DOCSLIB.ORG

VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY Maryna Kupriienko INFLUENCING

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY Maryna Kupriienko INFLUENCING VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT Maryna Kupriienko INFLUENCING PUBLIC OPINION IN SOCIAL MEDIA. TROLLING AND DISINFORMATION STRATEGIES Final Master Thesis Journalism and Media Industries Study Program, state code 621P50002 Degree in Journalism Supervisor prof. Robert van Voren (acad. title, name, surname) Defended prof. Šarūnas Liekis (Dean of the Faculty) Kaunas, 2019 VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS POLITIKOS MOKSLŲ IR DIPLOMATIJOS FAKULTETAS VIEŠOSIOS KOMUNIKACIJOS KATEDRA Maryna Kupriienko VIEŠOS NUOMONĖS ĮTAKA SOCIALINĖSE MEDIJOSE. TROLINIMO IR DEZINFORMACIJOS STRATEGIJOS Magistro baigiamasis darbas Žurnalistikos ir medijų industrijų studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 621P50002 Žurnalistikos studijų kryptis Vadovas (-ė) prof. Robert van Voren (Moksl. laipsnis, vardas, pavardė) Apginta prof. Šarūnas Liekis (Fakulteto/studijų instituto dekanas/direktorius) Kaunas, 2019 CONTENTS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 4 SANTRAUKA ............................................................................................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 6 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 9 1.1. Theoretical aspects of the interaction of state authorities and the media. The phenomenon of social media in modern political science ................................................................................................ 9 1.2. Social media as a tool to influence public opinion ........................................................................ 13 1.3. The artificial activity of Internet users as a way to simulate the involvement of citizens in socio- political campaigns ............................................................................................................................... 15 2. THE ROLE OF THE IRA IN RUSSIA ............................................................................................... 20 2.1. IRA experience in creating artificial activity: structure of the organisation and implementation practice ................................................................................................................................................. 20 2.2. Strategies and technologies of the IRA on social media ............................................................... 22 2.3. The geopolitical impact of the IRA: global trends ........................................................................ 23 3. REFLECTION ON ACCOMPLISHED CREATIVE APPLIED PROJECT .................................... 27 3.1 Methodological framework ............................................................................................................ 27 3.2 Propaganda and political persuasion ............................................................................................. 27 3.3 Russian interference in foreign policies ......................................................................................... 30 3.4 Evaluation of the effectiveness of mechanisms for creating artificial activity during the socio- political campaigns in Ukraine ............................................................................................................ 32 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 35 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 37 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... 41 SUMMARY Mass media has become the primary tool for the dissemination of messages that affect the public consciousness. What has not fallen into the channels of mass communication, in our time, almost does not affect the development of society. Thus, a modern person cannot escape the influence of the media. In these conditions, it becomes necessary to determine what kind of influence of mass media on public opinion formation. The thesis conceptualised around the activity of paid trolls and influencing public opinion in social media, particularly the case of IRA and focus on the problem of mapping pro-Kremlin trolls through media channels. The relevance of this research is due to the critical situation in Ukraine for the last five years as well as the case with the interference of Russia in US elections in 2016. Many are inclined to believe that all the events that occurred in early 2014 are the result of brazen manipulation of information. This research examines the trend of IRA activities, explores the opinion held by journalists and experts on trolling and disinformation strategies in social media. The purpose of the investigation is to comprehensively study the activities of the IRA and their impact on the formation of public opinion in social networks. As well it tends to determine factors of the effectiveness of the influence of Russian trolls, the synthesis of disinformation strategies and methods of forming their public opinion regarding political forces, identifying the best ways to accelerate the development of democratic, independent journalism in the state and increasing the effectiveness of its operation. Is there any difference in how Russians and Americans look at the same events, and if they do, what explains it? It revealed to analyse an example of the known state-sponsored internet propaganda used by the Russian government, the most stable ideas about the IRA distributed by the American, Russian and European media. Keywords: Russian trolls, disinformation, troll factory, Kremlin bots, information warfare. 