Religion ideology, and information warfare

This paper is primarily conceptual, but it also provides a summary of key prior research on the causes of war and an analysis of some relationships between religion and warfare. It proposes that religion, ideology, and belief systems are the ultimate preferred targets of information warfare. An operational definition of religion is proposed, which merges ideas of religion and ideology. Beliefs in things such as the desirability of allowing market forces to prevail, or preference for representative democracy, have the same characteristics as religions, and the creation and maintenance of such beliefs are key objectives of information warfare. Epidemiological theory is proposed as one framework for understanding how to achieve the spread of ideas, and how populations can also develop a 'natural' resistance to ideas about the desirability of the objectives of information warfare. A key proposition is that at present economic ideology probably kills far more people today than the total of religious extremism.