Panellists discuss the extent of disinformation, its impact on democracy, and what can be done to prevent, mitigate, and stop its spread.
Although the panellists discuss threats against American democracy it is important to stress all democratic nations continue to be bombarded with disinformation from state and non-state players and disinformation is a serious global issue.
Speakers
Paul M. Barrett
Deputy Director, Center for Business and Human Rights, NYU Stern School of Business; Adjunct Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Amanda Bennett
Director, Voice of America
Richard Stengel
Former Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Author, Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation, and What We Can Do About It.
Presider
Nicholas Thompson, Editor in Chief, Wired Magazine
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) promotes itself as: “an independent, nonpartisan membership organisation, think tank, and publisher.”
Facebook suspends disinformation accounts in Russia, Iran and Myanmar (February 2020)
Facebook announced it had removed dozens of fake accounts linked to a coordinated effort to manipulate people on social media. The company said it had uncovered disinformation campaigns in Russia, Iran and Myanmar. CNET senior producer Dan Patterson joins CBSN with details.
“A Chinese spy defects to Australia. His shocking revelations are guaranteed to infuriate Beijing. How China conducts questionable activities around the world, including its attempts to infiltrate the Australian government.” (60 Minutes Australia)
Key points in this documentary:
Infiltrating Australia
Disinformation and subversion of democracy protesters in HK
Obtaining US intelligence
Unification of Taiwan through political subversion
“Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB spies who conceived this virus and the American truth squads who tried — and are still trying — to fight it. Countries from Pakistan to Brazil are now debating reality, and in Vladimir Putin’s greatest triumph, Americans are using Russia’s playbook against one another without the faintest clue.” (The New York Times)
This page provides a brief description by authors and links to their books, academic papers and articles on non-kinetic warfare and is updated each month.
Books
Narrative Warfare, a Primer and Study guide
Narrative Warfare, a primer and study guide, is literally, a first of a kind and ground-breaking in its intent. The intent of this book is to give national security professionals and other interested parties a baseline understanding of narrative and its principles regarding the potential for predictably triggering behaviour. If we are to succeed on the battlefield of influence, understanding narrative is an imperative… See more https://medium.com/@paulcobaugh/narrative-warfare-a-primer-and-study-guide-6ccae8d34397
Plato’s Fear Paperback – March 12, 2020
by Ajit Maan Ph.D.
Powerful narratives don’t simply target an audience; they create the target audience. The identity component of narrative is missing from assumptions that narrative is just a mode of communication. Narrative is the most fundamental tool of power. It is the means through which power gets institutionalized. Narratives are told to someone’s advantage and very powerful narratives may even preclude the telling of any alternative. But it is also a means by which power can be exposed, questioned, under-mined, and made to answer for itself…
Ajit Maan, Ph.D. is a security and defence policy analyst and a specialist in narrative strategies in radicalization processes. She is faculty at Union Institute and University’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, George Mason University’s Centre for Narrative Conflict Resolution, and is member of The Brain Trust of the Weaponized Narrative Initiative at Arizona State University.
This book is a practice in military civics. This collection of international perspectives challenges commonly held assumptions and outmoded paradigms of engagement. The authors share the view that the over-reliance on kinetic approaches over influence operations account for some of the failures of nations against extremists…
Information Warfare: The Lost Tradecraft Kindle Edition
by Howard Gambrill Clark (Author)
Dr. Howard Gambrill Clark, Ph.D. is a Yale graduate with twenty years of experience and research in countering violent extremism and counterterrorism: U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and special unit commander (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Philippines); White House National Economic Council counterterrorism analyst; Department of Homeland Security Senior Intelligence Officer for Headquarters Operations Directorate and Senior Intelligence Analyst for Counter Radicalization; and Special Operations Command senior consultant and trainer for countering violent extremism and stability operations as well as service to the U.S. Information Agency and U.S. Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He received his doctorate from King’s College London War Studies.
Articles and papers available on the internet
PERSPECTIVE: Anatomy of Narrative Warfare and Social Media Ops Since the Last Election
October 30, 2018 Paul Cobaugh (Published by Homeland Security Today)
What follows is some basic perspective about where and how this type of analysis fits into the national security landscape. Of note, I will say that the topic is complex, to say the least. A great deal of scrutiny regarding the findings of this excellent piece of work is not only due but required for national security professionals in addition to well-informed citizens from other walks of life. Protecting the nation from malign influence is not exclusively the role of professionals but also the responsibility of citizenship. In terms of protecting the homeland, this study does, though, provide some of the best large-scale insights for national security professionals to date…
Mr. Paul Cobaugh retired from the US Army as a Warrant Officer after a distinguished career in the US Special Operations CT community, primarily focused on mitigating adversarial influence and advancing US objectives by way of influence. Throughout his career he has focused on the centrality of influence in modern conflict whether it be from extremist organisations or state actors employing influence against the US and our Allies. Post military career he was offered and accepted the position of Vice President at Narrative Strategies, a US based Think-Do Tank which specializes in the non-kinetic aspects of conflict. He has also co-authored, Soft Power on Hard Problems, Hamilton Publishing, 2017 and Introduction to Narrative Warfare: A Primer and Study Guide, Amazon, 2018
Narrative Warfare by Paul Cobaugh published 21 January 2019
Narrative Warfare, continues to come into prominence in the wake of modern Russian Active Measures styled warfare against her adversaries, both real and perceived…
More information on these and other subject matter experts working in the field of narrative warfare can be found at https://www.narrative-strategies.com/
Alan Malcher 