File Notes on Information, Communication, and Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] (#94)
August 2, 2018, Seen on the Web 4296-4418
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In the News
1. ON CAPITOL HILL
2. ASPEN SECURITY FORUM\
3. ELECTION 2016 CONTROVERSIES
4. ELECTIONS
Elements of Informational Power
5. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
6. LOOKING BACK AT USIA
7. BROADCASTING
8. INFORMATION OPERATIONS
9. PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
10. D-I-M-E FRAMEWORK
Professional Topics
11. DISINFORMATION, FAKE NEWS
12. SOCIAL MEDIA, INTERNET
13. CYBER
14. FACT CHECKING
15. SOFT POWER
16. HYBRID WARFARE
17. INFORMATION WARFARE
18. NARRATIVE
19. COUNTERINSURGENCY
20. IMAGEFARE, MEMES
21. MEDIA SAVVY, EDUCATION, JUDGMENT
22. IDEAS, CONCEPTS, AND DOCTRINE
23. IDEAS OF AMERICA
Countries, Regions, Case Studies
24. NATO
25. RUSSIA
26. SOVIET UNION
27. UKRAINE
28. CHINA
29. NORTH KOREA
30. AUSTRAILIA
31. HUNGARY
32. MYANMAR
33. SAUDI ARABIA
34. ISLAMIC STATE
Precepts
In the News
1. ON CAPITOL HILL
· House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) issued the following statement: “I disagree with the president’s comments. There is simply no comparing the actions of the United States and Vladimir Putin. While the United States promotes democracy and human rights, Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine, backed Assad’s gas attacks on the Syrian people, and used cyber-attacks and propaganda campaigns to undermine our democracy. Putin’s actions, and his alone, are why U.S.-Russia relations are at a low point.
Ed Royce, Foreign Affairs Committee, July 16, 2018
· U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for reelection this year, was targeted by Russian government hackers who sought but failed to compromise her Senate computer network. “Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy,” McCaskill said in a press release Thursday evening. “While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a thug and a bully.”
Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post, July 26, 2018
Hearing, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, China’s Threat to American Government and Private Sector Research and Innovation Leadership, July 19, 2018
· America’s strategic competition with China involves economic, military, and technological domains, and it’s important to note that this competition is playing out in fundamentally different ways from the U.S.-Soviet competition during the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union had minimal interaction in the economic and academic spheres, as the two sides maintained strict barriers to mutual trade and academic exchanges. Today, by contrast, the United States and China are deeply intertwined in economic, trade, academic, and other realms, posing unique challenges for the United States across a range of areas.
Rep. Devin Nunes (Committee Chair), July 19, 2018
· While there are compelling reasons to welcome Chinese students to the U.S. – and to encourage them to stay and contribute to American innovation – it is clear that there are instances when the U.S. education system has been exploited in ways that are problematic at best or, at worst, even contribute to Chinese military modernization.
Elsa Kania (Center for New American Security), July 19, 2018
· . . . this well-endowed research typically moves from science fair to “publish or perish” for the professor or researcher, and unfortunately is then handed to the Chinese or Russians free of charge on the internet. And then again as it is often cited, “what we don’t give away, is otherwise stolen through cyber theft by these same international pirates!”
* * *
The world changes, everything changes. China may dominate the world. But it won’t have to use its military. When it’s GDP surpasses Americas, it will dominate the world economically by a margin far more than the United States currently has. At that point China will be the new leader of the world. All decisions between countries on the subjects of peace, trade, environment, borders, laws, and human rights would defer to China. Because more than ever, the new golden rule applies: He who has the gold, rules. And the country with the dominant GDP has the gold and the good jobs.”
Jim Phillips (NanoMech, Inc.), July 19, 2018
· Today, one-third of all foreign students in the U.S. are Chinese foreign nationals and 25% of our graduate STEM students are Chinese foreign nationals. Some have access to research funded by the U.S. military and work in our national laboratories despite efforts to ensure foreign nationals do not gain access to sensitive research. Enforcement of these restrictions varies at universities because, in general, the academic environment in the U.S. is very open to foster collaboration. We have the worst of both worlds . . . we allocate a large proportion of our limited capacity to Chinese students and our immigration policy sends them back to China once they have graduated.
Michael Brown (former CEO of Symantec), July 19, 2018
Hearing, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy. On The China Challenge, Part I: Economic Coercion as Statecraft, July 24, 2018
· The broad strategic context for Chinese economic statecraft includes . . . Strengthening political warfare and propaganda campaigns that interfere in target nations’ politics to both block activities that the CCP does not like and to build more favorable support for China abroad.
Dan Blumenthal, American Enterprise Institute, July 24, 2018
· We need a comprehensive China strategy across all domains of the competition: Regardless of the specific topic—Chinese economic coercion, human rights, or the South China Sea—the United States needs a comprehensive strategy that enhances U.S. competitiveness across all domains of the competition, including military, economics, diplomacy, ideology, technology, and information.
Ely Ratner, Center for a New American Security, July 24, 2018
Hearing, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Cyber-Securing the Vote: Ensuring the Integrity of the U.S. Election System, July 24, 2018
· From a cybersecurity standpoint, we are most acutely concerned with “social engineering” hacking attempts, which include phishing and baiting attempts through email. Counties also protect against direct hacks to access voter rolls to alter data and attempts to remove election information from county websites.
Ricky Hatch, National Association of Counties, July 24, 2018
· Election officials, like myself, are taking the possible threat of foreign actors meddling in our elections very seriously. * * * While state and local officials have always been focused on election security, the focus of our national organizations and the federal government has increased significantly since the summer of 2016. It is clear that election security will be a priority for state, local and federal officials as well as the general public moving forward.
Maggie Oliver (New Mexico Secretary of State), July 24, 2018
· During and after the 2016 election cycle, the EAC was a key player in federal efforts to share vital security information with the states and educate our federal partners about ways to best
serve the needs of election administrators. For example, the EAC: * * * Served as the federal government’s primary communication channel to provide real-time cybersecurity information to election officials around the country.
Commissioner Thomas Hicks (Chair, United States Election Assistance Commission), July 24, 2018
· Among non-federal partners, DHS has been engaging state and local officials, as well as relevant private sector entities, to assess the scale and scope of malicious cyber activity potentially targeting the U.S. election infrastructure. Election infrastructure includes the information and communications technology, capabilities, physical assets, and technologies that enable the registration and validation of voters; the casting, transmission, tabulation, and reporting of votes; and the certification, auditing, and verification of elections.
