Strategy Matters Episode 13: Propaganda in WWII: The Strategic Lessons for Winning the Information Battlefield
Jan 21, 2026
Peter Pomerantsev, a Ukrainian-born British journalist and author of books on propaganda, including How to Win an Information War. He debunks common myths about propaganda. He traces how mass media and social change fuel its appeal. He revisits Sefton Delmer’s tactics and highlights audience-first, vernacular, effect-focused approaches in information conflict.
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Episode notes
Propaganda Fills Emotional Demand
- People often mislabel everything they dislike as propaganda instead of studying why people want it.
- Pomerantsev argues propaganda succeeds because it meets emotional demand, not just because of supply-side manipulation.
Loneliness Drives Mass Propaganda
- Modern propaganda rose with mass technology and urban migration that created atomized audiences.
- Pomerantsev links loneliness and mass media to the rise of fake communal identities and conspiratorial movements.
Sefton Delmer’s Covert Broadcasting Empire
- Sefton Delmer was a Berlin correspondent who later led British subversive radio and leaflet campaigns.
- Delmer ran dozens of covert stations and outlets aimed at undermining Nazi propaganda from within.
