StratCom Podcast

#StratComPodcast / S4E1: Information literacy in times of war (with Nika Aleksejeva)

Most likely, it is not the first time that the terms "information literacy" or "digital hygiene" come up. But what do those terms actually mean? Is there a basic skill set we need to acquire to survive this information war? Is there a set of activities each of us can do to protect ourselves from disinformation overflowing social media? And most importantly - can we distinguish pieces of disinformation if we do not really know how it is created? If these questions do bother you, this #StratComPodcast episode aims to clear the air.
 
The conversation with Nika Aleksejeva, Lead Researcher at the Atlantic Council's DFR Lab and Lead Digital Forensic Researcher at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence was recorded 3 months after Russia invaded Ukraine. That was also the period when Kremlin was working overtime in attempts to brainwash both domestic and foreign audiences. Nika gives a highly valuable insight into how information war is constructed - from tactics and messages to channels used. And be sure - if you think that Kremlin's propaganda has not reached you yet, you are most likely scrolling through it already. One thing that can make difference here is your ability to recognize malicious activity online and your willingness to spread the word about the damage it does.

#StratComPodcast / S3E5: Society and digital world: what shapes what? (with Dr Jean-Christophe Boucher)

Nowadays decision-making process on every level is heavily affected by the digital world and social media in particular. While social media can serve to amplify democratic processes and provide a platform that allows for voices to be heard, the lack of control over hectic processes on various platforms gives malicious actors a space and audience to manipulate with. Luckily, any activity in the digital space leaves a trace in the form of a digital footprint, and applied machine learning comes in handy to sort out this massive amount of data. What researchers have learned about the development of society so far? Are we as a society shaping the digital world or digital world shape us?
 
During the Riga StratCom Dialogue 2022 conference this May, #StratComPodcast host Tomas Pildegovičs sat down with Dr. Jean-Christophe Boucher, who is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy and the department of political science at the University of Calgary. At present, his research is focused on applied machine learning to understand how the digital world shapes our society, civil-military relations in Canada, as well as vaccine hesitancy on social media with an aim to develop better communications strategies and tools to increase vaccine uptake.

#StratComPodcast / S3E4: Building Ukrainian resilience: 2014 to 2022 (with Natalya Popovich)

Almost nine months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and there are no doubts that the Kremlin has terribly miscalculated both its military capabilities and Ukrainians' will to resist. For Ukrainians, the war has already started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, and they have been building their capacity in both military, as well as cognitive domains ever since.

#StratComPodcast host Tomas Pildegovičs sat down with the Co-Founder of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center and civic activist Natalya Popovich to dig deeper into the foundations of Ukrainian resilience. Natalya shares her insights into how Ukrainian culture, perception of themselves, and history have changed since the annexation of Crimea and how Ukrainians built the image of "professional resisters" by countering Russian information operations long before the Russian army set foot on their soil. She also elaborates on the issue of putting efforts in resisting the country that has invested hugely into building its brand as a region-dominant culture.

#StratComPodcast / S3E3: What Meta has to say about hybrid threats and social media? (with David Agranovich)

There is one thing that is clear today - social media is another battlefield that nowadays requires a little more than a basic skill set of an internet user to not be fooled. Social media platforms had been widely criticized for the growing level of various threats for social media users versus the lack of response and action from the platforms themselves.

In this episode of the #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs sat down with Mr. David Agranovich, Director of Global Threat Disruption at Meta (former Facebook) to discuss what Meta has already done and what it is planning to do to make the social media platform less attractive or inconvenient to use for threat actors to reach their goals. Mr. Agranovich also shares some insights on what Meta has observed when analysing Kremlin-related activities on the platform after the February 24. 