Christopher C. Krebs Under Secretary, National Protection and Programs Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, July 24, 2018
2. ASPEN SECURITY FORUM
· . . . it's undeniable that the Russians are taking the lead on this. Basically, they are the ones that are trying to undermine our basic values, divide us with our allies. They are the ones that are trying to wreak havoc over our election process. We need to call them out on that. It's critical that we do so, and then take steps to make sure that they are not able to do this with an election coming up.
Daniel Coats, The Aspen Institute, July 19, 2018
· The internet and social media platforms allow foreign agents to spread misleading political messages while masquerading as Americans. * * * Elections provide an attractive opportunity for foreign-influenced campaigns to influence our political processes. * * * The Department's Cyber-Digital Task Force report contributes to our understanding by identifying five different types of malign influence operations that target our political circumstances. First malicious cyber actors can target election infrastructure by trying to hack voter registration databases and vote tallying systems. * * * Second, cyber operations can target political organizations, campaigns, and political officials. * * * The third category of malign influence operations affecting elections involves offers to assist political campaigns or officials by agents who conceal their connection to a foreign government, such operations may entail financial and logistical support to Americans who are unwitting or unaware of the foreign connection. Fourth adversaries covertly use this information and other propaganda to influence American political opinion. * * *Finally, foreign governments use overt influence efforts such as government-controlled media outlets and paid lobbyists.
* * * * *
· . . . influence operations are a form of information warfare. Covert propaganda and disinformation is the primary weapons. The Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential campaign is just one tree in a growing forest, focusing merely on a single election, misses the point. As Director Coats made clear, these actions are persistent. They are pervasive. They are meant to undermine democracy on a daily basis regardless of whether it is election time or not. Russian intelligence officers did not stumble on the idea of hacking American computers and posting misleading messages because they had a free afternoon. It's what they do every day, not just attacking America but other countries as well. This is not a new phenomenon. Throughout the 20th century, the Soviet Union used malign influence campaigns against the United States and other countries.
Rod Rosenstein, The Aspen Institute, July 19, 2018
· The best weapon against propaganda and misinformation and information warfare is information. So, the more people are thinking critically about what is this I'm reading? Who really is the source of this? And the more in cooperation with say, social media companies, the more disinfectant of transparency we can provide to who the source of certain things is, the origins of certain things are. The more people, I think ... And I trust the American people to be a lot smarter about stuff if they know who's behind what they're reading.
Christopher Wray, The Aspen Institute, July 18, 2018
· We've seen very clear indications of [Russia's] attacks on the idea of a free press and free media, but also we need to broaden our lens and understand the attacks that are taking place on other institutions, including our justice system and the judiciary, which we see in comments from Putin, Lavrov, in constant attacks from RT and Sputnik, in social media attacks around judges and courts that are dealing with divisive cases involving immigrants, for example.
Suzanne Spaulding, The Aspen Institute, July 19, 2018
· The Justice Department and FBI are stepping up efforts to combat foreign disinformation and influence operations through prosecutions, counterspy operations, and other legal means, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced this week. Describing the activities of foreign intelligence agencies as malign foreign influence operations, like Moscow's program to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections, Rosenstein outlined several methods being used against what he termed "information warfare" against the United States.
Bill Gertz, The Washington Free Beacon, July 20, 2018
3. ELECTION 2016 CONTROVERSIES
· COUNT ONE (Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States) 1. In or around 2016, the Russian Federation (“Russia”) operated a military intelligence agency called the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (“GRU”). The GRU had multiple units, including Units 26165 and 74455, engaged in cyber operations that involved the staged releases of documents stolen through computer intrusions. * * * COUNTS TWO THROUGH NINE (Aggravated Identity Theft) * * * COUNT TEN (Conspiracy to Launder Money) * * * COUNT ELEVEN (Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States) In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, United States of America v. Viktor Borisovich Netyksho [et al.], July 13, 2018
· The indictment filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday the 13th reads in places like a crime novel. The story explains step-by-step how a group of Russian operatives who are part of the Internet Research Agency targeted the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, hacked into their computers and then stole vast quantities of data. * * * there’s more there than just a theft of emails. There’s also the story of how the data was exfiltrated and transferred out of the U.S. as well as how the Russian operatives tried to cover their tracks.
Wayne Rash, E Week, July 18, 2018
· RFE/RL has conducted its own open-source investigation into those accused intelligence operatives . . . . One of the accused participated in a 2014 conference of hackers on the topic of "infiltration, hacking, and the national peculiarities of cyberwarfare." The building in the Moscow suburb of Khimki that is referred to in the indictment as "the Tower" can be connected to the founder of the pro-Kremlin Antimaidan propaganda organization.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 19, 2018
· . . . while there is not yet proof of collusion (that’s special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s job), there is copious evidence of it — and that evidence grows more damning by the day.
Max Boot, The Washington Post, July 25, 2018
· We still don’t know the full extent of the Russian interference, but we know its propaganda reached 126 million people via Facebook alone. A BuzzFeed analysis found that fake news stories on Facebook generated more social engagement in the last three months of the campaign than did legitimate articles: The “20 top-performing false election stories from hoax sites and hyperpartisan blogs generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook.” Almost all of this “fake news” was either started or spread by Russian bots, including claims that the pope had endorsed Trump and that Hillary Clinton had sold weapons to the Islamic State.
Max Boot, The Washington Post, July 24, 2018
· Russian interference has exacerbated a toxic, partisan brew that has heightened concern about the election. Republicans allege fake news and massive voter fraud. Democrats fire back with claims about voter suppression and gerrymandering.
Pippa Norris, The Conversation, July 23, 2018
· For reporters, withholding valuable information from the public is anathema. But in a world in which foreign intelligence services hack, leak and fabricate, journalists will have to use extreme caution and extra transparency. For the most part, the 2016 stories based on the hacked Democratic emails revealed true and important things, including the party leadership’s hostility to Bernie Sanders’s campaign and the texts of Mrs. Clinton’s private speeches, which she had refused to release. The problem was that Russian hackers chose not to deliver to American voters the same inside material from the Trump campaign. The tilt of the coverage was decided in Moscow. By counting on American reporters to follow their usual rules, the Kremlin hacked American journalism.
Scott Shane, The New York Times, May 12, 2018
4. ELECTIONS
· . . . if the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stays true to a newly announced policy, we can expect to hear a whole lot more about foreign cyberattacks and propaganda/disinformation campaigns targeting the country’s democracy – hopefully before a given election takes place, not after. On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced at the Aspen Security Forum that under a new policy, the DOJ will inform US businesses, organizations and even individuals if they’re being targeted by foreign operations in an attempt to influence the country’s elections.
