Russia has long been waging operations against democracies using all of the asymmetric tools ASD tracks—information manipulation, cyberattacks, malign finance, civil society subversion, and state economic coercion. The Kremlin’s geographic scope in conducting operations to undermine democracy continues to expand and its tactics continue to evolve. Find ASD’s work on Russia’s attempts to interfere in democracies on this page.
Hamilton Toplines: October 31-November 6, 2020
Last week, Russian state media devoted substantial coverage to the U.S. elections. During election week (prior to the presidential race being called for Biden), the outlets continued to showcase various themes characteristic of their coverage of the [...]
Bryce Barros and Brad Hanlon Discuss Russia, China, and Election Disinformation on ‘SpyCast’
Fact vs. Fake. Truth vs. Lies. Information vs. Disinformation. For voters trying to choose between competing parties and candidates the distinction between them would seem to be central. But is it still possible to tell which is which? In this week’ [...]
Hamilton Toplines: October 24-30, 2020
In the last full week of coverage prior to Election Day, Russian state media continued to advance several familiar themes, including promotion of Hunter Biden allegations, claims of media bias, criticism of the two-party system, and claims of improp [...]
Jessica Brandt Discusses Foreign Attempts to Sow Doubt in U.S. Vote Tally
On U.S. Election Day, our social media news feeds will likely be filled with stories about how foreign actors have worked to derail the U.S. election process. Some of those stories might be based in fact. Others will be unfounded rumors. Jessica Bra [...]
Laura Rosenberger in The New York Times: 7 Ways That You Can Save Our Democracy
Americans have heard a lot about threats to the 2020 election. But one of the greatest threats may be a loss of faith in our electoral system itself. The director of the F.B.I., Christopher Wray, told Congress in September that his greatest concern [...]
Josh Rudolph in Dallas Morning News: Beat Russia’s Election Endgame By Keeping the Faith
A Soviet adage suggests Westerners play chess proficiently through the opening and middlegame, only to be overtaken by a surprisingly offensive Soviet endgame. In the days ahead, Russia might stage a come-from-behind endgame attack in the aftermath [...]
Laura Rosenberger Discusses Foreign Interventions in U.S. Campaigns on ‘The Lawfare Podcast’
Director Laura Rosenberger has been working on combating foreign interference in U.S. domestic politics since 2016, and she is the author of two recent significant articles—one in Foreign Affairs and one on Lawfare—both on the subject of foreign inf [...]
Linking Values and Strategy: How Democracies Can Offset Autocratic Advances
In mid-2020, the Alliance for Securing Democracy convened a task force of 30 leading American national security and foreign policy experts to devise a national strategy for the United States to offset autocratic advances in non-military domains of [...]
Clint Watts Discusses Foreign Interference in 2020 Election on ‘Intelligence Matters’
In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts, current Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democra [...]
David Levine in The Fulcrum: Three Takeaways from Election Meddling by Russia and Iran
Last week we learned Russia and Iran are interfering in the 2020 presidential election. That's concerning, but hardly surprising. It's a reminder that Americans need to be vigilant as the election approaches. And there are some common-sense actions [...]
Hamilton Toplines: October 17-23, 2020
The final U.S. presidential debate provided significant fodder for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media to criticize the current state of U.S. democracy. Russian state media provided the most extensive coverage of the debate, with the majority [...]
Laura Rosenberger and Lindsay Gorman in Lawfare: Foreign Interference is a Strategy, Not a Tactic
Geopolitics over the next several decades will be defined by competition between democracies and autocracies. This contest is already playing out across the military, economic and diplomatic domains—and in the information arena as well. As former Pr [...]