4 SANTRAUKA Žiniasklaida tapo pagrindiniu įrankiu žinių plėtimuisi, kurios įtakoja viešą sąmonę. Tai kas nepateko į kanalus masinės komunikacijos, mūsų laikais, beveik neįtakoja visuomenės vystymosi. Nors, modernus žmogus negali išvengti medijų įtakos. Tokiomis sąlygomis, tampa būtina užtikrinti kokio tipo įtaka žiniasklaidoje formuoja viešą nuomonę. Disertacija konceptualizuoja apmokamų trolių veiklą ir įtaką viešos nuomonės socialinėse medijose, ypač IRA atveju, bei sutelkia dėmesį į kartografavimo Kremliaus trolių problemą medijų kanaluose. Aktualija šio mokslinio tyrimo yra dėl kritinės situacijos Ukrainoje per paskutinius penkis metus, taipogi dėl Rusijos trukdžių Jungtinių Amerikos Valstijų rinkimuose 2016 metais atvejo. Dauguma yra linkusi tikėti, kad visi įvykiai nutikę ankstyvuosiuose 2014 metais yra akivaizdžios informacijos manipuliacijos rezultatas. Šis mokslinis tyrimas nagrinėja IRA veiklos tendenciją, tyrinėja žurnalistų, bei ekspertų nuomonę apie „trolinimą“ bei dezinformacijos strategijas socialinėse medijose. Tyrimo tikslas išsamiai ištirti IRA veiklą ir jų poveikį formuojant viešą nuomonę socialiniuose tinkluose. Taipogi tyrimas linksta užtikrinti Rusijos „trolių“ įtakos efektyvumo faktorius, dezinformacijos strategijų sintezes ir metodus formuojant viešą nuomonę ryšium su politinėmis jėgomis, nustatyti geriausius būdus paspartinti demokratiškos nepriklausomos žurnalistikos vystymąsi šalyje ir didėjimą įtakos jos operacijose. Ar yra skirtumas tarp Rusų ir Amerikiečių žiūrinčių į vieną įvykį ir jei yra, kas tai apibūdina? Tyrimas atskleidžia tiri žinomus šalies remiamus interneto propagandos pavyzdžius naudotus Rusų vyriausybės, stabiliausias idėjas apie IRA paskirstytas Amerikiečių, Rusų, bei Europos medijų. Keywords: Rusijos troliai, dezinformacija, trolių fabrikas, kremliaus parankiniai, informacinis karas. 5 INTRODUCTION In the modern world, the struggle for markets, energy sources and the expansion of political influence continue. In this arena, the interests of states, corporations, and, ultimately, individuals, clash. In this confrontation, propaganda is an essential tool and often an effective weapon for achieving goals. Therefore, the study of the experience of conducting propaganda during political warfare, that is, at the time when it was most in demand and became, in fact, a matter of vital necessity. The importance of wars without blood, which do not cause enormous destruction, is increasing, but at the same time capable of solving the most critical political and economic problems facing several world powers. Thanks to the achievements of technological progress in the field of mass communications, radio, television, the development of social networks, the primary weapons of modern war are no longer information, but meanings and values. If information warfare as a type of warfare is widely known to people, then cognitive warfare is a new phenomenon for man, which he cannot yet resist. In the meantime, imposed meanings seep deep into society, destroying and subjugating it. Knowingly, depending on uncontrolled circumstances, the human factor significantly impairs the overall impression of the processes of informatisation. Inaccuracy, inappropriate use of data, censorship, and conscious manipulation of facts are all questions of the whole mass, all existing data. After all, for example, how much poison should be poured into a glass to be considered poisonous? Of course, two drops can and do not die, and who knows if there
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE BLACK MARKET for SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION NATO Stratcom COE Singularex
    COUNTERING THE MALICIOUS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA THE BLACK MARKET FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MANIPULATION NATO StratCom COE Singularex ISBN 978-9934-564-31-4 ISBN: 978-9934-564-31-4 Authors: NATO StratCom COE Research: Singularex Project manager: Sebastian Bay Text editor: Anna Reynolds Design: Kārlis Ulmanis Riga, November 2018 NATO STRATCOM COE 11b Kalciema iela Riga LV1048, Latvia www.stratcomcoe.org Facebook/stratcomcoe Twitter: @stratcomcoe Singularex is a Social Media Intelligence and Analytics company based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Website: www.singularex.com Email: [email protected] This publication does not represent the opinions or policies of NATO. © All rights reserved by the NATO StratCom COE. Reports may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or publicly displayed without reference to the NATO StratCom COE. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of NATO StratCom COE. NATO StratCom COE does not take responsibility for the views of authors expressed in their articles. Social media manipulation is undermining democracy, but it is also slowly undermining the social media business model. Introduction Around the turn of the decade, when the popularity of social media sites was really beginning to take off, few people noticed a secretly burgeoning trend — some users were artificially inflating the number of followers they had on social media to reap financial benefits. Even fewer noticed that organisations such as the Internet Research Agency were exploiting these new techniques for political gain. Only when this innovation in information warfare was deployed against Ukraine in 2014 did the world finally become aware of a practice that has now exploded into federal indictments,1 congressional hearings,2 and a European Union Code of Practice on Disinformation.3 At the heart of this practice, weaponised by states and opportunists alike, is a flourishing black market where buyers and sellers meet to trade in clicks, likes, and shares.
