A comprehensive, weekly recap of the news and events that define ASD’s work and mission.
Our Take The Kremlin’s prolonged efforts to airbrush Russian history have recently become a messaging priority for the country’s diplomatic and government messengers abroad, as evidenced by a recent Twitter campaign targeting #WWII historical narra [...]
Our Take The widely varying disclosure standards set by social media companies in some ways serve to confuse the general public, warned Director Laura Rosenberger in an interview with OpenSecrets. One of the goals of the Chinese Community Party’s d [...]
Our Take Chinese information operations are a significant, growing threat to Western democracies, as well as social media platforms that remain vulnerable to manipulation by foreign actors seeking to interfere in democratic debate, argued Co-Direct [...]
Announcements The Alliance for Securing Democracy launched Hamilton 2.0, a new dashboard tracking Russian government-backed information operations online and on state-sponsored broadcast television. The interactive, publicly accessible dashboard ca [...]
Announcements The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) announced today that Zack Cooper, Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has joined our team as Co-Director, bringing extensive experience in Chinese statecraft to the role. Jam [...]
Our Take Beijing’s use of English-language inauthentic social media accounts demonstrates its desire to manipulate the flow of information outside its borders, argued Director Laura Rosenberger to the Washington Post. Using fake social media posts [...]
Our Take The Kremlin’s operatives are adept at jumping on divisive narratives in the news cycle, with the goal of dividing Americans, noted Director Laura Rosenberger in the Washington Post. The United States should pay greater attention to Russia’ [...]
Our Take Online platforms should conduct takedowns in a clear and consistent manner, rather than in response to intermittent public pressure, Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman told the Washington Post. To close tempting entry points f [...]
Our Take Participating in our democracy is one important way to protect it, argued Director Laura Rosenberger in an interview with the Bertelsmann Foundation. Political leaders on both sides of the aisle must come together to secure American electi [...]
Our Take In testimony to Congress last week, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller highlighted the scope of the threat posed by Russian interference, Director Laura Rosenberger emphasized for NPR and in Just Security. On NPR’s All Things Considered [...]
Our Take States need additional federal funding to address election security vulnerabilities, according to a report co-authored by ASD Deputy Director David Salvo and Head of External Affairs Rachael Dean Wilson with the Brennan Center for Justice, [...]
Our Take It is imperative the United States secure forms of advanced technologies that underlie our economy and military, ASD Advisory Council member Michael Chertoff argues in an opinion piece for CNBC. Modern Russia is ideologically amorphous, AS [...]
News and Commentary Joint Staff report urges whole-of-government response to Russian malign influence: The United States still does not understand the scope of the Russian government’s aggression, including its use of disinformation, political infl [...]
Our Take Europe needs a continent-wide buy-in on a new strategic approach to tackling authoritarian interference, ASD argues in a comprehensive report that details European efforts to defend against such threats and identifies specific, actionable [...]
Our Take Partisan politics stands in the way of implementing many commonsense measures to address foreign interference in U.S. democratic processes, ASD Deputy Director Dave Salvo argues in an op-ed for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Disinformation su [...]
Our Take AI-powered systems generate modified content and advance digital forgeries that are harmful to American interests, said ASD Non-Resident Senior Fellow Clint Watts testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The [...]
Our Take Political campaigns lack the necessary resources and expertise to defend against cyberattacks, ASD Director Laura Rosenberger said to the New York Times. The US-China “tech cold war” puts Europe in the middle, writes ASD Fellow for Emergin [...]
Our Take Insight into the state of political affairs in Europe: ASD Senior Fellow Kristine Berzina appeared on Euronews’ Raw Politics to discuss the fallout from the recent Austrian political scandal and the latest developments related to the Europ [...]
Our Take The Kremlin’s use of malign finance to undermine democracy: ASD Director Laura Rosenberger will testify before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment on “Undermining Democracy: [...]
Our Take Internet Research Agency (IRA) operatives attempt to hijack American social movements: ASD Social Media Analyst Bret Schafer’s essay on the IRA’s imitation of African-American activists online, featured in the National Urban League’s State [...]
