The Policy of Ensuring the Information and Psychological Security of the CSTO in the Context of Global Strategic Competition

By now, it has been widely acknowledged that the global processes of digitalization, which began approximately in the second quarter of the twentieth century, have led to a radical rethinking of the theoretical and methodological foundations of contemporary conflicts, as well as of political practice in the field of international security. The modern round of strategic competition, in which the post-Soviet space is one of the main arenas of international confrontation, is characterized by the widespread use of a complex of hybrid methods of influencing the enemy, in which information and psychological influence occupy a central place. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is currently the only mechanism for ensuring collective security in the post-Soviet space, therefore, the intensification of joint efforts of the member states in the field of ensuring collective information and psychological security is today one of the priorities of the organization’s activities. The aim of the present article is twofold: firstly, to identify the place and role of the information and psychological component in the collective security system at the CSTO level; and secondly, to formulate a theoretical and methodological platform for raising the political status of these issues on the agenda of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly (CSTO PA) (in the coming years. In addition to the general scientific methodology (analysis, synthesis, induction, analogy), special methods and approaches (comparative analysis, content analysis, critical discourse analysis, document analysis, informational and non-functional approaches) were employed in the research. In addition to official documents, domestic and foreign scientific literature on the research topic, the author used working materials from meetings of the Expert Advisory Council at the CSTO PA, of which he is a member. The article provides a comprehensive perspective on the formation and isolation of the information and psychological components of collective security within the CSTO and, for the first time, an analysis of information and psychological security from the perspective of the current agenda of the CSTO PA. The role of the information factor in modern conditions of strategic competition is revealed. The theoretical contours of information and psychological security are defined, and the author’s definition of this concept is given. The information and psychological aspects of ensuring collective security at the CSTO level are investigated. The results of the analysis of issues related to the provision of information and psychological security in the current Program of Activities of the CSTO PA are presented. In 2025, the Program of Activities of the CSTO PA on the Approximation and Harmonization of National Legislation of the Member States for 2021-2025 is being completed. The conducted research contributes to the development of draft legislative initiatives for inclusion in the Program of Activities of the CSTO PA for 2026-2030.