Lisa Vaas, Naked Security, July 23, 2018
· Ms. Nielsen said there were no indications at this point that Russia was targeting the 2018 midterm elections “at a scale or scope” that matched their activities in 2016. Still, she said Russia has continued trying to interfere in U.S. affairs using an array of tactics. Intelligence agencies were observing “persistent Russian efforts using social media, sympathetic spokespeople and other fronts to sow discord and divisiveness amongst the American people,” Ms. Nielsen said, adding that those efforts were “not necessarily focused on specific politicians or political campaigns.”
Dustin Volz and Alexa Corse, The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2018
Instruments of Informational Power
5. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
● Public Diplomacy Field Operations: Overseas operating costs in Fiscal Year 2017: $493 million. More than 4100 personnel: 700 Foreign Service and 2600 Locally Employed Staff (2018). Cost as a portion of total international affairs budget (FY2017): 1.014 percent**
Joe B. Johnson, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 25, 2018
· While development communication and public diplomacy are established research fields, there is little scholarship that seeks to understand how the two areas relate to one another. However, international development doctrine in the US, UK and elsewhere increasingly suggests that they are integrated–or at the very least should be–at the level of national strategy.
James Pamment and Karin Wilkins, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
· The goal of good public diplomacy is to inform citizens overseas about your country’s interests, values, and objectives. On that score, Putin may have convinced the world to take him seriously. He certainly seemed in control. Trump may have convinced Russians and others that he is on Putin’s side, but the rest of the U.S. government likely doesn’t agree with him. That makes the message both muddled and dangerous. Moreover, policy and public diplomacy need to go hand-in-hand. These two leaders seem more interested in the public part and left little in the way of a U.S.-Russia policy.
Tara Sonenshine, Defense One, July 16, 2018
● [A new book] describes new programs such as MOOCs, the Public Diplomacy collaboratory, the prospect for public-private initiatives, and transnational applied public diplomacy networks. There are examinations of new communication with religious communities, the embrace of scientific cooperation, and the interest of the armed forces in Public Diplomacy and persuasion. These discussions of the “non-traditional” are helpfully framed by reviews of American Public Diplomacy’s origins and some of its enduring tensions. There are also looks to the future.
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 21. 2018
Deborah Trent, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 16, 2018
● “Information” is one of the four D-I-M-E elements of national power, the two wars were to be “whole of government” fights, and Secretary Gates made a striking call for more funding for diplomacy and development in a speech in November, 2007, but there’s no mention of Public Diplomacy in his memoir. In general, he notes in several places that the State Department could not provide enough people for the civilian side of the war.
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 15, 2018
● State Department public diplomacy staffers are learning to pay attention to data, for two reasons. They want to focus on groups that are relevant to bilateral issues and objectives; and they want to know to what degree they are informing or influencing their audiences.
Joe B. Johnson, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 3, 2018
● Those of us who knew Walter Roberts (1916-2014) – broadcaster, diplomat, architect and builder of Public Diplomacy, educator, and co-founder of the Public Diplomacy Council – count him as an admired exemplar and mentor. His work In the Second World War and the Cold War helped shape the future we all inhabit. The institutions of Public Diplomacy that were founded during the struggles of the twentieth century remain, ready for refocus and renewal in a turbulent new era.
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 7, 2018
6. LOOKING BACK AT USIA
· In 1963, for example, the KGB paid an American to distribute a book, claiming that the FBI and the CIA assassinated President Kennedy. In 1980, the KGB fabricated and distributed a fake document, claiming that the National Security Council had a strategy to prevent political activists from working with African leaders. During the Reagan Administration, the KGB spread false stories that the Pentagon developed the AIDS virus as part of a biological weapons research program. As Jonathan Swift wrote in 1710, "Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it." The Reagan Administration confronted the problem head-on. It established an interagency committee called the Active Measures Working Group to counter Soviet disinformation.
Rod Rosenstein, The Aspen Institute, July 19, 2018
· The USIA’s key contributions during an earlier period of competition underline the need for a concerted, interagency approach to strategic information operations. Among the requirements is a direct link between policy-makers and the informational instruments of power. Its funding problems aside, the GEC is simply too peripheral. What is needed is a new organization — call it the Office of Strategic Narratives — and the right institutional placement. It should be located within the National Security Council, under the existing Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications.
Maj. Luke Karl, Maj. Joseph lane, and Cmdr. David Sanchez, Defense One, July 26, 2018
· Congress should explore reconstituting a 21st-century version of the U.S. Information Agency. The United States should revive its ability to engage in information operations and strategic messaging, which have not featured prominently in U.S. China policy for decades. The goal should be to provide a counterpoint to the billions of dollars China spends each year in propaganda to sell a vision of its own ascendancy and benevolence, alongside U.S. decline and depravity.
Ely Ratner, Center for a New American Security, July 24, 2018
● “The men and women of USIA are not payrolled shills for an American propaganda offensive.”
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, June 30, 2018
● The thumbnail description of USIA’s mission was “telling America’s story to the world.” A standard publication used by the U.S. Information Service all over the world was Living Documents of American History. * * * It included important documents and speeches — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, President Kennedy’s inaugural address, and so on. By the 1970s, Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was included in editions of Living Documents around the world.
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, June 26, 2018
● Back when U.S. Information Service libraries and centers overseas were filled with eager students and professionals, the “Gettysburg Address Speech Contest” was an annual staple of programming in many countries.
Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, June 21, 2018
7. BROADCASTING
● GUTS: USG Broadcasting: Fiscal Year 2018 spending level: $793,808,000 including capital improvements. 2018 audience: 278,000,000 unduplicated users a week (TV, radio and internet)
Joe B. Johnson, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 5, 2018
● VOA’s Charter isn’t hard to understand. It was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1976, and its guidelines are clear and succinct: (1) VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive. (2) VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions. (3) VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies. (Public Law 94-350) Yet VOA constantly violates that Charter.
David S. Jackson, Public Diplomacy Council Blog, July 12, 2018
· . . . other U.S. institutions under similar pressure from Moscow could use more support. Prominent among them are Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and affiliated broadcast organizations whose journalists are being threatened for providing Russians with uncensored news. Since late last year, the Putin regime has required these U.S.-funded media outlets to register as “foreign agents” under a hastily passed law that has been applied only to American organizations. The Russians claimed they were reciprocating for the Justice Department’s requirement that the U.S. branch of RT, the Kremlin’s propaganda arm, register under a law governing foreign government lobbyists.
