How the United States Can Fight and Win in the Cognitive Domain

Excerpt

In May 2024, U.S. troops began withdrawing from Niger after the country ended a military agreement several months earlier that allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to operate from the country. A Nigerien military spokesman provided a murky explanation for his country’s decision, characterizing the previous agreement with the United States as “profoundly unfair” and claiming that it did “not meet the aspirations and interests of the Nigerien people.” 

General Michael Langley, head of United States Africa Command, placed the blame for the withdrawal of U.S. troops squarely on Russia in his March 2024 congressional testimony. Gen. Langley claimed that the “Russian Federation’s narrative drowned out the U.S. government’s in the past years… across the Sahel,” where Russia conducted aggressive and savvy “misinformation [and] disinformation campaigns.” It is likely not a coincidence that, weeks after Niger ended its military agreement with the United States, Russian troops began operating out of the same military base U.S. troops had used.

Max Lesser is the Senior Analyst on Emerging Threats at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on foreign malign influence, cyber-enabled influence operations, and other hybrid threats. He graduated Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in English. Max is an alumnus of SSS China.