234. Elizabeth Braw - Russia and China are Adept at Weaponizing Information for Foreign Policy Objectives

We are at risk of losing the information war. The widespread normalisation of disinformation as a political tool is accelerating distrust in democratic institutions and processes. Greyzone warfare is gaining the edge over open, pluralistic societies. Russia and China have also proved adept at weaponizing information for their foreign policy objectives. Governments have held off intervening strongly in the online media sphere, for fear of wrecking classical liberalism, but at what cost? #ElisabethBraw #greyzonewarfare #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- SPEAKER: Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she focuses on defence against emerging national security challenges, such as hybrid and Greyzone threats. She is also a columnist with Foreign Policy, where she writes on national security and the globalised economy. Before joining AEI, Elisabeth was a Senior Research Fellow at RUSI, where she led the Modern Deterrence project. Elisabeth is also a member of the steering committee of the Aurora Forum, a member of the National Preparedness Commission (UK) and an Associate Fellow at the European Leadership Network. She is often published in a wide range of publications, including Politico, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (writing in German), The Times and The Wall Street Journal. Elisabeth is also the author of two highly regarded books. - Monthly columnist – POLITICO (Feb 2023 – Present) - Advisory Board Member - GALLOS Technologies Limited (Aug 2022 – Present) - Commissioner – UK National Preparedness Commission (Nov 2020 – Present) - Member of the Advisory Group – Centre for Information Resilience (Feb 2021 – Present) - Senior Fellow – American Enterprise Institute (Oct 2020 – Present) - Columnist – Foreign Policy (Feb 2020 – Present) - Member of the Steering Committee – Aurora Forum (Dec 2019 – Present) - Op-ed contributor – The Times (Dec 2016 – Present) - Non-resident Associate Fellow – European Leadership Network (ELN) (Aug 2017 – Present) - Senior Research Fellow – Royal United Services Institute (Sep 2019 – Oct 2020) - Adjunct Fellow – Centre for European Policy (Jul 2018 – Jul 2019) - Senior Consultant – Control Risks (Jun 2016 – Aug 2018) - Non-resident Senior Fellow – Atlantic Council (Apr 2016 – Jun 2018) ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/elisabethbraw https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabethbraw/ https://rusi.org/people/braw https://www.aei.org/profile/elisabeth-braw/ https://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/person/elisabeth-braw/ https://foreignpolicy.com/author/elisabeth-braw/ https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/elisabeth-braw https://cepa.org/author/elisabeth-braw/ ---------- ARTICLES: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/16/russia-ukraine-gray-zone-warfare-autocrats-democracy-527022 https://www.ft.com/content/0ac9e1a9-2aad-47d9-83fb-4839e9b31b33 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-is-master-of-grey-zone-aggression-t6z2khp69 https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60291/create-a-psychological-defence-agency-to-prebunk-fake-news https://www.aei.org/podcast/elisabeth-braw-on-gray-zone-warfare/ ---------- BOOKS: ‘God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage (2019) The Defender's Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-zone Aggression (2022) Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World (2024)