Research
In this section you will find a reading list encompassing a wide range of studies, articles and reports relating to the spread of pro-Kremlin disinformation.
Whether you want a general introduction, to learn about the Kremlin’s attempts to influence elections, or investigate how one single false message gets spread via a wide network of websites – this is the place to start.
How we collect the material
The selection of works keeps a balance between academic depth and reputability, but also a breadth of perspectives and interests beyond the academy. We have established quality control measures and the material selection was based on the five issue areas below.
This area is dedicated to the activities of major threat actors, namely Russia and China and their aims, motives and capacities.
This area captures the methods and tools deployed by threat actors to manipulate information: social media, narratives, emerging tech etc.
This area focuses on the socio-political areas targeted by threat actors: social cohesion, political processes, health, security and foreign policy.
This issue area centres on the effects of FIMI (foreign information manipulations and interference) in terms of outcomes: cognitive impacts, social and political division, soft power projection etc.
This area classifies the types of responses to FIMI (foreign information manipulations and interference) by a range of stakeholders: regulatory, proactive and self-regulatory, reactive responses and policy recommendations.
Filters
An article on China’s use of information warfare to destabilise foreign regimes in the midst of a potential military or political crisis with democratic governments (drawing lessons from Japan’s experience during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05).
A study of the strategic importance of disinformation and propaganda narratives of the Russian Ministry of Defence regarding foreign citizens fighting in Ukraine.
A study proposing new conceptual models and a methodology to guide the mitigation of privacy-related harms and tactics of sophisticated threat actors in information warfare.
A review of Russia’s deployment of cyber and information operations against Ukraine assessing the effectiveness of Ukrainian responses and outlining potential lessons for other states.
An analysis of the threat of information warfare for commercial organisations and the role of information professionals in mitigating them.
A study of cognitive warfare and psychological strategies seeking to gradually influence the targeted public’s beliefs, opinions and perceptions with an empirical focus on the China-Taiwan relationship.
A study of Russian disinformation activities targeting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with a discussion of these countries’ experience in countering disinformation while building a media landscape supportive of democracy.
A report on the implications of generative AI for information warfare, arguing that the technology poses a potential national security threat in terms of the risk of misuse by Russia, China and other adversaries in social media manipulation.
A study adapting ‘morphological’ theory to conceptualise social media disinformation threatening democratic processes along five parameters: spread strategy, information channelling, market targeting, presented source, and operational openness.
An analysis of Russian efforts to distort reality in the ongoing war against Ukraine and Ukraine’s effective countermeasures.
A study of asymmetrical information tactics through the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems that seeks to demonstrate how, by controlling the information flow during the Russian annexation of Crimea, Moscow applied complexity to the adversary on the one hand and stabilised the Crimean social system on the other.
A report exploring the comparative success of Russia’s and Ukraine’s information campaigins arguing that the popular discourse professing that Russia has lost the information war is oversimplified.
A study of Russia’s information campaigns via Facebook targeting the 2016 US presidential election, with interesting findings about which techniques are more effective than others.
A study showing that people are more lenient towards spreading disinformation when it presents a message consistent with their existing beliefs.
An analysis of antivaccine discourse on Twitter regarding COVID-19 focusing on its spreaders’ behavior.