<![CDATA[Cognitive warfare has transformed crisis communication by making public perception, institutional credibility, and decision-making capacity central targets within contested information environments. This study aimed to examine how strategic communication supports crisis governance, strengthens public trust, and calibrates threat perception under conditions of information manipulation and cognitive pressure. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, combining a survey of 420 adults, interviews with 24 professionals, and analysis of 96 official crisis communication materials. The findings showed that strategic communication quality, particularly transparency, consistency, evidence attribution, responsiveness, and acknowledgment of uncertainty, was positively associated with institutional trust and negatively associated with information uncertainty. Exposure to contested information was related to stronger threat perception, while cognitive resilience weakened the influence of repeated or emotionally charged narratives on threat judgments. Qualitative findings further indicated that trust was strengthened when institutions explained evidentiary changes, coordinated messages across agencies, and corrected information transparently. The study concludes that strategic communication should function as an integrated component of crisis governance rather than as post-decision messaging. Effective threat perception management requires perception calibration, not perception control, by combining credible information, transparent uncertainty management, institutional coordination, and citizen cognitive resilience within democratic communication systems during complex and rapidly evolving crises.]]>
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