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News | June 24, 2021

Arms Control in Today's (Dis)Information Environment Part III

By Jaclyn Kerr Inkstick

Cryptologic Technical Technician 2nd Class Brandon Gibson, from Sacramento, Calif. and Cryptologic Technical Technician 3rd Class Isais Zepeda, from Anthony, N.M., stand the Electronic Warfare Supervisor watch.
EAST CHINA SEA (April 24, 2021) Cryptologic Technical Technician 2nd Class Brandon Gibson, from Sacramento, Calif. and Cryptologic Technical Technician 3rd Class Isais Zepeda, from Anthony, N.M., stand the Electronic Warfare Supervisor watch aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) during routine operations. Barry is assigned to Task Force 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest forward deployed DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Justin Stack)
Cryptologic Technical Technician 2nd Class Brandon Gibson, from Sacramento, Calif. and Cryptologic Technical Technician 3rd Class Isais Zepeda, from Anthony, N.M., stand the Electronic Warfare Supervisor watch.
210424-N-YS413-1063
EAST CHINA SEA (April 24, 2021) Cryptologic Technical Technician 2nd Class Brandon Gibson, from Sacramento, Calif. and Cryptologic Technical Technician 3rd Class Isais Zepeda, from Anthony, N.M., stand the Electronic Warfare Supervisor watch aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) during routine operations. Barry is assigned to Task Force 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest forward deployed DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Justin Stack)
Photo By: Seaman Justin Stack
VIRIN: 210424-N-YS413-1063

How to Enable Trust in the Digital Age

When the Soviet Union covertly continued its massive biological weapons program after signing the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, it disguised programs aimed at the weaponization of smallpox, bubonic plague, anthrax, and other pathogens as civilian medical research. It fabricated alternative explanations for deadly outbreaks caused by facility accidents and arranged elaborate “Potemkin tours” for international inspectors. When the United States seemed close to fielding their new enhanced radiation weapon under the administration of President Jimmy Carter, the Soviets launched a massive covert propaganda campaign through media outlets and front organizations to shift public opinion about the new weapon in Europe and the United States, mobilize protests that threatened NATO coherence, and ultimately alter US strategic decisions around the “neutron bomb.”

Information manipulation and covert influence campaigns have long been tools of sub-threshold strategic competition used to try to influence arms race dynamics, arms control decisions, and the enforceability of compliance and verification regimes. During the Cold War, such massive covert operations were only feasible by great powers. Today, not only are there more actors with potential stakes in arms control decisions, but global connectivity and digitization combined with a panoply of new Digital Age tools make it easier to obfuscate, deny, and manipulate the information environment around arms control.

Read the rest at Inkstick here - 

Dr. Jaclyn Kerr is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University. The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.