The Washington Board, July 22, 2018
· Malkevich voiced pique at U.S. information broadcasts toward his country. He picked up his smartphone and read headlines from Siberia. Reality, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL’s Russian service. “Siberian cities are the dirtiest in Russia,” and “People are falling ill.” He looked up with disgust: “They write about only bad things.”
Tim Johnson, McClatchy DC Bureau, June 20, 2018
· On the morning of July 5, in what can only be interpreted as an attack on independent media serving Russian audiences, a Moscow court fined Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) after ruling that it had failed to comply with a new Russian law regulating media outlets branded by the government as “foreign agents.” That law has been applied only to RFE/RL, a non-profit organization funded by Congress, and to the Voice of America (VOA).
John Lansing, BBG, July 6, 2018
· British media regulator Ofcom says Russia's state-funded international television network, RT, broke Britain's broadcasting code when it presented tweets and e-mails sent by its own staff as coming from viewers of a current-affairs program.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 16, 2018
· The Voice of America officially opened its newest FM radio station today in the Republic of Congo. * * * Director Bennett said the new station is part of VOA’s commitment to “being a model of a free press and supporting freedom of speech.” And in today’s media environment marred by “falsified news” and “disinformation,” she said “VOA takes pride in being a trusted source of information." This marks BBG’s 100th FM station – and the 32nd on the African continent.
VOA, July 24, 2018
· The Voice of America (VOA) is unveiling a new plan to leverage its massive international reach in the fight against disinformation, propaganda and plain old "fake news." The effort is being spearheaded by VOA and the Center for News Literacy at New York's Stony Brook University (SBU). The unique partnership between VOA and Stony Brook will create a new series on news literacy that uses VOA's reach to inform English speakers around the world. The goal is to combat the disinformation permeating civil society today. The no-cost joint effort will adapt the digital resources of SBU’s Center for News Literacy to the Voice of America’s original series “News Literacy.”
VOA, June 8, 2018
· The U.S. State Department and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have denounced a Russian court ruling that found Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had violated a controversial "foreign-agents" law.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 7, 2018
· Americans are clearly divided in their views about President Trump, but these divisions, including examples of strong criticism of President Trump, his views, and his policies must be reported fully and objectivity in compliance with the VOA Charter and without any personal and institutional bias.
BBG Watch, July 16, 2018
· Congress should increase funding for the Broadcasting Board of Governors to augment China-related content in Asia and beyond. Current efforts to enhance U.S. government broadcasting and information operations in response to Russian disinformation campaigns should be expanded to develop more China related content in strategically significant countries.
Ely Ratner, Center for a New American Security, July 24, 2018
8. INFORMATION OPERATIONS
· The authority to release ordnance for a preplanned target in [Operation Inherent Resolve] has been delegated to brigadier generals and below (it is even lower for nonplanned targets in support of American or allied forces). If the U.S. military wishes to conduct an information operation, such as dropping leaflets or beginning a new series of radio broadcasts, the approval authority is higher—a major general. Any information operation conducted via the Internet or social media as part of OIR requires Pentagon-level approval.
Cole Livieratos, Joint Force Quarterly, 3rd quarter, 2018
9. PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
· In 1984, Bezmenov gave an interview to G. Edward Griffin from which much can be learned today. His most chilling point was that there’s a long-term plan put in play by Russia to defeat America through psychological warfare and “demoralization”. It’s a long game that takes decades to achieve but it may already be bearing fruit. Bezmenov made the point that the work of the KGB mainly does not involve espionage, despite what our popular culture may tell us. Most of the work, 85% of it, was “a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare.”
Paul Ratner, Big Think, July 18, 2018
· While the intensity of enemy attacks on Ukraine's Joint Forces in Donbas has somewhat subsided in the Luhansk direction amid the latest "harvest ceasefire," Russian propaganda masterminds never ceased their efforts to undermine the morale of Ukraine troops, according to the Ukrainian Military Television.
Unian, July 11, 2018
10. D-I-M-E FRAMEWORK
· . . . movement of forces, if combined with a host of whole-of-government actions and synchronized with U.S. resolve, may compel adversary leadership to select a nonmilitary approach. Such actions may include a variety of nonkinetic diplomatic, informational, military, and economic pressure across varied geographic locations. Because speed and synchronization are vital to create the cognitive effect of these actions, a Strategic Shaping approach must be thoroughly planned and precoordinated at the highest levels of government.
Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Matthew D. Strohmeyer, and Christopher D. Forrest, Joint Force Quarterly, 3rd quarter, 2018
Professional Topics
11. DISINFORMATION, FAKE NEWS
· Within hours of British police announcing last night that a couple from Amesbury, Wiltshire had been poisoned with Novichok, Russia’s propaganda machine was firing out projectiles in all directions with the usual aim of casting doubt and confusion in people’s minds.
Sarah Hurst, Stop Fake, July 5, 2018
· I expect dozens, perhaps hundreds and thousands of these websites to pop up. The Russian troll farm is behind the vast majority of these fake news sites. They’ve learned from past mistakes, however. Websites will be mainly hosted on American servers. Website administrators will not have Russian or distinctly European names. Street addresses used will correspond with street addresses found on Google in mostly CBD parks. VPNs will be used for all Russian troll farm work; the emerging IP addresses will be inside the US. Expect a deluge of information for one candidate but also expect a deluge in the opposite direction. If Russia tips its hand too far one way or the other, the game is over.
Joel Harding, To Inform is to Influence, July 17, 2018
· The United States and Europe are ill-prepared for the coming wave of "deep fakes" that artificial intelligence could unleash. * * * Ultimately, none of the laws or strategies that have been unveiled so far will be enough. The problem is that technology advances far more quickly than government policies. The EU’s measures are still designed to target the disinformation of yesterday rather than the advances in artificial intelligence and decentralized computing, the next generation of disinformation promises to be even more sophisticated and difficult to detect. To craft effective strategies for the near term, lawmakers should focus on four emerging threats in particular: the democratization of artificial intelligence, the evolution of social networks, the rise of decentralized applications, and the “back end” of disinformation.
Chris Meserole and Alina Polyakova, Foreign Policy, May 25, 2018
· The Russian defence ministry on 23 July has released imagery showing the Russian nuclear missile submarine cruiser “Tomsk” launched a cruise missile at a surface target in the Sea of Okhotsk. * * * Footage used by the defence ministry to prove anti-ship missile successfully hit its target was actually taken in 2016 and filmed during the Kavkaz exercises.
