Civilian Resiliency in the Cognitive Warfare Domain: Lessons Learned from Estonia

This episode of Pendulum's The Swing, hosted by Heather Bakken, features Peeter Tali, who is a member of Estonia's parliament and former head of the Estonian Ministry of Defence's Strategic Communications Department, alongside Balkan Devlen, principal in Pendulum's geopolitical practice and a leading Canadian expert on international security, NATO, and geopolitical risk.

Drawing on Estonia's front-line experience countering the weaponization of information, Tali shares practical lessons for building civilian resiliency, including embedding media literacy, AI awareness, and civics education into school curricula, as well as fostering the national pride and cultural touchstones that adversaries so often target.

Devlen underscores that democracies must not only talk about allied cooperation but actively invest in it, echoing Benjamin Franklin's warning that "if we don't hang together, we'll be hung separately."

Tali and Devlen explain how Russia, in particular, is in a continuous state of information confrontation in the Cognitive Warfare domain. While there is a kinetic war in Ukraine, there is a shadow war with the rest of Europe and the Kremlin is constantly attacking freedom of speech, democracy and the rule of law to divide society, break the will of the people and prevail through diplomatic, informational, military and economic means.

The discussion underscores a shared sense of urgency for allied nations to act now to protect against this weaponization of information because information warfare using AI will be a tsunami that makes the digital disruption seem like a ripple on the water. Building resilience as allies, as institutions, and as individuals cannot wait.