    [Show full text]
  • ASD-Covert-Foreign-Money.Pdf
    overt C Foreign Covert Money Financial loopholes exploited by AUGUST 2020 authoritarians to fund political interference in democracies AUTHORS: Josh Rudolph and Thomas Morley © 2020 The Alliance for Securing Democracy Please direct inquiries to The Alliance for Securing Democracy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States 1700 18th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 T 1 202 683 2650 E [email protected] This publication can be downloaded for free at https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/covert-foreign-money/. The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the authors alone. Cover and map design: Kenny Nguyen Formatting design: Rachael Worthington Alliance for Securing Democracy The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), a bipartisan initiative housed at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, develops comprehensive strategies to deter, defend against, and raise the costs on authoritarian efforts to undermine and interfere in democratic institutions. ASD brings together experts on disinformation, malign finance, emerging technologies, elections integrity, economic coercion, and cybersecurity, as well as regional experts, to collaborate across traditional stovepipes and develop cross-cutting frame- works. Authors Josh Rudolph Fellow for Malign Finance Thomas Morley Research Assistant Contents Executive Summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Introduction and Methodology ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Populism: Trolls and Political Polarization of Twitter in Turkey
    International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 4093–4117 1932–8036/20170005 Digital Populism: Trolls and Political Polarization of Twitter in Turkey ERGİN BULUT Koç University, Turkey ERDEM YÖRÜK Koç University, Turkey University of Oxford, UK This article analyzes political trolling in Turkey through the lens of mediated populism. Twitter trolling in Turkey has diverged from its original uses (i.e., poking fun, flaming, etc.) toward government-led polarization and right-wing populism. Failing to develop an effective strategy to mobilize online masses, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP/AKP) relied on the polarizing performances of a large progovernment troll army. Trolls deploy three features of JDP’s populism: serving the people, fetish of the will of the people, and demonization. Whereas trolls traditionally target and mock institutions, Turkey’s political trolls act on behalf of the establishment. They produce a digital culture of lynching and censorship. Trolls’ language also impacts pro-JDP journalists who act like trolls and attack journalists, academics, and artists critical of the government. Keywords: trolls, mediated populism, Turkey, political polarization, Twitter Turkish media has undergone a transformation during the uninterrupted tenure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) since 2002. Not supported by the mainstream media when it first came to power, JDP created its own media army and transformed the mainstream media’s ideological composition. What has, however, destabilized the entire media environment was the Gezi Park protests of summer 2013.1 Activists’ use of social media not only facilitated political organizing, but also turned the news environment upside down. Having recognized that the mainstream media was not trustworthy, oppositional groups migrated to social media for organizing and producing content.
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Trends in Online Foreign Influence Efforts
    Recent Trends in Online Foreign Influence Efforts Diego A. Martin, Jacob N. Shapiro, Michelle Nedashkovskaya Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey, United States E-mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Foreign governments have used social media to influence politics in a range of countries by promoting propaganda, advocating controversial viewpoints, and spreading disinformation. We analyze 53 distinct foreign influence efforts (FIEs) targeting 24 different countries from 2013 through 2018. FIEs are defined as (i) coordinated campaigns by one state to impact one or more specific aspects of politics in another state (ii) through media channels, including social media, (iii) by producing content designed to appear indigenous to the target state. The objective of such campaigns can be quite broad and to date have included influencing political decisions by shaping election outcomes at various levels, shifting the political agenda on topics ranging from health to security, and encouraging political polarization. We draw on more than 460 media reports to identify FIEs, track their progress, and classify their features. Introduction Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have changed the way people communi- cate about politics and access information on a wide range of topics (Foley 2004, Chigona et al. 2009). Social media in particular has transformed communication between leaders and voters by enabling direct politician-to-voter engagement outside traditional avenues, such as speeches and press conferences (Ott 2017). In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, for example, social media platforms were more widely viewed than traditional editorial media and were central to the campaigns of both Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump (Enli 2017).
