Month

March 2021
Outsourcing disinformation and its impact on future conflict and that “firehose” Manufacturing is far from the only thing that can be outsourced or offshored.  Who hasn’t wondered if that call center or help line person to whom we’re talking is located more than 6 time zones away?  It’s likely been going on for some time...
Read More
U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew A. Stroup writes in the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) blog about his proposal for the Navy to invest in expanding and embedding Public Affairs (PA) capabilities into Navy Warfighting Development Centers (WDC). “The time to include PA considerations holistically in the fleet readiness development cycle is now – and...
Read More
The Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum published a piece by two Information Professionals Association (IPA) members on Feb. 25, 2021, describing the efforts of China, Russia, and Iran to disseminate disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic across the Middle East. In “Axis of Disinformation: Propaganda from Iran, Russia, and China on COVID-19,” COL Andrew Whiskeyman, head of U.S....
Read More
It’s been a big week for Information Operations/Information Warfare/Information Advantage.  I read with interest the testimony this week of Acting ASD(SOLIC) Christopher Maier, and two senior officials from USD(I) on “Disinformation in the Gray Zone:  Opportunities, Limitations, Challenges.”  Download the whole thing here:  https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=111323 The title of the hearing and testimony was a bit mis-labeled...
Read More
IPA Members: As many of you know, IPA is co-sponsoring the Phoenix Challenge conference on April 13, 2021, to be held virtually via MS Teams or a similar platform. No later than March 26th we need 6 to 8 IPA member volunteers to act as scribes for the breakout group discussions. Three key points points if...
Read More
Defense and Intelligence Community Experts and Members of Congress examined how to improve U.S. military training and capabilities to counter adversaries’ information operations in the “gray zone” at a hearing March 16 of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations of the House Armed Services Committee. Witnesses noted that U.S. military capabilities are not evolving...
Read More
Rolling Stone has a an article out (February 24th..sorry, somewhat delayed here) about the ethical issues swirling around ‘big tech’ and their decisions (or lack thereof) to police the spaces they create for the exchange of information.  Much has been written about the algorithmic propagation of misinformation on social media platforms which is why this...
Read More
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has posted a recently released report (as a result of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request) delivered to the Department of Defense in October 2008 by the federal JASON science advisory group on technologies to detect deception, titled “Quest for Truth: Deception and Intent Detection,” as well as...
Read More
Editor’s Note: Last Sunday, The Washington Post published a review for a book called The Delusion of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups by William J. Bernstein. While the review is couched with some discussion and reference to the Capitol riots on January 6, the book actually focuses on religious and financial manias (think...
Read More

Recent Comments