#StratComPodcast / S3E2: The collapse of illusions: democracy and war (with Raphael Glucksmann)

For several decades Europe has been living in an illusion. Even though Putin's regime has been testing the waters and straining global societies' nerves with provocations of various scales now and then, we were still believing there are no adversaries close by. Russia's unprovoked and horrendous military aggression toward Ukraine has shattered the illusion and left us with many questions - is there room for democracy in times of war? What can Europe learn from Ukraine's democratic resilience? What does it mean to be a European and what values we are not ready to sacrifice to totalitarian regimes?

In this episode of the #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs sat down with Mr. Raphael Glucksmann, Member of the European Parliament, the Chair of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation to discuss democracy in times of war and how European values are more important than ever.

#StratComPodcast / S3E1: Russian information warfare – the perspective of Ukraine

Russian military aggression in Ukraine has fundamentally changed how global society perceives modern warfare. The dominance of state-controlled media, attempts to brainwash domestic and foreign audiences, troll farms overflowing social media with false narratives – these are just a few tools Russia has been using to "sell" its military aggression to a wide range of audiences.

We open the new season of the #StratComPodcast with a highly important conversation tackling Russian hybrid warfare strategies in Ukraine before and during the war. During the Riga StratCom Dialogue 2022 conference #StratComPodcast host Tomas Pildegovičs sat down with Liubov Tsybulska, Founder of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine who has been on the front line of information war and has some substantial insights to share.

#StratComPodcast / S2E4: Surviving in the digital jungle: how open source research fights disinformation

Today's digital information environment is a real jungle full of disinformation traps set to confuse, mislead and scare. While democratic society aims to build its institutions based on objective truth, malicious actors are always present spreading false narratives and mixing up facts to undermine public trust in democratic institutions, deepen unhealthy polarization and gain geopolitical influence by affecting the trust in military and governmental institutions and their actions. How can open source research be useful in identifying, exposing and explaining where and when disinformation occurs and creating a new model of expertise adapted for impact and real-world results?

In the 4th episode of #StratComPodcast Tomass Pildegovičs welcomes Mr Graham Brookie who is Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) - the leading open-source research hub with a focus on governance, technology, security, social media, and where each intersect. By publishing what it can prove, or disprove, in real-time, the DFRLab is creating a new model of research and education adapted for impact. 

#StratComPodcast / S2E3: Is modern day democracy in crisis?

Modern day democracy has suffered a lot. It has been challenged in various aspects starting from government institutions unable to prove their value in modern day society to a changed media landscape facing a fundamental revision of values and acknowledging the shaky meaning of the freedom of speech in the context of the war in Ukraine.

In this episode #StratComPodcast host Tomass Pildegovičs welcomes a guest that played a fundamental role in strengthening the position of Latvia in the international arena during it's first decade after regaining the independence. Dr Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a former president of Latvia who served two terms from 1999 to 2007 and has played a leading role in achieving Latvia’s membership in NATO and the European Union. Madam President is outspoken pundit on social issues, moral values, European historical dialogue, and democracy, member of the Council of Women World Leaders since 1999. Since 2020 Dr Vīķe-Freiberga is a Board Member of the Club de Madrid and has served as its President from 2013 to 2019.

#StratComPodcast / S2E2: #StratCom and Modern Warfare

As information manipulation and propaganda in the digital environment has become an essential and highly effective tool of modern warfare, we have invited Jānis Sārts, Director of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence to share his thoughts on the role of strategic communications in modern warfare and how this reflects in ongoing Kremlin's regime aggression in Ukraine.

#StratComPodcast is hosted by Tomass Pildegovičs, PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge.

#StratComPodcast / S2E1: What is #StratCom?

Today's digitalized information environment has given rise to various actors who use information manipulation to undermine trust in democratic institutions and deepen polarization. The very first episode of #StratComPodcast second season aims to determine what is strategic communications and why it is an essential aspect of global security.

Our first guest is Professor Neville Bolt, Director of the King's Centre for Strategic Communications (KCSC), Reader in Strategic Communications, Department of War Studies, King's College London and Editor-in-Chief of Defence Strategic Communications Journal by NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence.

#StratComPodcast is hosted by Tomass Pildegovičs, PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge.