The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, Dr. Joanna Siekiera discusses how China is integrating itself into global affairs from a lawfare perspective.

Research Question: Joanna Siekiera suggests an interested student ask: “Why”? Students should always start research from this question as it will help you understand who is benefiting from certain actions and omissions. In which domain are they benefiting? What are the true interests? And who is paying for all of that? We must stay pragmatic in order to see the true, not anticipatory research outcomes.

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #150 Jill Goldenziel on China and the Philippines
  • #151 Daniel Runde on Chinese Soft Power
• Seafloor Mining
• Dragons in the West: Chinese Communist Party Threats in Europe and the Imperative of a Strategic Pivot by Joanna Siekiera
• What We Know About Deep-sea Mining — And What We Don’t
• "21st Century as the Pacific Century: Culture and Security of Oceania States in Great Power Competition" by Joanna Siekiera
• "Security in Indo-Pacific and development of Oceania: Commonwealth’s presence in the region" by Joanna Siekiera

Link to full show notes and resources

Guest Bio: Joanna Siekiera is an international lawyer, legal advisor, Doctor of Public Policy. She is a fellow at the Marine Corps University and NATO Maritime Security Center of Excellence in Türkiye. Her areas of expertise are law of armed conflict (lawfare, legal culture in armed conflict, NATO legal framework) and the Indo-Pacific region, and Pacific law.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org.

Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, Vygotsky was a seminal figure in Soviet Psychology. His multi-staged—social learning theory of cognitive development—has influenced generations of cognitive psychologists.

Our discussion today focuses on Vygotsky’s frequently overlooked and generally under-estimated concept of inner speech: or the use of internal words (and their idiosyncratic meanings) that differ in structure & function from the same words used in external speech—which are developed for public consumption.

For Vygotsky, inner speech serves as an important catalyst and a dynamic process of adaptation linking the “self” to society—not only for acquiring social or conventional word meaning in external language, but for eventually establishing private or personal word meaning—that fosters one’s self identity. For Vygotsky, inner speech is the primary tool for mentation—the ability to think conceptually through language.

Vygotsky’s internal language and inner speech mediate the differences between public and private thought. In this sense, inner speech is an indispensable, private tool of comprehension: a clandestine, personal shorthand that fires memory, evokes macro-concepts represented by word meanings, and serves as the catalyst for individual identity—through the continually developing concept of self.

Research Question: Rod Korda suggests an interested student investigate: a participatory way of developing a framework to measure word meaning–especially in a cultural context. If successful, this kind of tool can become an input into measuring messaging effectiveness.

Resources:

• YouTube Presentation

Link to full show notes and resources

Guest Bio:

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org.

Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.