Russia, China, and the so-called Islamic State are three key U.S. adversaries that have exploited online technologies for propaganda. This chapter reviews the aims, capabilities, and limitations of online propaganda for each of these entities.
Airpower is critical to strengthening deterrence and reinvigorating NATO's warfighting competencies in response to Russia's aggressive actions and continued military modernization. The authors assess the contributions Europe's air forces could make to NATO's defense and deterrent posture at the vanguard—playing a significant role at the outset of any high-intensity collective defense operation.
This article aims to show that there is more continuity than contrast between Russian cyber perspectives and practice.
Given the size and scope of the Russian propaganda campaign that targeted the U.S. electorate in 2016, it is critical to understand the impact of that campaign and mechanisms that can reduce the impact of future campaigns. This report, the third in a series, describes a study that assessed how people react to and engage with this propaganda, and found that media literacy advisories and labeling the source of the propaganda had a counter effect.
During a June 2018 original RAND Black Sea security game, subject-matter experts role-played regional governments during a military crisis scenario to explore Russian military, economic, and political levers of power in the Black Sea. The game and associated research underscored Russia's relative strength in the Black Sea and challenges associated with developing a coherent response to Russian aggression in the region.
This report, the second in a series on information efforts by foreign actors, describes what appears to be an instance of election interference on Twitter using trolls (fake personas spreading a variety of hyperpartisan themes) and superconnectors (highly networked accounts that can spread messages effectively and quickly). The report describes the methods used to identify the questionable accounts and lists recommendations for response.
For decades, Russia has used political, military, economic, informational, and clandestine tools to advance its goals of establishing a privileged sphere of influence in the Black Sea region and enhancing its capabilities for national defense and wider power projection. In this report, the authors review those tactics and identify elements of a Western strategy to protect mutual interests and counter Russian malign influence and aggression.
Russia might try to manipulate and divide U.S. voters via social media during the U.S. political campaign season of 2020. RAND researchers sought to analyze, forecast, and mitigate threats by foreign actors targeting local, state, and national elections. This report, the first of four in a series, reviews some of the research on information efforts by foreign actors, focusing mainly on Russia and online environments.
This paper analyzes Russia's use of force in Ukraine since the end of major combat operations in February 2015.
This paper argues that viewing Russia's actions through the lens of the concept "sderzhivanie" can help Western analysts and decision-makers better understand the drivers of Moscow's behavior.