Our Take Russia’s use of the “Energy Weapon” to interfere in democracy: ASD, in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), published The Energy Weapon, the second in a series on vectors of Russian malign influence, which ex [...]
Our Take In Foreign Affairs, ASD Co-directors Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly argue that policymakers should put partisanship aside to work together to secure election systems and set consequences for foreign actors that interfere with U.S. democra [...]
Our Take Together with the Bertelsmann Foundation, ASD will host a screening of the film, Harmony: Latvian Democracy at Russia's Doorstep, on tomorrow, Tuesday, April 16th from 6:00 to 7:00 PM at Landmark’s E Street Cinema in downtown Washington, D [...]
Our Take ASD Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman spoke at the NATO Engages 2019 event last week. Gorman argued that NATO and its member states are not ready to face the challenges of emerging technology in the interference space, as the [...]
Our Take Following the conclusion of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, ASD published a fact sheet on Russian interference. As it illustrates, “Russian interference operations against the United States during the 2016 presidential election we [...]
Our Take ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum published a digital brief on the national security dangers of opaque foreign investment, arguing that “undeclared foreign investments allow malign actors to cultivate political influence, gain economic [...]
Our Take In a new paper, ASD Director Laura Rosenberger and Research Assistant Tom Morley show how the Russian government and its proxies nurture and shape illiberal populist movements as a means of destabilizing the West. Earlier this month, Rosen [...]
Our Take ASD Co-directors Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly spoke about how Russia, China, and others use the authoritarian toolkit to interfere in democracies with Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center for National Security at the [...]
Our Take ASD Director Laura Rosenberger and Co-Director Jamie Fly spoke at the George W. Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs last week. They also gave an [...]
Our Take ASD Co-Directors Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly published an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News arguing that “political divisions, which Russia's efforts exploit, are hindering our ability to respond forcefully to this threat [of foreign in [...]
Our Take ASD’s Brad Hanlon and Tom Morley examined the hidden relationship between trendy, English-language social media programs on allegedly independent media networks and Russian state-sponsored media company RT, in a story picked up by CNN. The [...]
Our Take Updates to the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Authoritarian Interference Tracker highlight Russian state-sponsored media outlets’ efforts to discredit adversaries and to manipulate social media using inauthentic accounts. News and Comm [...]
Our Take ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum testified on January 29th before the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion, and Tax Avoidance regarding the vulnerability of the European Union’s financial institutio [...]
Our Take ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum spoke with ProPublica about the slow pace of reform in anti-money laundering enforcement for hedge funds, noting that: “It’s the kind of thing that should have taken two to three years, not 17.” Kirsch [...]
Our Take ASD’s Thomas Morley argued that “a rising tide of populism, nationalism, extremism, and illiberalism continued to upend politics” in the past year, and these trends will likely continue in 2019, affecting elections throughout the transatla [...]
Our Take ASD’s David Salvo commented on espionage allegations levelled against American Paul Whelan, for ABC News. Salvo joined a number of intelligence experts in analyzing the veracity of Russia’s claims. ASD’s Bret Schafer discussed Russian disi [...]
Our Take On December 28th, ASD and partner C4ADS published a case study on the First Czech-Russian Bank, exposing how the private Russian bank became a key vector for Russian interference in Europe, exploiting campaign finance loopholes and other s [...]
Dear readers, we will resume our newsletter after the holidays, on January 7, 2019. As the year comes to a close, please consider donating to the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD). Your financial support is critical to our efforts to defend demo [...]
Our Take ASD's Authoritarian Interference Tracker is now live! The Tracker catalogs over 400 incidents of Russian government interference in 42 countries since 2000. You can explore the tracker here. You can also watch ASD’s event that launched the [...]
Our Take ASD's Authoritarian Interference Tracker is now live! The Tracker catalogs over 400 incidents of Russian government interference in 42 countries since 2000. You can explore the tracker here. You can also watch ASD’s event that launched the [...]