On Nov. 9, 2019 we mark the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall—a year synonymous with the end of the Cold War, the ideological defeat of the USSR, the victory of freedom of expression over censorship, democracy over authoritarianism. Thirty years later talk of Cold War with the Soviet Union have been replaced with “Information War” with Russia, referring to the mix of hacks and covert social media campaigns the Kremlin used to influence the 2016 U.S. election, a mere psy-op scratch compared to the larger campaigns it launches against its neighbours in the region. Barely a week goes by without some new policy report (I’ve authored at least two myself) or a former official warning the U.S. is losing the ‘information war’. But it’s a concept that should be treated with caution. Inside Russia ‘information war’ has grown to represent much more than a mere set of media tricks. It’s a worldview and an interpretation of history that annuls the values victorious in 1989, and it’s becoming more popular across the world. As I explored in my latest book, the most dangerous part of information war could be the idea of information war itself.
OP-ED
Peter Pomerantsev: Stop thinking of ‘information war’ with Russia
Russian soldiers dressed in historical uniforms march during the military parade at Red Square in Moscow on Nov. 7, 2019, as part of the ceremonies marking the 78th anniversary of the 1941 historical parade, when Red Army soldiers marched past the Kremlin walls towards the front line to fight Nazi Germany troops during World War II.
