Search Results for: information operations

Ukraine: from ‘oligarchic pluralism’ to real democracy?

     

A comedian and political newcomer has won (HT: Foreign Policy) the first round of Ukraine’s presidential elections. Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who portrayed himself as a fresh face who would… Read more »

‘Nothing inevitable or inexorable’ about democracy’s advance – or decline

     

Some observers talk as though democracy is in irreversible decline, but the only way that freedom and democracy will fall is if we let them, USAID Administrator Mark Green told… Read more »

Digital threats to democracy: Russia and China ‘weaponizing new technologies’

     

As digital threats to democracy multiply, the U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials… Read more »

China ‘trying to take the world hostage’?

     

Discussions of what China’s rise will mean for the world often take on an abstract, impersonal quality, notes Hal Brands, the Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School… Read more »

Intell chiefs warn of ‘coming ideological battle’ with resurgent authoritarians

     

  Liberal democracies should prepare for “the coming ideological battle” with newly resurgent authoritarian powers, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee heard on Tuesday. “China and Russia are more aligned than… Read more »

How to detoxify the Internet

     

Jigsaw, the Alphabet unit that aims to make the world safer through technology, is expanding its Project Shield technology that protects against distributed denial of services attacks to European political organizations, campaigns, and candidates,… Read more »

Countering digital dangers to democracy

     

In terms of digital dangers to democracy, four challenges loom large, notes Laura Chinchilla, Chair of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan‘s Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age, launched earlier this month at… Read more »

West must identify, exploit asymmetric advantages over autocrats

     

With the re-emergence of great power competition,  Russia and China are pursuing asymmetric strategies against the West, using the advantages of authoritarianism—secrecy, deception, a lack of legal or moral constraints—to… Read more »

Are social media platforms ‘rotting democracy from within’?

     

  Facebook has entered a new era of cautious glasnost, inviting researchers to look ‘under the hood’ of various aspects of its operations, and understand how it formulates and implements… Read more »

Petrofraude: the scam that emptied Venezuela’s tables

     

Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia and more poverty than Colombia. Once one of Latin America’s richest countries, it’s now plagued with shortages of everything from toilet paper to antibiotics and food, The… Read more »