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15CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES AND IDEOLOGY Gagik Harutyunyan
Security issues in information warfare have become relevant in parallel to development of strategies for such warfare. Already in 1996 the US President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection was established to deal with information sector critical infrastructures protection. The results of two years of the commission's work allowed to uncover information security vulnerabilities and served a basis to develop relevant policies in the area. This was followed by a presidential decree which established a number of programs aiming at increased information security in political and military governance, information and communication, finance, energy and water supply, police and rescue and other systems. In turn, in the mentioned "critical" areas the "critical infrastructures" were determined, damage to which could impair their functions. Most of the problems in these areas were related to unhindered operation of technical, electronic and computer devices.
At the same time, as it follows from the doctrines of the "second and third generation" information warfare, "color revolutions", "controlled chaos" and generally total hybrid warfare, there are information challenges not only for technical and technological devices, but also for intellectual and spiritual aspects of individuals, nations and societies. It is then logical to develop protection mechanisms also for areas and structures that ensure security of human activities and normal spiritual/intellectual development. First thing in this regard is to determine which are the most important areas and structures that would be assigned the status of "critical". It is not easy to do, because unlike technical systems, which operate under certain rules or formulas, in this case civilizational peculiarities, values, mindsets and in-depth uniqueness of both individuals and the society as a whole need to be considered, along with their
* Executive Director, Noravank Foundation.
similarities with other societies. It is no coincidence then, that the American experts consider the protection of American values as the key objective.
Worded differently, there can be no universal recipes in the "human-societal" area. Each society has to try to know and determine themselves what the critical infrastructures are and how to protect their security. Such approaches are widespread presently. For example, the military doctrine of Israel considers structures of national symbolism as critical infrastructures, such as Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, temples, etc1.
It should be noted that discussion of the mentioned issues relates to the defensive system for the society, whereas war also implies offensive operations. In this case there is a need for comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the necessary aspects of the hypothetical adversary's society. It is relevant to recall a quote by ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu: "Know thy self, know thy enemy."
It is also important to consider that in the modern era of multipolar conflicts information warfare is continuous, creating additional problems both for the defending and attacking parties. To effectively survive in such war, the defender has to carry out information-societal mobilization policy. Some scholars see creation of a solid, modern and flexible ideological system in the society as the means of such policy. Particularly, a starting point for this could be one of the modern definitions of ideology: "a complex of instructions to ensure the most effective mode and interconnection"2. This very dynamic, algorithmic definition by V. Yanko may be applicable also for national and particularly, information security problems. In order to discuss the mentioned matters with most clarity, let us briefly examine the role of ideological provisions in various countries and their relation to the national security issues in these societies.
Establishment of multi-ideology: ideology as a term was first coined n early 19th century by Antoine Destutt de Tracy, a member of elite scientific center called Institut de France3. I n classical phrasing ideology is defined as "system
1 Гриняев С, О взгляде на проблему безопасности критической инфраструктуры в государстве Израиль, http://www.csef.ru/index.php/ru/component/csef/project/-/-/-?id=3229.
2Янко В.А., http://yanko.lib.ru
3 Institute as a term also emerged in this period. Incidentally Napoleon Bonaparte was also a member of the Institut de France.
of beliefs on society, individual and surrounding world". This definition can be taken as a theoretical basis for Yanko's algorithm of "complex of instructions to ensure the most effective mode and interconnection", which implies actions.
It is commonly accepted that there are two fundamental universal ideologies: socialist (with main principle of social equality in the society) and liberal (with main principle of individual liberty). Such categorization is due to the fact that the principles forming these two ideologies were used to one or another degree by almost all societies, regardless of their ethnic, religious, or general civilizational backgrounds. Unlike these two, the national-conservative ideologies are based on a specific society's national-civilizational value system, ideas about identity and traditions. So-called "hybrid" ideologies also emerge, an example of which was German National Socialism that can be considered a crossbreed of extremist national-conservative and socialist approaches.
Over time ideologies evolve, although their fundamental tenets stay relatively unchanged. Sometimes this ends up with positive results, sometimes not. However, the worst perils appear when an ideology gains long-term monopoly and absolute dominance in a society. As a rule, this leads to grave consequences for a given country. The classic examples of this phenomenon are National Socialism of the Third Reich and totalitarian-bureaucratic version of socialism in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the historical evidence shows that the societies, which are able to jointly apply liberal, socialist and national-conservative ideologies in well-thought proportions experience significant development and advancement. The "multi-ideology" system running in this pattern has been called "ideological triad" [1]. Such triad increases the society's various resources, especially the spiritual and intellectual ones, while making the political system flexible both in internal and external affairs. Naturally, these factors boost the levels of national and information security. It is also known that turning ideas into ideology is virtually impossible without complex information activities. In turn, ideology tenets provide for content of information space, and thus, its protection from external information interventions.
In the context of the all above mentioned we will attempt to assess and compare the effectiveness of some societies depending on their information/ ideology characteristics.