    [Show full text]
  • Hacks, Leaks and Disruptions | Russian Cyber Strategies
    CHAILLOT PAPER Nº 148 — October 2018 Hacks, leaks and disruptions Russian cyber strategies EDITED BY Nicu Popescu and Stanislav Secrieru WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM Siim Alatalu, Irina Borogan, Elena Chernenko, Sven Herpig, Oscar Jonsson, Xymena Kurowska, Jarno Limnell, Patryk Pawlak, Piret Pernik, Thomas Reinhold, Anatoly Reshetnikov, Andrei Soldatov and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer Chaillot Papers HACKS, LEAKS AND DISRUPTIONS RUSSIAN CYBER STRATEGIES Edited by Nicu Popescu and Stanislav Secrieru CHAILLOT PAPERS October 2018 148 Disclaimer The views expressed in this Chaillot Paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or of the European Union. European Union Institute for Security Studies Paris Director: Gustav Lindstrom © EU Institute for Security Studies, 2018. Reproduction is authorised, provided prior permission is sought from the Institute and the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated. Contents Executive summary 5 Introduction: Russia’s cyber prowess – where, how and what for? 9 Nicu Popescu and Stanislav Secrieru Russia’s cyber posture Russia’s approach to cyber: the best defence is a good offence 15 1 Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan Russia’s trolling complex at home and abroad 25 2 Xymena Kurowska and Anatoly Reshetnikov Spotting the bear: credible attribution and Russian 3 operations in cyberspace 33 Sven Herpig and Thomas Reinhold Russia’s cyber diplomacy 43 4 Elena Chernenko Case studies of Russian cyberattacks The early days of cyberattacks: 5 the cases of Estonia,
    [Show full text]
  • A Biographic Case Study of Peer Production Mechanisms on Eksisozluk.Com
    User generated dissent: a biographic case study of peer production mechanisms on Eksisozluk.com Ivo Ozan Furman Goldsmiths College, University of London PhD in Sociology 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis in my own 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express gratitude to my supervisor Brian Alleyne for his encouragement and guidance that allowed me to complete this dissertation. Also, I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by David Oswell, Nirmal Puwar and Chetan Bhatt who have all contributed with their experience and knowledge to this dissertation. I wish to acknowledge the support provided by Bridget Ward and everyone else at the department of sociology at Goldsmiths. I would also like to thank Beyza for her comments and endless support throughout this long and ardous journey. My colleagues and friends in London, Berlin, Bucharest and Istanbul, thank you for putting up with me during all those frustrating moments in the past six years. You were always there for me when I needed it. 3 ABSTRACT In a public sphere wherein corporate monopolies of mass media networks prevail and anti- democratic practices suppressing the freedom of speech are the norm, the widespread adoption of the Internet in Turkey has engendered the emergence of a sphere of dissent wherein participants use social media and Web 2.0 platforms to engage in cyberactivism, participate in networked social movements, and express alternative, non-hegemonic political identities and discourses. Sözlüks, a genre of content hosting platforms that can broadly be described as urban dictionaries, are unique within this ecology insofar as they rely on collaborative mechanisms to produce and organize dissent.