Defence Blog, July 24, 2018
· “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it,” Jonathan Swift once wrote . . . it is a factual description of social media, according to an ambitious and first-of-its-kind study published Thursday in Science. The massive new study analyzes every major contested news story in English across the span of Twitter’s existence . . . and finds that the truth simply cannot compete with hoax and rumor. By every common metric, falsehood consistently dominates the truth on Twitter, the study finds: Fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate deeper into the social network, and spread much faster than accurate stories.
Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, March 8, 2018
· In this paper we present how fake news spread in the current online social networks. We discuss how existing social network technologies such as influence maximization, information diffusion, and epidemiological models contributes to fake news creation and spreading. Solutions to reducing the creation and spreading of fake news are also reviewed. We make recommendations regarding future areas of research in this field.
· Meanwhile, governments in northeast Europe were ramping up their own efforts to resist disinformation. Earlier this year, I met with officials from eight countries bordering the Baltic to talk about disinformation. Northeast Europeans, by virtue of their location, experience, and foresight, have come to understand how to build resistance to disinformation: organizing campaigns to raise awareness of the problem; educating to resist propaganda; and coordinating across government agencies, civil society, and the media. Theoretically, these tactics are replicable in America in the current midterm election season.
Jed Willard, Defense One, June 10, 2018
· On May 24, an international team of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, and Ukraine announced that a Russian anti-aircraft missile was directly responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). * * * Initial analysis of social media reactions to these announcements indicated that Kremlin outlets were struggling to effectively counter the new evidence implicating Moscow in the downing of MG17. However, over the next week, conspiracy theories and disinformation narratives from Russian propaganda outlets found a foothold on an impactful and unlikely medium: Google’s front page.
Bradley Hanlon, Securing Democracy, June 14, 2018
12. SOCIAL MEDIA, INTERNET
· The widespread adoption of social media has led to challenges around the credibility of information and amplified political and cultural divisions, especially in open societies. Russian 'active measures' in the 2016 United States presidential election brought to light 'cyber-enabled information warfare' as a disrupter in liberal democracies with potential long-term consequences, beyond single election results. Other countries continue efforts to limit the availability of information via the internet through the use of firewalls and telecommunications regulation.
New Zealand Defence Forces, 2018
· The hard fact is that social media remains popular despite its flaws because it is a tremendously useful, convenient, and enjoyable technology for the vast majority of users. It has made communication among friends, strangers, and mass audiences fast and easy. Distribution and dissemination of news — in the broadest sense of the word — has become effortlessly efficient. Social media has given us a clearer window into the minds of politicians, journalists, brands, entertainers, and celebrities of all sorts, and in doing so, helped us understand them, appreciate them, and hold them accountable. It has served as a useful forum for intellectual conversation, creative self-expression, and online commerce. It is mostly free to use. This is not nothing.
J.J. McCullough, National Review, July 24, 2018
· The House Oversight Committee forwarded a bill Tuesday that would give federal agency leaders broad authority to block employees’ access to personal email accounts and social media without consulting employee unions. The bill’s goal is to allow agency leaders to act quickly to counter cyber threats coming from web-based email and social media, both of which are common vectors for phishing attacks, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., said.
Joseph Marks, Nextgov, July 18, 2018
· As United States ambassador to Myanmar from 2012-2016, Derek Mitchell witnessed firsthand the rise of anti-Muslim hate speech circulating on the internet — and in Myanmar, the internet is virtually synonymous with one social networking platform: Facebook. In the first years of his post, Mitchell saw that the hateful, violence-inciting messages that intolerant monks had previously distributed on DVDs at temples were now going online. As the country’s telecommunications industry grew, those messages spread farther and more quickly on Facebook than they had through physical copies, moving from the periphery to the mainstream.
Michael Igoe, Devex, July 18, 2018
· Security researchers have unpicked mobile apps and spyware that infected the mobile devices of Israeli military personnel in a targeted campaign which the state has claimed Hamas was behind. Earlier this week, Israeli military security officials revealed that hackers whom they claim were Hamas-affiliated* had installed spyware on Israeli soldiers' smartphones.
John Leyden, The Register, July 5, 2018
· These sorts of conversations are becoming necessary as social media develops into a sort of freelance surveillance state. Ostensibly, the mob is shocked to find that some public figure has said something regrettable. In truth, their ire long preceded the discovery of the offense, and they are overjoyed to have found a weapon that might destroy their hated enemy.
Megan McArdle, The Washington Post, July 24, 2018
· Shadow banning (also called stealth banning, ghost banning or comment ghosting[1]) is the act of blocking a user or their content from an online community such that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned.
Wikipedia, accessed July 26, 2018
13. CYBER
· [Lieutenant General Paul] Nakasone wants to better coordinate NSA intelligence-gathering on Russian cyberactivities and CyberCom’s plans to thwart Kremlin operations.
Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post, July 17, 2018
· Political actors — including both superpowers and emerging economies — for decades have used cyberattacks, hacks, leaks, and malware to gain a political edge over their enemies and to keep their allies in line. * * * Cyber strategies have become just as important as physical arms in the battle for world supremacy. Here is a quick look at four broad categories these new cyber forces execute through clicks rather than triggers. Nation-State Warfare * * * Political-Influence Campaigns * * * Spying Campaigns * * * Nation-State Digital Espionage
Nir Gaist, Dark Reading, July 18, 2018
· Air Combat Command officially took over 24th Air Force this week, aligning both USAF cyber operations and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance under the same command.
Brian Everstine, Gideon Grudo, Steve Hirsch, Air Force Magazine, July 19, 2018
· President Donald Trump's recent meeting with Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin in Helsinki proved to be as much a magnet for cyberattackers as his Singapore meeting with Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June. As with the previous attacks, the ones in Finland appear to be mostly attempts to break into weakly protected Internet of things (IoT) devices to be used to spy on targets of interest in Finland. The main difference was that instead of the attacks mostly emanating from Russia, this time a majority of attacks came from networks in China.
Jai Vijayan, Dark Reading, July 19, 2018
· Cyberspace today is a mess: what some US policymakers’ thought would happen – that the internet would prove an unstoppable information wedge that would pry open totalitarian and authoritarian states – proved largely the opposite. Cyberspace tools have allowed such states to control information, steal Western proprietary information and wealth, enable cybercrime, and place weapons on our critical infrastructure to serve as disabling capabilities and deterrents against us in times of crisis or war. The Obama State Department thought the internet should be treated as a Global Commons – like a public library for the world, where states would take a hands-off approach for the greater good. This was naive in the extreme. It was the equivalent of thinking that states would leave ‘airspace’ an un-militarized global commons, once the advent of aeronautics allowed intercontinental air travel within hours. Cyber norms are especially naïve.
