Fellow Travelers: Managing Savagery and The Gerasimov Doctrine

Great article and one of those items do not think have seen looked at in such a way!
"A result of this focus on local populations and the coercion thereof is the centrality of information warfare, not as an adjunct to military operations but as a central focus. The ISIS information warfare manual explicitly states that information warfare is just as important as military operations. The manual details a three-part method aimed at local populations under actual or prospective ISIS control as well as actual and prospective enemies (“Crusaders”). The point is to enhance the attractiveness of ISIS while attempting to “shatter the morale of the enemy.”[10] The manual reiterates Naji’s belief in the strategic utility of sensational depictions of violence. For example, The Management of Savagery includes an entire section called “Using Violence” that details such methods.[11]

Russian methods mirror this belief in the importance of information warfare. Gerasimov thinks non-military means should be employed four times as much as military means.[12] Information warfare comes naturally for Russia as an extension of a strategic tradition rooted in Russian communist thought. "