WEAPONIZED INFORMATION AND NARRATIVES ON THE SOUTH CAUCASUS LANDSCAPES OF NARRATIVES

20.10.2017

Arzumanian V. Hrachya

Abstract. The article examines the evolution of the information space and its transformation into an information ecosystem. The development of media from printing to digital social networks is traced using the apparatus of the theory of complex adaptive systems and communication theory.

It analyzes how the formation of the information ecosystem creates structural vulnerabilities to distorted and false information, as well as narratives used as weapons. A typology of forms of false and distorted information is proposed, and the psychological and social mechanisms of its viral distribution are explored. Particular attention is paid to the differentiated vulnerability of democratic and authoritarian regimes to the threats of the information ecosystem.

In the final section of the article, the developed conceptual frameworks are applied to the South Caucasus. The absence of a shared narrative landscape is justified, as centrifugal national narratives of the region's countries present a challenge to regional security. The legacy of Sergei Parajanov is considered as a cultural point of reference, serving as a model of an inclusive narrative capable of connecting different cultures and peoples of the region.

Keywords: information ecosystem, weaponized narratives, weaponized information, fake news, disinformation, active measures, complex adaptive systems, narrative landscape, South Caucasus, filter bubbles, cognitive warfare, information warfare, post-secular era, regional security, soft authoritarianism.

Review of the article "Weaponized Information and Narratives on the Narrative Landscape of the South Caucasus"

• Subject of analysis: Transformation of the information ecosystem, information and narratives used as weapons.

The article by H. V. Arzumananyan is devoted to one of the most acute problems of the modern informational and strategic environment — the use of information and narratives as weapons (weaponized information, weaponized narratives). The work is conceptually unified: from the historical analysis of the evolution of media and the formation of the information ecosystem — through the typology of forms of false and distorted information and the mechanisms of their distribution — to the concept of weaponized narratives and its application to the South Caucasus region.

The strengths of the article include a solid theoretical framework: the author organically combines the tools of the theory of complex adaptive systems with the analysis of specific information phenomena — disinformation, active measures, bots, and filter bubbles. Particular attention is deserved by the thesis on the asymmetry of vulnerabilities. Contrary to the popular belief about the exclusive vulnerability of democracies to information attacks, the author shows that authoritarian regimes turn out to be structurally more vulnerable in conditions of acute crises — a thesis supported by an analysis of the 2017 Qatar crisis. The conceptual distinction between "weaponized information" and "weaponized narratives" also appears important: it allows moving the discussion about "fake news" into a much broader and analytically productive context.

The final section, dedicated to the narrative landscape of the South Caucasus, is the most original part of the work. The author convincingly demonstrates that the region lacks a shared narrative horizon, and each of the three countries develops centrifugal narratives that do not imply mutual movement. The analysis of the Armenian narrative strategy as inclusive — in contrast to the exclusivism of the Azerbaijani narrative — is conceptually clear and historically justified. The reference to the legacy of Sergei Parajanov as a precedent of a successful intercultural narrative is unexpected but accurate. The director's artistic language indeed puts into practice what is theoretically postulated as a condition for a possible regional dialogue.

Among the questions that the article raises without resolving is the problem of operationalizing the proposed six factors of weaponized narratives (vector, vulnerability, virulence, reach, velocity, synergy). They convincingly describe the phenomenon; however, the methodology for their measurement and application in a specific analytical context remains outside the scope of the text. In addition, the "narrative landscape of the South Caucasus" declared in the title primarily covers the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Georgian dimensions, while the Russian and Turkish narrative vectors are examined much more briefly.

Overall, the article represents a theoretically mature, conceptually original, and practically significant contribution to the study of information and cognitive warfare. It will be useful to researchers in the fields of security, political communication, cognitive and information warfare, regional studies of the South Caucasus, as well as practitioners dealing with the issues of strategic narratives.