James Van de Velde, The Cipher Brief, June 6, 2018
· What is certain, though, is that the government alone cannot defend the cyber society, if you will. And will require not only a whole-of-government but really a whole-of-society approach. And secondly, obviously, the physical borders do not matter in cyber. So national initiatives are important, but they are nothing if there is no international component to our efforts. So, figuring out all of this, thinking through the legal aspects, the policy aspects, is one of the things that the center of excellence in Tallinn does.
Aaron Mehta, Defense News, June 26, 2018
14. FACT CHECKING
· In its fight against “fake news,” Facebook has elevated nearly three dozen of the world’s fact-checking websites to be the ultimate arbitrators of what constitutes “truth” online. In the past, when fact checkers made mistakes, there was little consequence to their errors – one could choose to simply ignore those fact checkers that strayed too far from evidence-based verification. In the Facebook era, however, those fact checkers now have the ability to banish any statement or evidence they believe to be false and even to effectively blacklist outlets they disagree with. This raises an obvious question: Are there checks and balances to this awesome power – any recourse when fact checkers get things wrong?
Kalev Leetaru, Real Clear Politics, July 24, 2018
15. SOFT POWER
· Turkey’s policy of sending religious scholars abroad to exert its influence is one of the many new ways authoritarian regimes have been using migration as a soft-power strategy . . .
Ahval News, July 6, 2018
· . . . it becomes easier to understand the emphasis that Russia has placed on the spiritual and cultural aspects of international politics—"soft power"—since 2013. If soft power is thought of as the use of religious and/or cultural affinity to achieve foreign policy objectives, then many of Russia's neighbors remain quite receptive to Russian soft power. Sometimes, as in Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Moldova this is manifested in a "love-hate" relationship that keeps Russia at the center of public attention, even as national elites seek to distance their country from Russian political and cultural influence.
Nicolai Petro, American Diplomacy, Summer 2018
16. HYBRID WARFARE
· All signs of the US “hybrid war” were clearly visible on the eve of the armed insurrection that occurred in Ukraine in February 2014, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with the Italian edition of Il Giornale . * * * Today, “hybrid actions” – this is control over the media, economic sanctions, activities in cyberspace, support for internal unrest, the use of special units and specialists for committing terrorist acts, sabotage and sabotage, Shoigu noted. * * * For their successful implementation in this century, global and all-pervasive media, possessing and superiority in information and telecommunication technologies, concentrating the levers of management of the world financial system, as well as experience use of special forces in other countries. Who, other than the United States and Britain, have such a potential? ”
Joel Harding, To Inform is to Influence, July 11, 2018
17. INFORMATION WARFARE
· The recent indictment from Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, naming 12 officers from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, makes for compelling reading. But it would be a mistake to treat it as simply a law-enforcement instrument. It’s also the latest offensive, and an especially effective one, in an ongoing information war.
Mark Galeotti, Foreign Policy, July 17, 2018
· . . . while the [Multi-Domain Task Force] gives the joint force increased asymmetric capabilities to create windows of advantage, the present emphasis on lethal fires misses an indispensable capability: nonlethal effects, and more specifically, information warfare.
Chris Telley and Scott Carpenter, Modern War Institute, July 19, 2018
18. NARRATIVE
· . . . you can’t know what to do unless you know what story you are a part of. Story is more important than policies. We post-Cold War Americans haven’t really settled on what story we are a part of. We’ll flock to anybody who can tell us a story that feels true.
David Brooks, The New York Times, July 23, 2018
· An officially sanctioned form of intolerance is on the rise in Hungary — let’s call it “migrant spotting.” In defense of public safety, Hungarians are now voluntarily reporting to local authorities on individuals in their communities whom they suspect to be “illegal aliens.” Though ethnic intolerance is not new to Hungary, this particular form of public denunciation is the latest iteration of a carefully orchestrated, long-term, government-sponsored disinformation campaign to persuade the Hungarian electorate that migration “increases terrorism and crime,” “destroys national culture,” and threatens social order.
Vivian Walker and Lorant Gyori, War on the Rocks, July 24, 2018
· The smartest person in the room doesn’t always win the debate — the best storyteller does.
Arthur Brooks, AEI, July 26, 2018
19. COUNTERINSURGENCY
· It is well established, in lessons learned and academic research, that advisory success is predicated, or conditioned, upon three foundational requirements which depend on the ability to: (1) understand the historical, social, and cultural context in which the advising mission is being performed; (2) adapt individual behavior to operate effectively within this context; and (3) establish effective, productive relationships with counterparts. Unintended Obstacles The “Military Mindset” Creates Pressure to Achieve Results, is Fundamentally Impatient, and Rewards a Bias for Action. International and National Political Expectations are Often Incompatible with Historical, Cultural, and Social Realities. Training for Military Advisors Results in Only Limited Understanding of the Operating Environment (in terms of History, Culture, and Language). Military Advisors Receive Little to No Training in Advising Principles and Skills Prior to Deployment. Pride in America may be Perceived as Reflecting Arrogance or Hubris.
Mark D. Rocke and John M. Gillette, Small Wars Journal, June 5, 2018
20. IMAGEFARE, MEMES
· On June 7, during a training exercise in the Baltics, four U.S. Army Stryker vehicles driving along a road between Kaunas and Prienai, Lithuania, collided when the lead vehicle braked too hard for an obstacle on the roadway. Not long after the incident, a blog post made to look like a popular Lithuanian news outlet claimed the Americans had killed a local child in the collision.
Kyle Rempfer, Military Times, July 20, 2018
· Photoshop 1.0 was first released as the Soviet Union was collapsing, but long before the software made photo manipulation easy, Kremlin censors went to extraordinary lengths to touch up history.
Amos Chapple, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 13, 2018
21. MEDIA SAVVY, JUDGEMENT, EDUCATION
· The best weapon against propaganda and misinformation and information warfare is information. So, the more people are thinking critically about what is this I'm reading? Who really is the source of this? And the more in cooperation with say, social media companies, the more disinfectant of transparency we can provide to who the source of certain things is, the origins of certain things are. The more people, I think ... And I trust the American people to be a lot smarter about stuff if they know who's behind what they're reading.
Christopher Wray, The Aspen Institute, July 18, 2018
22. IDEAS, CONCEPTS, AND DOCTRINE
· [Mike Ananny] argues that press freedom emerges from social, technological, institutional, and normative forces that vie for power and fight for visions of democratic life.
