Competitive Strategy in Information Confrontation

Résumé du livre

This paper first surveys the approaches taken by the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China in their "information war" of propaganda and disinformation against the United States and the Western democracies, outlining the main themes of their strategic narratives, describing key differences between them, and explaining how these differing approaches fit into each country's geopolitical strategy. China's narrative is described as a "replacement" narrative that aims to tell a consistent narrative about the Chinese Communist Party and about China, which it desires that others believe. By contrast, the Russian approach to outward-facing messaging is devoted more to destabilizing others' narratives - by advancing multiple, mutually-contradictory storylines designed to disorient and divide - than it is to advancing a Russian replacement. Second, the paper suggests approaches to help counter these messaging campaigns. For China, this means advancing effective counter-narratives designed to target conceptual weak points in Chinese themes - such as by highlighting "anti-imperialist" themes to developing countries, making it the focus of international cooperation to protect these countries' sovereignty and autonomy and help them avoid economic exploitation by and dependency upon China. For Russia, it involves making Western audiences "harder targets" for disinformation through improvements in "information hygiene," though this is described as being a slow and more difficult task than counter-messaging. Third, the paper emphasizes the importance - in responding to either country's "information warfare" - of addressing some more fundamental problems in the United States' intellectual and political culture. Modern Americans, the author notes, tend to doubt ourselves, obsess about our sins as a society, and think those we dislike among our fellow citizens to be more of a threat than revisionist great power rivals run by cruel dictators. This helps our information adversaries immensely, whether they are trying to foist their narratives on the world or simply to worsen our own divisions and distrust of ourselves. Real success in information competition requires a solid foundation in our own conception of and belief in ourselves, which the author says it is imperative for Americans to rediscover.