Anglo-American technologies: The British model is a good example of effective and competitive "multi-ideology" system, which was introduced to one or another extent in all English-speaking countries. The societies in these countries are characterized by ideological open-mindedness. Conservative (national-conservative) and Labour (socially-oriented) idea bearers had developed mutually complementary mechanisms and jointly work in a liberal ideology framework, which is native to the Anglo-Saxon mindset. This factor contributed to the strategic achievements of the British Empire (and the United States, which is often viewed as the successor of the British Empire) and it appears to be the reason why this community is able to maintain it status of global leader for the last several centuries.
Interestingly, perhaps due historical development peculiarities of the USA, though borrowing the British political logic, the US ignored the importance of political force of socialist type ideology. As a result, the uncontrolled growth of liberalism and consumerism is causing serious problems, due to which the USA has started to lose its positions of a global leader. The existence of ideological shortcomings seems to have been acknowledged by the American elite and, perhaps, this was the reason why Bernie Sanders with his socialist orientations was able to make inroads into 2016 presidential elections. Moreover, there is an impression that the winner of elections, Donald Trump, appears to be countering extremal liberalism and as such reminds somewhat the Soviet leader N. Khrushchev, who tried to substantially reform the totalitarian communist system.
Chinese Model: From the ideological perspective, the phenomenon of the "Chinese miracle" is worth a special attention. Mere 30 years ago the mono-ideologist China was far behind the developed countries. The situation took a dramatic turn, when Deng Xiaoping, former associate of Mao Zedung, introduced elements of liberal and national-conservative (Confucian) ideologies in the one-party system, once he became the factual leader of PRC. Remarkably, in parallel to this, all advantages stemming from the "dominant" socialist ideology were retained. Characteristically, even in this universal teaching they tend to maintain the tenets developed by Mozi, a 5th century
philosopher and thinker, who is considered the founder of Chinese socialism. In other words, socialism has been adapted to Chinese traditions and mindset. As a result, China became a superpower and a leading country in economy, military and technologies. The achievements of China are also attributed to meritocracy1 in administrative/political system, whereby the most able and prepared people must be assigned to the leadership positions.
Islam and Liberalism: There is a trend of strengthening religious conservative ideas in the Muslim world, the extremist manifestation of which is the Islamic State. Interestingly, the countries that were able to combine religious traditionalism (which contains also ideas of social justice) with liberal and national approaches, improved their conditions significantly. Among such countries, Iran is worth a particular attention, where fundamentalist Islam, Persian national-civilizational traditions and democratic and economic liberalism elements were combined in certain proportions. As a result, Iran has become a regional leader and is one of the diversely developing countries in the international arena. It has to be noted that insufficient competitiveness of some Muslim countries is often due to their lack of intellectual resources. However, Iran develops its own space and nuclear programs, and has achieved impressive results in nanotechnologies. The principles of meritocracy are applied in this country in a somewhat original way. Particularly, in the government system an important role is played by the Council of Experts and Expediency Discernment Council of the System. This multi-ideological system allowed Iran to survive through decades of Western sanctions (somewhat eased only in 2015) and counter any attempts of "color revolution."
Continental Europe: Traditionally in Europe an important role is played by liberal and socialist parties. The latter number in several dozen and were able to achieve impressive social welfare results. At the same time, the pan-European national-conservative approaches have little say in the EU, for understandable reasons. Moreover, the nationally oriented parties of European countries often oppose the EU migration programs, due to crises related to the immigration problems. Perhaps this is the reason why EU is outplayed by the
1 Meritocracy ( Latin meritus: earned, deserved) - rule of the deserving ones.
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USA by military-political power and geopolitical influence, despite having the same economic potential.
Ideological Revolutions in Russia: Along with bearers of national and liberal ideas, there are many adherents of socialism in the Russian society, the basis of which is commonly deemed to rest in the traditional lifestyle of the Russian rural community. The ideological conflicts in Russian realities had led to revolutions (1917 socialist, 1991 liberal) with all associated effects and dominance of the winner ideology. Consequently, Russia that has all preconditions and ambitions to be a global leader, instead finds itself in difficult conditions over the last 100 years. Knowing this, the current Russian leadership attempts to combine various ideological movements. In this country, other than the survived Communist Party there is socially-oriented party A Just Russia and conservative United Russia.
In any case, it has to be stated that unfavorable ideological realities have seriously impacted the development of Russian society and in that context even also the whole Slavic community.
The Israeli Experience: The "ideological triad" works effectively not only in large countries. For example, in Israel, which is under constant conflict situation, the "ideological triad" is represented in well-thought proportions. In the first years of its creation, Israel established about 200 kibbutzim that still exist. Kibbutz is an agricultural community, which also functions as border guard armed force. The property in kibbutz is owned collectively and the results of joint work are distributed equally, which reminds the Soviet collective farms. Kibbutzim were created through a peculiar symbiosis of national-conservative (sometimes orthodox) and socialist ideologies. Such symbiosis ensured high patriotic spirit of border guards, much contributed by socialist principle of equality (including material equality), which in addition contains an organizational/mobilization factor.