USC Public Diplomacy, July 16, 2018
· The first and surprisingly common misconception about digital diplomacy is the Superman myth, which claims that digital technology can grant extraordinary powers to those using them, and in so doing, it can help them increase their diplomatic clout to levels they might otherwise not be able to reach. * * * The second and fairly entrenched misconception is the “Walk in the Park” myth, which supports the view that “going digital” is easy and that MFAs can successfully pursue their digital diplomatic ambitions with relatively modest investments in training and resources. * * * The third and growing misconception is the Extinction myth, according to which digital diplomacy will gradually replace or make redundant traditional forms of diplomacy. * * * The fourth and rather dark misconception of digital diplomacy is the Darth Vader myth, which sees the positive potential of digital platforms for engagement and cooperation at risk of being hijacked by the “dark side” of the technology and redirected for propaganda use.
Corneliu Bjola, USC Public Diplomacy, July 16, 2018
23. IDEAS OF AMERICA
· Congress . . . on June 15, 1917, passed the Espionage Act. It did not include the provision about press censorship . . . but President Wilson signed the bill anyway, despite his insistence that “authority to exercise censorship over the press … is absolutely necessary to the public safety.” * * * In Abrams v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld an amendment to the law, known as the Sedition Act of 1918. Holmes dissented, famously writing: “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out.”
Anthony Mills, Real Clear Policy, June 15, 2018
· Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Republican, thinks people already view America differently. “The United States has knocked itself off the pedestal,” he says. The effects are likely to be “lasting and corrosive”. “We have yet to come to terms with the full extent of the damage he’s doing to America’s role in the world,” says Michael Fullilove, who heads the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. “The leader of the free world doesn’t believe in the free world.”
The Economist, June 7, 2018
· . . . a renewed nationwide effort to address, at both the high school and college level, issues that have been laid bare over the last few years — a lack of understanding of and trust in most civic institutions, a disconnection from government at all levels and intolerance for those who think and act differently. * * * Only nine states and the District of Columbia require a full year of civics education, according to the Center for American Progress; 30 states mandate a half-year and 11 states have no mandates. Only one state, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, require community service and civics courses before a student graduate.
Alina Tugend, The New York Times, June 5, 2018
· The retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army spoke on CNN in his first television interview since his departure. “With the rise of Donald Trump, Fox did become a destructive propaganda machine,” Mr. Peters said. “And I don’t do propaganda for anyone.” For the decade he worked there, Mr. Peters said he believed that Fox News was a necessary and legitimate conservative bulwark in the news media and an outlet for libertarian opinions. But under President Trump, the network shifted rightward, he said.
Matthew Haag, The New York Times, June 7, 2018
· To make matters worse, the US high school system did away with our most important Shop and Home Economics classes approximately 30 years ago devastating our manufacturing work force where the great majority of the men and women had attended classes designed to both teach and spur their interest, enthusiasm and discovery of their acumen for science and engineering trades and business leadership.
Jim Phillips, July 19, 2018
Countries, Regions, Case Studies
24. NATO
· The most pressing concern for the [NATO] alliance in today’s world is overall cyber-defense readiness. After all, it is highly unlikely that Vladimir Putin will choose to cross a NATO border with tanks, troops and jets. But he has shown again and again a willingness to attack digitally.
James Stavridis and Dave Weinstein, Bloomberg, July 18, 2018
25. RUSSIA
· Since 2017, the Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus has ratcheted up its operations in Southeast Asia. In a region where illiberal tendencies run deep, the expansion of an effort notorious for undermining trust in independent institutions, such as international news agencies, should be a matter of grave concern.
Beba Cibralic and Aaron Connelly, Real Clear Defense, July 24, 2018
· “50% of what the Russian MOD says is false, the other 50% is fake.”
Joel Harding, To Inform is to Influence, July 24, 2018
· Putin, like the czars and boyars of old Russia, is a kleptocrat and tyrant who torments his opponents, sometimes murders them, represses voices of dissent, exploits religion, shamelessly deploys propaganda, presides over a labyrinth of espionage and manipulation, and warily views the world as vicious and zero-sum, conflating his personal rule with the interests of Holy Russia. He doubtless plans to retain power for his lifetime. To step down would be to imperil his own wealth, freedom, and life.
Mark Tooley, Providence, July 20, 2018
· Russia and Russians love sensational news, a lot of it is considered conspiracy theories. Come up with a wack-a-doodle storyline, build a framework of questionable “facts” around it, and flesh it out with eyewitnesses and ‘experts’ who will say almost anything for a television show. The people who put these together are called conspiracy theorists, and they’re not just restricted to Russia. Russian “news” programs usually remotely Skype them onto one of their programs when used. They are useful for Russian propaganda because some are American so-called experts appearing on Russian television supporting the latest wack-a-doodle storyline.
Joel Harding, To Inform is to Influence, July 19, 2018
· Factory of Lies is the name of a new television documentary introducing a number of journalists who have uncovered the hidden processes of the disinformation campaigns coming from Russia.
EU vs. Disinfo, July 2, 2018
· In a new book, Timothy Snyder explains how Russia revolutionized information warfare—and presages its consequences for democracies in Europe and the United States.
David Frum, The Atlantic, July 1, 2018
· . . . it becomes easier to understand the emphasis that Russia has placed on the spiritual and cultural aspects of international politics—"soft power"—since 2013. If soft power is thought of as the use of religious and/or cultural affinity to achieve foreign policy objectives, then many of Russia's neighbors remain quite receptive to Russian soft power. Sometimes, as in Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Moldova this is manifested in a "love-hate" relationship that keeps Russia at the center of public attention, even as national elites seek to distance their country from Russian political and cultural influence.
Nicolai Petro, American Diplomacy, Summer 2018
· Russia’s police chief seeks to recruit volunteers for a new project: as censors to weed out banned information from the internet.
Vladimir Kolokoltsev, The Moscow Times, July 27, 2018
· Terikova drew attention to the May 24 concert in an Instagram video post that showed the 4- and 5-year-old children from kindergarten No. 68 singing Uncle Vova, We Are with You, by the composer Vyacheslav Antonov. The Uncle Vova in the song refers to Putin. The uber-loyal song provoked controversy last fall when it premiered with a slick video (below) featuring schoolchildren from Volgograd dressed in police uniforms singing it.
Polina Zmanovskaya and Robert Coalson, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, June 10, 2018
26. SOVIET UNION
· Photoshop 1.0 was first released as the Soviet Union was collapsing, but long before the software made photo manipulation easy, Kremlin censors went to extraordinary lengths to touch up history.