    [Show full text]
  • DEFENCE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS the Official Journal of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
    ISSN 2500-9478 Volume 1 | Number 1 | Winter 2015 DEFENCE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS The official journal of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Russia’s 21st century information war. Moving past the ‘Funnel’ Model of Counterterrorism Communication. Assessing a century of British military Information Operations. Memetic warfare. The constitutive narratives of Daesh. Method for minimizing the negative consequences of nth order effects in StratCom. The Narrative and Social Media. Public Diplomacy and NATO. 11 RUSSIA’S 21ST CENTURY INFORMATION WAR: WORKING TO UNDERMINE AND DESTABILIZE POPULATIONS Timothy Thomas For many months now Russia has engaged its domestic and international audiences in a massive information campaign. The goal of the campaign is to persuade and influence local and foreign populations that Russian territorial claims in Ukraine are based on legitimate responses to world events. This media offensive has used both old and new forms of persuasion to strategically communicate its goals. This article discusses the components of Russia’s information war offensive to influence Western and domestic opinion. Russia is accomplishing this information war both at home and abroad through a number of methods that will be described in the paper. These include the use of deception, deflection of responsibility, outright lies, and the creation of an alternative reality. There is no Russian equivalent for strategic communications, so a definition of information war from a Russian perspective is offered in its place. NATO defines strategic communications in the following manner: Strategic Communication is the coordinated and appropriate use of NATO communications activities and capabilities—Public Diplomacy, Public Affairs, Military Public Affairs, Information Operations, and Psychological Operations, as appropriate—in support of Alliance policies, operations, and activities, and in order to advance NATO’s aims.1 Russia, on the other hand, does not appear to use the term strategic communications itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Characterizing Search-Engine Traffic to Internet Research Agency Web Properties
    Characterizing Search-Engine Traffic to Internet Research Agency Web Properties Alexander Spangher Gireeja Ranade Besmira Nushi Information Sciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley and Microsoft Research University of Southern California Microsoft Research Adam Fourney Eric Horvitz Microsoft Research Microsoft Research ABSTRACT The Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) carried out a broad information campaign in the U.S. before and after the 2016 presidential election. The organization created an expansive set of internet properties: web domains, Facebook pages, and Twitter bots, which received traffic via purchased Facebook ads, tweets, and search engines indexing their domains. In this paper, we focus on IRA activities that received exposure through search engines, by joining data from Facebook and Twitter with logs from the Internet Explorer 11 and Edge browsers and the Bing.com search engine. We find that a substantial volume of Russian content was apolit- ical and emotionally-neutral in nature. Our observations demon- strate that such content gave IRA web-properties considerable ex- posure through search-engines and brought readers to websites hosting inflammatory content and engagement hooks. Our findings show that, like social media, web search also directed traffic to IRA Figure 1: IRA campaign structure. Illustration of the struc- generated web content, and the resultant traffic patterns are distinct ture of IRA sponsored content on the web. Content spread from those of social media. via a combination of paid promotions (Facebook ads), un- ACM Reference Format: paid promotions (tweets and Facebook posts), and search re- Alexander Spangher, Gireeja Ranade, Besmira Nushi, Adam Fourney, ferrals (organic search and recommendations). These path- and Eric Horvitz.
    [Show full text]
  • Russia's Armed Forces Defence Capabilities and Policy
    BRIEFING Russia's armed forces Defence capabilities and policy SUMMARY Reforms launched under Vladimir Putin have restored some of the Russian armed forces' former glory. Russia now has a streamlined, mobile and mostly professional military, equipped with modern weapons. The impact of these changes was visible in Syria, Russia's first military intervention outside the post-Soviet region. Despite this increased capability, there are demographic and financial constraints on Russian military power. The armed forces are not attracting enough recruits to go fully professional, and therefore still need conscripts – who are less well-trained than career soldiers – to make up the numbers. Moscow has spent billions of dollars on new weapons, such as the innovative nuclear missiles unveiled by President Putin in 2018, but not all branches of the armed forces are equally well equipped. Russia's increasingly assertive foreign policy raises the question of how much of a threat its military represents. Officially, the role of the armed forces is to defend Russian territory, but in practice Moscow uses military force to assert control over its post-Soviet sphere of influence, for example in Ukraine. Russia also uses hybrid methods such as cyber-attacks, including against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries. NATO's overall numerical superiority means that Russia is likely to avoid all-out war with the alliance. However, the risk that it might use nuclear weapons and other niche strengths to escape retaliation for a limited attack (for example in the Baltic region) cannot be entirely discounted. IN THIS BRIEFING Military capability Russia's defence policy The Russian military in the service of foreign policy goals Arms control and non-proliferation The armed forces in Russian public opinion Russian Armata tanks at the 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow.
