Title: Disinformation and Reflexive Control: The New Cold War – Georgetown Security Studies Review
Headings: Disinformation and Reflexive Control: The New Cold War
Disinformation and Reflexive Control: The New Cold War
Reflexive Control
One Piece of the Puzzle
Distinguishing Truth From Falsehood

Content: While the success of these actions is debatable, ultimately Russia achieved what it set out to do: Russia projected the Ukraine campaign as a response to NATO expansion, dissuaded the West from getting involved, and managed to drum up support amongst Russians in Ukraine by framing the violence as bottom-up. One Piece of the Puzzle
Russia employed similar tactics in the recent American elections. Throughout the general election campaign, Russia produced bouts of false information by utilizing botnets, paid human ‘trolls’, and fake news articles and sites. For example, studies have linked election stories such as Hillary Clinton’s perceived ill-health or that of the ‘fake Trump protestor’ (who was supposedly paid by the Hillary campaign to protest Trump) to Russian fake news sites. [ ix] Some argue that these tactics were employed specifically to help Donald Trump win, but that explanation fails to account for the broader role reflexive control plays in Russian strategy. While Trump’s win may have aligned with the Kremlin’s interests, reflexive control in Russian national security strategy is specifically aimed at manipulating and undermining a state’s decision-making process. [ x] That is, Russia’s goal is not just to elect a certain candidate in the United States, but to fundamentally undermine the democratic decision-making process to ‘win’ its information war against the West. [ xi] Accordingly, Russian disinformation will continue to undermine our political system and act as a direct national security threat to the United States for the foreseeable future. Distinguishing Truth From Falsehood
Given the ‘rapid, continuous, and repetitive’ nature of Russian disinformation, the United States cannot combat Russian reflexive control strategies through traditional counter-propaganda. [