Amos Chapple, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 13, 2018
27. UKRAINE
· . . . the Russian general approach, not only using propaganda, first and for all, many years ago they detected our so-called root causes. And for some politicians, even direct causes more important. Then they used fertilizers, bribes for example, to corrupt some politicians et cetera, et cetera, and propaganda. Russia is a doctrinal country, so they have doctrine, and they have a plan how to implement this.
Vadym Chernysh, The Aspen Institute, July 20, 2018
28. CHINA
· Keen to assuage fears that it posed a threat, the report also found a dramatic increase in efforts to create an alternative narrative of China as a “peaceful, interesting and reliable neighbor.” Beijing had come to rely on a range of other public diplomacy tools to enhance its image across the region, the report found. Between 2000 and 2018 there was a 115 percent increase in sister city partnerships, while Beijing had opened more than 500 new Confucius Institutes, its signature cultural diplomacy program, the report said.
Jason Koutsoukis, Bloomberg, June 27, 2018
· In the past decade, when China leapfrogged Germany and Japan to be the second-largest economy in the world, the Chinese government has become arguably the world's largest spender on soft power and culture-exporting initiatives.
Lim Liang, The Straits Times, November 21, 2017
· China is waging war against the United States through a far-reaching foreign influence operations campaign that has raised concerns of spying and technology theft, according to regional experts.
Natalie Johnson, The Washington Free Beacon, July 24, 2018
· Rather than devolving power to the Chinese people, as many in the West predicted, communications technologies have strengthened the hand of the state, helping China’s authorities control information flows and monitor citizens’ behavior. Censorship, detentions, and a new cybersecurity law that grants broad government control over the Internet in China have stymied political activity inside China’s “Great Firewall.”
Kurt Campbell and Ely Ratner, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2018
· Collins also warned China is engaged in influence campaigns designed to interfere in U.S. politics, media, and economics. "They are fundamentally trying to encourage those of us, the Chinese diaspora more broadly, those with whom they have influence, to think their way about governance, and not perhaps the way we would advocate, or we would prefer, the United States would prefer we think about things like the liberal international order," he said.
Bill Gertz, The Washington Free Beacon, July 24, 2018
· Well, I think it comes down to . . . thinking a little bit about the China threat the way the Chinese are thinking about it, which is a whole of government, whole of system, whole of state approach. * * * The influence operations, and cyber-enabled espionage, and intellectual property theft all fit into this as well.
Marcel Lettre, The Aspen Institute, July 20, 2018
· Nor has Mr. Xi shied away from exporting elements of China’s political model. In at least eight African countries, as well as some in Southeast Asia and Latin America, Chinese officials are training their counterparts in how to manage political stability through propaganda and how to control media and the internet.
Elizabeth Economy, The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2018
29. NORTH KOREA
· Hackers from North Korea are targeting financial institutions in Latin America, a top cybersecurity researcher said June 28, a sign that the hermit kingdom’s digital attacks will continue despite a high-level summit with the United States.
Justin Lynch, Fifth Domain, June 29, 2018
30. AUSTRALIA
· Last December, while introducing legislation to outlaw foreign interference in Australian politics, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Australian Parliament that the scale of the threat to Australian democracy and sovereignty from foreign influence campaigns was “unprecedented.”
Clive Hamilton, Foreign Affairs, July 26, 2018
31. HUNGARY
· An officially sanctioned form of intolerance is on the rise in Hungary — let’s call it “migrant spotting.” In defense of public safety, Hungarians are now voluntarily reporting to local authorities on individuals in their communities whom they suspect to be “illegal aliens.” Though ethnic intolerance is not new to Hungary, this particular form of public denunciation is the latest iteration of a carefully orchestrated, long-term, government-sponsored disinformation campaign to persuade the Hungarian electorate that migration “increases terrorism and crime,” “destroys national culture,” and threatens social order.
Vivian Walker and Lorant Gyori, War on the Rocks, July 24, 2018
32. LATVIA
· On 15 June, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti published a fake news story, “President of Latvia: the U.S. will not protect Europe from Russia,” intended to undermine popular support for NATO before the Alliance’s summit in Brussels in July.
Anna Ūdre, CEPA Brief, n.d.
33. MYANMAR
· As United States ambassador to Myanmar from 2012-2016, Derek Mitchell witnessed firsthand the rise of anti-Muslim hate speech circulating on the internet — and in Myanmar, the internet is virtually synonymous with one social networking platform: Facebook. In the first years of his post, Mitchell saw that the hateful, violence-inciting messages that intolerant monks had previously distributed on DVDs at temples were now going online.
Michael Igoe, Devex, July 18, 2018
· The social network exploded in Myanmar, allowing fake news and violence to consume a country emerging from military rule.
Timothy McLaughlin, Wired, July 6, 2018
34. SAUDI ARABIA
· When Twitter purged millions of fake accounts on July 13, Saudi Arabia seized on the incident as an opportunity to embarrass its rival Qatar. * * * Besides serving as another petty salvo in the ongoing Gulf Cooperation Council dispute, the claims highlighted the increasingly public and political role that social media plays in regional affairs.
Samuel Northrup, The Washington Institute, July 25, 2018
35. ISLAMIC STATE
● Using a dataset of more than 13,000 pieces of official visual propaganda distributed from January 2015 to June 2018, this report examines how the production of such pieces has changed over this timeframe in terms of the number of pieces distributed, the geographic dynamics associated with the production of propaganda, and the content featured in these products.
Daniel Milton, Combating Terrorism Center, July 24, 2018
Precepts
This is a compilation of news, articles, essays, and reports on strategic communications, Public Diplomacy, public affairs, U.S. and foreign government international broadcasting, and information operations. The editorial intent is to:
● share with busy practitioners the academic and policy ferment in Public Diplomacy and related fields
● from long speeches, testimonies, and articles, flag the portions that bear on Public Diplomacy
● provide a window on armed forces thinking on the fields that neighbor Public Diplomacy such as military public affairs, information operations, inform-influence-engage, and cultural learning, and
● introduce the long history of Public Diplomacy by citing some of the older books, articles, reports, and documents that are not available on the internet.
Public Diplomacy professionals always need a 360-degree view of how ideas are expressed, flow, and gain influence. Many points of view citied here are contentious, partisan, and/or biased; inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Edited by
Donald M. Bishop, Bren Chair of Strategic Communications, Marine Corps University
Carter T. McCausland, Virginia Military Institute, Assistant
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