The Mental Component of Military Security in a New Type of War: A Philosophical Analysis

Identificator

EDN: PLLHVG ; УДК: 355.01

Authors

Kovalev Andrey Andreevich, PhD in Political Science, associate professor, North-Western Institute of Management – Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation. Russia, St. Petersburg. ORCID: 0000-0002-7760-5732. E-mail: kovalev-aa@ranepa.ru

Journal

HERALD OF VYATKA STATE UNIVERSITY №3 (157), 2025

Section

PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES

Pages

21-29

Abstract

Interstate confrontation in the 21st century shifts a significant part of the struggle into the sphere of representations, memory, language codes, and emotional attitudes; therefore, military security is no longer limited to military-technical parameters. The problem arises of describing mental security as an element of military security, since influencing the criteria for evaluating events and the ability to make decisions achieves strategic results without direct armed conflict. The purpose of the study is to consider mental security as a most important element of the military security of the state in conditions of a new type of war and to propose a working definition suitable for philosophical and interdisciplinary discussion. The methodological base includes the systemic method (correlating mental security with military and national security), the categorization of key concepts, and the dialectical method, which makes it possible to capture the change in the forms of confrontation and their semantic consequences. The results obtained consist in clarifying the content of mental security: it is understood as the ability of a person and of social groups to maintain independence of evaluation and choice under prolonged informational-psychological and mental influence, to maintain their own criteria for evaluating messages and decisions amid a high density of competing narratives, and to retain the capacity for reflection and the verification of meanings. The connection of mental security with mental warfare as a form of confrontation oriented toward changing the system of evaluations and imposing models of behaviour is shown. The conclusions of the study confirm that mental security is a necessary element of military security that affects society's capacity for prolonged confrontation, and the practical significance of the results is connected with the training of personnel, educational courses, and the development of measures aimed at reducing susceptibility to imposed evaluations.

Keywords

mental security mentality new type of wars military security mental warfare non-kinetic threats semantic space

Recieved

20.05.2025

Published

16.07.2026

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