A review of Subversion: the Strategic Weaponisation of Narratives by Andreas Krieg.
What is truth? Many Daily Sceptic readers may have asked themselves this question over the last few years. The answer is fundamental to what people believe and how they behave – hence the warning often attributed to Voltaire, to the effect that “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”.
This critical, yet difficult-to-define question forms the basis of an important new book by leading academic Andreas Kreig.
Subversion: the Strategic Weaponisation of Narratives is a scholarly contribution to the literature which analyses the ways in which ‘truth’ can be shaped, influenced and manipulated. The book focuses mainly on how Russia, China and Middle Eastern states use ‘information warfare’ techniques to control their own populations, attack the social cohesion of their opponents and influence high level decision makers-in enemy states. Information warfare has a long history, but the internet has increased its effect and importance – artificial intelligence may take it to another level – hence the anxiety in governance circles.
Control of ‘the narrative’ has become more difficult and more critical as information dissemination is decentralised by social media. Krieg elegantly summarises and classifies the way in which governments attempt to remain in control by making “truth… an elite product that the public consumes rather than shapes”. Using examples from his expertise in the complex politics of the Middle East, he explains how dissent can be identified and suppressed, and how official narratives are supported by the mass use of ‘electronic flies’ – an amusing metaphor for the use of bots and trolls to flood social media with reinforcing messages about government policy.
On the offensive side of the ledger, existing cultural, ethnic and political fault lines in liberal democracies can be exploited and widened by polluting the information space with inflammatory content crafted to exacerbate grievances by arousing emotions of anger, fear and disgust.
Subversion contains an important chapter on the Russian approach to information warfare – again this is not news, but it is both relevant and important. The USSR had a long tradition of ‘active measures’ aimed at destabilising Western democracies during the Cold War, and NATO states enthusiastically reciprocated. Daily Sceptic readers may be intrigued to discover the principles underlying Soviet style disinformation campaigns, succinctly summarised by the 4 D’s: Dismiss the Critic, Distort the facts, Distract from the main issue and Dismay the audience.
I’m sure I’ve observed those techniques in action myself recently, rather closer to home. Indeed, my only criticism of this book is the absence of any analysis of the British Government’s use of many information warfare techniques against its own citizens during the Covid ‘crisis’. When Dr. Krieg says that “liberal governments cannot rely on a synchronised media apparatus to communicate policies… without public pushback”, he perhaps overlooks the behaviour of the BBC in recent times.
The most important and relevant parts of Subversion are the last two chapters, where Krieg intelligently outlines the main dilemmas for Western liberal democracies in the information age – how to preserve freedom of expression while simultaneously maintaining information resilience. This conundrum lies at the heart of the tension between the sceptical community and our increasingly authoritarian governments, eager to curtain free speech in the name of ‘protecting democracy’. The outcome of this struggle will determine whether Enlightenment ideals of rationality and intellectual freedom will survive in the 21st Century. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
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