Our Takes Last week, the Trump administration announced it would close the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the last remaining US federal organ dedicated to tracking and analyzing foreign interference targeting US institutions, elections, and socie [...]
Reactions to the News Gabbard to dissolve Foreign Malign Influence Center: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard plans to dissolve the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC)—an intelligence agency that analyzes and counters foreign inf [...]
Our Takes It is hard to see “much that’s going to change the decision-making calculus in Moscow” about the war in Ukraine given that Russian President Vladimir Putin “sees cracks in Western unity” and that Russia’s “whole economy is propped up to f [...]
Our Takes RT’s and Sputnik’s English-language accounts largely supported US President Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies, casting migrants as “dangerous” and characterizing the crackdown as a necessity. Their Spanish-language counterpar [...]
Announcements Research on information operations rarely extends beyond single-language textual analysis, neglecting “the critical role visuals play in spreading influence.” ASD’s Information Laundromat now contains an automated reverse image detect [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: EU Sanctions: Russian officials and state media criticized new EU and UK sanctions against Russia and called into question their effectiveness. Russia [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: US-Russia Tensions: Russian officials and state media criticized or downplayed US President Donald Trump’s decision to supply more weapons to Ukraine [...]
Our Takes Though foreign and domestic actors exploited societal divisions during Germany’s federal election campaign earlier this year, Kremlin-linked information operations integrated content generated by artificial intelligence (AI), bot networks [...]
Our Takes Foreign authoritarian regimes “know they’re not going to change 250 million minds” directly with information operations. Instead, they flood the zone to seed narratives to be picked up later or to shape search-engine and chatbot responses [...]
Our Takes In an analysis of RT and Sputnik posts on Telegram and X in 2024, ASD found 308 links to mirror websites, podcasts, or proxy accounts that allowed them to circumvent EU bans and continue reaching European audiences. “A complete ban is imp [...]
Announcements Next Wednesday, June 11 and Thursday, June 12, GMF will host the 20th annual Brussels Forum. ASD’s Managing Director, David Salvo, will moderate two discussions, one about the future of American democracy and another about the challen [...]
Announcements Rapid technological change places new pressures on democracies, but the speed of innovation offers opportunities to build democratic values into new systems. GMF Technology will explore this topic in an online event moderated by ASD V [...]
Announcements US foreign adversaries have targeted American communities far beyond the Beltway with information manipulation. Join ASD and World Affairs Council of Charlotte for an in-person discussion on how this impacts communities in North Carol [...]
Announcements US foreign adversaries have targeted American communities far beyond the Beltway with information manipulation. Join ASD and World Affairs Council of Charlotte for an in-person discussion on how this impacts communities in North Carol [...]
Announcements Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the information ecosystem, but it is also being weaponized by authoritarian actors to undermine democracy. Register here to join ASD and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy for an in-p [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF has joined Bluesky! Follow us @securedemocracy.bsky.social. Our Takes The Trump administration’s attempts to shut down Voice of America and other US-funded outlets offer “greater opportunity for Washington’s adversaries t [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF has joined Bluesky! Follow us @securedemocracy.bsky.social. Our Takes “TeleSUR provides a proxy for Chinese and Russian propaganda to enter Latin America with a veneer of credibility.” Watch Senior Investigative Research [...]
In March, Russian political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, sometimes credited as a source of inspiration behind the Kremlin, spoke to the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. He predicted an interesting development in Italian politics: Prime Ministe [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF has joined Bluesky! Follow us @securedemocracy.bsky.social. Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Trump’s Tariffs: Russian state media speculated about the US-Pe [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF has joined Bluesky! Follow us @securedemocracy.bsky.social. Our Takes The Venezuelan state-owned outlet TeleSUR “serves as a vehicle” to advance Caracas’ influence and that of its authoritarian allies—including Russia, Ch [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF is hiring! Applications are open for our Washington, DC-based research traineeship for Summer 2025. Apply here. Our Takes “Ukraine has demonstrated in the starkest terms that modern warfare is fought on the battlefield an [...]
Announcements ASD at GMF is hiring! Applications are open for our Washington, DC-based research traineeship for Summer 2025. Apply here. Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas moderated a GMF discussion about how the EU should respon [...]
Announcements With foreign information manipulation and interference posing a growing threat to democracies worldwide, how should the EU adapt? ASD Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas will moderate GMF’s virtual discussion on this [...]
Our Takes Belgian authorities’ recent raid of more than 20 addresses, including Huawei’s Brussels offices, as part of an investigation into alleged bribery of members of the European Parliament could bring more European leaders to recognize Huawei’ [...]
Announcements ASD has updated its Authoritarian Interference Tracker to include a sixth vector of Russia’s and the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) interference in democracies: kinetic operations. ASD defines kinetic operations as “the deliberate [...]
Our Takes RT Deutsch, Russian state media’s primary German-language outlet, has lost much of its audience due to bans imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Its content lives on, however, through new, clandestine channels such as podcast recordings [...]
Our Takes US Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference strengthened Europe’s perception that the United States has begun meddling in its internal politics, which could “drive a wedge” of a magnitude greater than during prev [...]
Our Takes US foreign adversaries understand that state and local communities are foundational to the strength of American democracy and are increasingly targeting Americans with information manipulation closer to where they live. Research Assistant [...]
Our Takes Russian and the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media leveraged US President Donald Trump’s statements about the Panama Canal to reinforce their longstanding narratives about the international order, including throu [...]
On December 21, 2024, then-US President-elect Donald Trump demanded that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States from Panama if the latter continued to charge US vessels what he described as “exorbitant” and “ridiculous” rates. A day later [...]
Our Takes Regardless of who occupies the White House, Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) still see the United States as the world’s hegemon and have “a vested interest in pushing back” against Washington worldwide, Co-Managing Director [...]
Our Takes The second Trump administration finds a Kremlin that is unlikely to reach a quick deal over Ukraine or cease its malign behavior, even if offered US concessions. Co-Managing Director David Salvo offers five recommendations to guide Washin [...]
Our Takes Russian state-affiliated accounts have leveraged the destructive wildfires in Los Angeles to sow division, undermine trust in relief efforts, and question support for Ukraine, even amplifying a misleading image generated by artificial int [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Halt of Russian Natural Gas in Europe: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared that responsibility for halting Russi [...]
Announcements This is the Dispatch’s final edition of 2024. We will resume our usual publishing schedule on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Happy holidays to all our readers! Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main [...]
Our Takes Especially after Iran targeted US President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election cycle, his incoming administration should build on existing US government work to counter foreign interference in the United States, including by maintain [...]
Announcements Co-Managing Director David Salvo moderated a panel on democratic resilience at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 70th Annual Session in Montreal. Read about the conclusions agreed at the summit here! Our Takes The chief task for str [...]
Announcements The Securing Democracy Dispatch will take a break next week to celebrate Thanksgiving! We will resume the following week. Come work with us! ASD is hiring a Washington, DC-based research trainee for Spring 2025. Learn more and apply h [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Nuclear Threat: Russian state media escalated its nuclear warmongering, following several public statements from government officials and national sec [...]
Our Takes Leading up to Election Day, Russian influence campaigns shifted from targeting candidates or policies to eroding Americans’ “trust of the actual administration” of the elections, recognizing confidence around the process as a “real fault [...]