It follows from the above mentioned examples that harmony and con-gruency of the ideological field predetermine the effectiveness of the national strategy. This implies that the ideology and its parameters in the national and information security have to be accepted as primary critical area.
However, as it is known, security is not a static defense, but a strategy of constructive actions. Therefore, if the society's ideological framework does not meet the security requirements and thus, does not promote the spiritual/ intellectual and socioeconomic development, then the only method of protection is to form an adequate ideological framework through information/public technologies.
It is also important that theoretical and practical concepts of universal ideologies evolve among a wide segment of the international community, which allows even the societies that possess no adequate resources to make use of them. However, the situation with national-conservative ideology is somewhat different, because the solution of theoretical and content related matters is mostly the task of a specific society.
As it has already been mentioned, the national-conservative ideology (NCI) is based on national, civilizational and religious value system, identity ideas and historical traditions of a specific society. NCI, as well as the other ideologies turn into an influential factor when they become part of the public consciousness, and that is possible only through information means. Of course, the primary task in this matter is the development of the main tenets of such ideology. Yet it does not mean that a relevant system can be formed only after finalization of NCI tenets, as their creation and development imply continuous improvement and practical testing of their effectiveness. Under such approach the main objectives of the internal information/psychological activities could be the following:
• Introduction of certain NCI tenets in the information space of the society,
• Protection of NCI tenets against any external and internal distortions,
• Propagation of NCI concepts in the external information space, in the context of national interests.
At the same time, as a component of the "ideological triad," which is an information security critical area, NCI has to be perceived as a "critical infrastructure" by itself, because it performs the functions of developing and maintaining the national identity and system of values.
However, as already mentioned, the value system of a society is not a static category. It undergoes modifications depending on historical, military-
political, as well as evolutionary or revolutionary developments of the society. Currently, any society's value system is substantially influenced by both targeted and chaotic information flows, which quite significantly contribute to forming the global community's way of thinking, mindset, and thus also system of values. These realities are characteristic also to the Armenian society.
Ideological Issues in the Armenian Society: Obviously, the Armenian value system that has unique civilizational properties is one of the cornerstones, thanks to which our national and historical continuity was ensured. At the same time, due to geopolitical and revolutionary processes that occurred during the last 200 years, the Armenian society has changed its public-ideological environment several times. These included the Persian rule, Russian Empire, First, Second and Third Republics, to name a few. Consequently, the society's system of values has undergone considerable, sometimes contradictory transformations of content.
The communism tenets, forced upon the society of the Second Republic in 1920-30s, later were transformed substantially and adapted to the possible extent to the ideas of the national value system. However, currently many of those are in conflict with the quite vulgarized and oversimplified tenets of liberal ideology present in our society.
The study of society's system of values is an urgent matter. In this context many international organizations conduct vast research throughout the world. For example, the World Values Survey1 study indicates that the population of the Republic of Armenia is in the cultural domain of the South Asian and ex-Communist countries, where traditional and survival values prevail. However, it has to be stated that any perceptions about the system of values in Armenia and Armenian diaspora are general and emotional, and are far from being scientifically substantiated.
Once again it needs to be emphasized that NCI and policy connections and their practical applications are hard to imagine without a relevant information policy, and this is true not only for values system related matters. In particular, if the coverage of Soviet period in domestic media is considered
1 See worldvaluessurvey.org
from the information security perspective, it is obvious that there are serious problems related to one of the cornerstones of information security - preservation of the historical memory. Societies that lose their historical base are most prone to information/psychological influences, and in this regard it is pertinent to quote a Chinese proverb: "Forgetting history means betrayal."
The views on the Second republic voiced in the information space bear mainly "tragic" or "sarcastic" overtones and remind the Bolshevik style, when anything related to the First republic had to be condemned. Perhaps Carl Schmitt was right, contending that "philosophical paradigms of Marxism and liberal ideological/economic demonism are the same."
As far as assessment of the Second republic is concerned, the mentioned approaches constitute distortion of the objective history, because in addition to its negative and tragic aspects, Soviet Armenia created a powerful scientific, technological and industrial system, experienced demographic growth, formed a creative society with high educational and moral levels.
It has to be clearly realized that history of any country is not just that of its political regime, but also the history of its society and people. In this context it must be admitted that the Armenian society took its share of political, military and revolutionary calamities with high dignity. Boris Kagarlitsky, a prominent intellectual and political scientist, who, incidentally, is a former prisoner of Mordovian labor camps, has noticed felicitously that disparaging the Soviet history is first of all a betrayal of the memory of the Soviet regime's victims [2].
No attempt is made here to idealize our not so distant past, as it makes no sense to idealize or demonize any historical period. At the same time it has to be understood that the First republic was the basis of the Second one, which in its turn paved the way to the Third republic, and this continuity must be interpreted and dealt with accordingly.
April, 2017
References
1. Арутюнян Г., Распад «системы» и формирование будущего, НОФ «Нораванк», Ереван, 2011.
2. Кагарлицкий Б., Политология революции, Москва, Алгоритм, 2007.
