the possibility of audiences or society having self-awareness, as if humans have lost the ability to discern and reject. Additionally, despite the richness of his analysis, it remains limited to a Western perspective. He extensively discusses Russia, China, and the United States, but pays little attention to the experiences of Southern countries in dealing with the war of information.
From a methodological standpoint, Klinger successfully constructs a coherent narrative, but sometimes relies too heavily on news reports rather than field research or the latest digital data. Nevertheless, this book remains an essential foundation for understanding the "surveillance society" we live in today. It does not provide final solutions, but issues a severe warning.
"When we lose control over information, we gradually lose our freedom without realizing it," Klinger concludes his last chapter with this statement, which seems like an unfinished prophecy that readers will only discover when it is too late.
- Hussein Gharibi
A War Against Humanity
The phenomena described by Klinger in this book seem not only to occur in the West, but also take place daily in the Arab world. There, electronic armies are rampant, and fake accounts operate like hidden organizations in the public sphere. Information has become a political and security weapon, used not to enlighten the people, but to enslave or confuse them.
In false information campaigns related to regional conflicts or sensitive issues – from Palestine to Syria, Yemen, and Iran – the tactics warned by Klinger are common: constructing a single narrative, suppressing independent voices, and manipulating collective consciousness through "paid content".
In this context, the book becomes a mirror that makes everyone uncomfortable: journalists blindly following ready-made narratives, citizens forwarding information without discrimination, and even decision-makers who believe controlling the media equals controlling the truth.
As Klinger said, the war of information is endless because it is essentially a war against human beings themselves and their ability to think freely.
Source: Al Jazeera
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572000723840270911/
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