A comprehensive, weekly recap of the news and events that define ASD’s work and mission.
Announcements The Securing Democracy Dispatch will take a break next week to celebrate Thanksgiving. We will resume with a special edition the first week of December. Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main nar [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Predicting Zelenskyy’s Alleged Demise: Russian state media lifted the voices of a cadre of former US officials turned Russian state-media commentators [...]
Our Takes “No one in the political spectrum is happy with where we are from an information standpoint. Everyone looks at our current information system as failing us”, Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told WXXI’s Connections with Evan Dawson in a convers [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: US Sanctions Against Russian Oil Companies: Russian officials and state media outlets condemned US sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft, two Russian o [...]
Our Takes Public and private actors who work to counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) face a proliferating number of state and nonstate actors, new threat vectors, and increasing hostility toward counter-FIMI efforts. Civ [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Tomahawk Missiles for Ukraine: Russian officials strongly denounced news of a possible transfer of US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Russian President [...]
Hamilton 2.0 Analysis Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: Blame Game over Ukraine: Russian messengers last week continued to cast blame on Europe for prolonging the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir [...]
Our Takes Until recently, US-funded media outlets provided an alternative to Russian state propaganda in Moldova. But now, after the Trump administration’s funding cuts, trusted US-funded broadcasters “are slowly but steadily receding from view”, c [...]
Our Takes American conservatives frequently criticize social-media companies for their content-moderation policies and the EU for its social-media regulations, alleging they infringe on freedom of speech. However, the lack of regulation further imp [...]
Our Takes Foreign malign actors, in particular Russia and China, are employing a wide variety of tactics to undermine the integrity of Czechia’s October parliamentary election, including amplifying divisive narratives, deploying AI-generated conten [...]
Our Take Moldova’s 2025 presidential election faces persistent Russian-led hybrid threats—including information warfare, illicit financing, and cyberattacks—aimed at undermining the Moldovan government’s pro-EU agenda and boosting pro-Russian actor [...]
Our Takes “NATO has a different place in the Russian psyche” than the EU, Acting Manager for Europe and Fellow Etienne Soula tells DW News. Russia objects more to Ukraine’s NATO membership than its EU accession because Russia does not view the EU a [...]
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 As devastating wildfires wreaked havoc in Los Angeles earlier this year, the Kremlin leveraged the tragedy to sow division and undermine trust in relief efforts. ASD Senior Fellow Bret Schafer and Los Angeles World Affairs Council &am [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]