Open Letters & Public Appeals by Jakub Janda
All these offensive incidents are accompanied by a massive, persistent, ongoing, brutally aggress... more All these offensive incidents are accompanied by a massive, persistent, ongoing, brutally aggressive disinformation campaign. A campaign that has been active in Europe for at least three years, establishing its channels, finding the right amplifiers and multipliers for its message – which is aimed at destabilising our societies, meddling in our elections and referendums, misleading our political leaders and breaking up the EU unity by supporting those who want to destroy it. It has been building a wide range of communication structures in most of the EU Member States, platforms that have already been functioning for a long time and have reached considerable results that cannot be erased without significant long-term counter-effort.
As transatlantic experts focusing on security and Russia, we recognize the confusion among policy... more As transatlantic experts focusing on security and Russia, we recognize the confusion among policymakers who have genuine interest in Euroatlantic security after the presidential election in the United States. The Russian Federation and its proxies use an extensive toolkit to manipulate sovereign policy and decision-making in various democratic countries, both in Western and Eastern Europe. We are convinced that to challenge this tendency, a strong Euro-Atlantic cooperation is needed. A geopolitical vacuum in the region would only encourage Russian players to interfere more actively. And while Russia is calling for a friendship with the West, they are treating the West as an enemy: an easy target for information warfare and active measures. We aim to build on the US initiative (Portman-Murphy Counter-Propaganda Bill) and to enhance the synergy with the European effort. Based on the experience of hostile Russian influence in Europe, we give suggestions where the US foreign and defense policy interest and resources should be targeted in order to support and enhance the European response. We would suggest focusing on the following practical steps: 1) Create a program which will make use of existing European knowledge (mainly in think-tanks) on how democratic states can form their policy responses to massive hostile disinformation. 2) Support scholarships for fact-checkers, investigative journalists and researchers focusing on exposing and scrutinizing hostile influence operations. 3) Support non-governmental watchdog organizations which promote an agenda of digital and media literacy, critical thinking and countering disinformation and conspiracy theories, with a special focus on education. We think that the exchange of ideas and experience between the Unites States and its European allies is crucial to be able to challenge this threat. For example, strategies to win an information war or to counter hostile Russian influence have already been drafted. To downplay the importance of Europe by the US foreign policy would only exacerbate the security challenges, and would go against the vested security policy interests of the Unites States.
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Open Letters & Public Appeals by Jakub Janda