America’s Soft Target: How Division Became the New Weapon

Intelligence house divided Divided America

America’s greatest vulnerability is not a foreign missile or a cyber exploit. It is internal division. When citizens begin to see one another as enemies, the idea of America—liberty, equality, and human dignity—weakens from within. Adversaries have recognized this for decades. Today, they actively seek to amplify polarization, exploit identity politics, and spread conspiracy theories to erode trust in American institutions.

Division as Strategic Target

The Soviet Union pioneered “active measures” to destabilize Western democracies by amplifying social fractures. Thomas Rid has shown how these campaigns used forged documents, propaganda, and rumor to pit citizens against each other. Modern adversaries have updated those tactics with digital tools. Russia, China, and Iran use social media networks to spread divisive narratives, often with the intent of discrediting U.S. democracy abroad while weakening unity at home.1

Polarization offers adversaries a low-cost, high-return strategy. Every time Americans distrust election results, dismiss legitimate institutions, or attack one another in the digital space, the nation becomes more vulnerable.

Identity Politics as Leverage

Diversity can be a source of strength, but it also provides adversaries with opportunities to exploit existing tensions. Chinese information campaigns often target minority communities, using narratives that question whether the United States truly lives up to its ideals. Russia has spread disinformation designed to inflame racial and political grievances. Both seek to convince Americans that their system is hypocritical and broken.

Mary Dudziak’s research demonstrates that during the Cold War, U.S. policymakers recognized how racial inequality undermined American credibility abroad. The lesson remains: domestic divisions are not only a social problem but also a security risk.2

Conspiracy as Destabilization

Conspiracy theories are particularly effective because they exploit psychological vulnerabilities. Forensic psychology research shows that individuals who feel marginalized or powerless are more likely to adopt conspiratorial beliefs. Foreign actors manipulate this tendency, planting or amplifying theories that erode trust in elections, vaccines, or national leadership. Once embedded, these narratives are difficult to dislodge.3

The spread of conspiracy-driven movements also creates insider threat risks. Individuals who adopt extreme worldviews may rationalize acts of sabotage or violence, believing they serve a higher cause. This blurs the line between information warfare and physical security threats.

National Unity as Defense

The most effective counter to these operations is not censorship but resilience. National unity rooted in shared values serves as a form of counterintelligence defense. Citizens who trust one another and their institutions are harder to divide. A society committed to liberty, equality, and accountability is less likely to fall prey to manipulation.

The Founders anticipated this challenge. In Federalist No. 10, James Madison warned of factions and the dangers of division, but he also believed that a large republic could manage those tensions by binding citizens together under common principles. That wisdom remains relevant in the digital age.4

Bottom Line

America’s adversaries do not need to defeat it militarily if they can persuade its citizens to distrust one another. Division has become a weapon in modern strategic competition. Protecting the American idea requires not only defending borders and networks but also rebuilding civic trust. Unity is not a luxury. It is security.

Notes

  1. Thomas Rid, Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), 290–94.

  2. Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 39–42.

  3. Karen M. Douglas et al., “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories,” Current Directions in Psychological Science26, no. 6 (2017): 538–42.

  4. James Madison, Federalist No. 10, in The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York: Signet Classics, 2003), 71–77.

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Shane McNeil is a doctoral student at the Institute of World Politics, specializing in statesmanship and national security. As the Counterintelligence Policy Advisor on the Joint Staff, Mr. McNeil brings a wealth of expertise to the forefront of national defense strategies. In addition to his advisory role, Mr. McNeil is a prolific freelance and academic writer, contributing insightful articles on data privacy, national security, and creative counterintelligence. He also shares his knowledge as a guest lecturer at the University of Maryland, focusing on data privacy and secure communications. Mr. McNeil is also the founding director of the Sentinel Research Society (SRS) - a university think tank dedicated to developing creative, unconventional, and non-governmental solutions to counterintelligence challenges. At SRS, Mr. McNeil hosts the Common Ground podcast and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Sentinel Journal. All articles written by Mr. McNeil are done in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Department of Defense, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the United States government.