    [Show full text]
  • Information Literacy Vs. Fake News: the Case of Ukraine
    Open Information Science 2019; 3: 154–165 Research article Maria Haigh*, Thomas Haigh, Tetiana Matychak Information Literacy vs. Fake News: The Case of Ukraine https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2019-0011 Received October 2, 2018; accepted June 3, 2019 Abstract: We profile the successful Learn to Discern information literacy program, developed in Ukraine in 2015 and now being adapted to the needs of other countries. Drawing on published documents, interviews, and the personal knowledge of one the initiative’s designers we situate this work as a response to the particular challenges of the Ukrainian information environment following Russia’s hybrid offensive which begun in 2014 with its aggressive deployment of propaganda and so-called “fake news.” We argue that the Learn to Discern program was a coming together of three formerly separate strands: a focus on the development of modern library infrastructure, a distinctive Ukrainian model of information and media literacy, and the hands-on debunking of misinformation performed by the StopFake group. Keywords: fake news, disinformation, misinformation, Ukraine, information literacy, media literacy. 1 Introduction and Methodology This paper provides a contextualized description of the Learn to Discern information literacy program administered in Ukraine in 2015-16. We focus particularly on the connection of this program to earlier efforts to fight “fake news” in Ukraine, and to longer running efforts to develop information literacy and library infrastructure in that country. It builds on our own earlier study (Haigh, Haigh, & Kozak, 2017) describing initial attempts to fight a flood of misinformation produced by Russia in 2014 by the volunteer journalist group StopFake, one of the key contributors to the new program.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Strategic Intentions
    APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE Russian Strategic Intentions A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) White Paper May 2019 Contributing Authors: Dr. John Arquilla (Naval Postgraduate School), Ms. Anna Borshchevskaya (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy), Dr. Belinda Bragg (NSI, Inc.), Mr. Pavel Devyatkin (The Arctic Institute), MAJ Adam Dyet (U.S. Army, J5-Policy USCENTCOM), Dr. R. Evan Ellis (U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute), Mr. Daniel J. Flynn (Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)), Dr. Daniel Goure (Lexington Institute), Ms. Abigail C. Kamp (National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)), Dr. Roger Kangas (National Defense University), Dr. Mark N. Katz (George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government), Dr. Barnett S. Koven (National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)), Dr. Jeremy W. Lamoreaux (Brigham Young University- Idaho), Dr. Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University), Dr. Christopher Marsh (Special Operations Research Association), Dr. Robert Person (United States Military Academy, West Point), Mr. Roman “Comrade” Pyatkov (HAF/A3K CHECKMATE), Dr. John Schindler (The Locarno Group), Ms. Malin Severin (UK Ministry of Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC)), Dr. Thomas Sherlock (United States Military Academy, West Point), Dr. Joseph Siegle (Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University), Dr. Robert Spalding III (U.S. Air Force), Dr. Richard Weitz (Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute), Mr. Jason Werchan (USEUCOM Strategy Division & Russia Strategic Initiative (RSI)) Prefaces Provided By: RDML Jeffrey J. Czerewko (Joint Staff, J39), Mr. Jason Werchan (USEUCOM Strategy Division & Russia Strategic Initiative (RSI)) Editor: Ms.
    [Show full text]
  • DEFENCE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS the Official Journal of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
    Volume 7 | Autumn 2019 DEFENCE STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS The official journal of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Cyril Ramaphosa’s Strategic Presidency Sanctions—Strategic Miscommunications? The Case of Iran Blue Amazon: Brazil’s Maritime Vocation Global Rorschach Test: Responding to China’s Belt & Road Initiative War and Truth The Elephant in The Room: Measurement of Effect ISSN: 2500-9486 DOI: 10.30966/2018.RIGA.7 Defence Strategic Communications | Volume 7 | Autumn 2019 DOI 10.30966/2018.RIGA.7.5. WAR AND TRUTH 133 A Review Essay by James P. Farwell Ukraine and the Art of Strategy Lawrence Freedman. Oxford University Press, 2019 This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality Peter Pomerantsev. Public Affairs, 2019 Keywords—European Union, hybrid warfare, information operations, information warfare, Internet Research Agency, Maidan, NATO, propaganda, Putin, Russia, social media, strategic communications, Ukraine About the Author James Farwell is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington and an Associate Fellow at King’s Centre for Strategic Communications. He is the author of Persuasion & Power (2012), The Pakistan Cauldron (2011) and forthcoming Information Warfare. Defence Strategic Communications | Volume 7 | Autumn 2019 DOI 10.30966/2018.RIGA.7.5. 1 134 In Ukraine and the Art of Strategy, Lawrence Freedman offers his take onRussian strategy in Crimea and eastern Ukraine; he also discusses Syria and comments on strategic theory. Peter Pomerantsev follows up on his fascinating jaunt of 2014 into Russian political surrealism2 with This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality.3 Writing vividly, Pomerantsev’s book centres on how social media foment confusion and disinformation to create disruption, eroding confidence in public and private institutions and making it difficult for people to discern the truth about ideas or events.
    [Show full text]