JASON Magazine, Jaargang 42 (2017), Nummer 1: Information Warfare by Stichting Jason

MAGAZINE

INFORMATION WARFARE International peace- and security questions * volume 42 * issue 1 * 2017

JASON MAGAZINE

Colophon

JASON Magazine is the periodical of the JASON Institute Chief Editors Rik van Dijk Daniël Stuke

Senior Editors Dana Cohen Rik van Dijk Floris Grijzenhout Ilias halbgewachs Daniël Stuke

Editors Bas Kleijweg panos Kontogiannis Giles longley-Cook Emanuel Skoog Elena Ursu Wouter Witteveen

Design Ervee design & drukwerk (Ruud van der Vegt)

Sub-editing and Coordination Geschreven en Gedrukt Communicatie (hans van der lee) Printing Drukkerij noordhoek, Aalsmeer

Executive Board Chairman – Cherissa Appelman Secretary – Bente Scholtens Treasurer – Floris Duvekot External relations – loesje van leeuwen pR & acquisition – Eline hietbrink Editorial office – Rik van Dijk/Daniël Stuke Events coordinator – hanif Moshaver General Board Dr. laurens van Apeldoorn Dr. Francoise de Companjen Col. Marco hekkens, RnlMC (ret.) Bart hogeveen MA, llM pim van der putten MA Ms Marjolein de Ridder MA Ms Elsa Schrier MA Col. niels Woudstra, Rnln Advisory Board Chairman – Dr. W.F. van Eekelen prof. dr. E. Bakker lt. Gen. J. Broeks, RnlA Col. M. hekkens, RnlMC (ret.) Cmdre M. hijmans, Rnln prof. dr. J. lindley-French A. Baron van lynden R.D. praaning Ms l.F.M. Sprangers MA

Contents 04

Cyber warfare

Stuxnet

The Crossing of a Normative Rubicon in Cyberspace

08 12 16 19 23

Emanuel Skoog Cyber warfare; war crimes

Cyber Warfare before the ICC A Hypothesis of (UN)Accountability?

Elena Ursu

Western paranoia towards Russia

Russian Influence: A DIY Trojan Horse Giles longley-Cook

Russian disinformation and media

Russia is Winning the Information War Fake News, Real Consequences Dana Cohen Internet trolls

Hybrid Trollfare

The Future Strategic Use of Internet Trolls

Rik van Dijk

ISSn 0165-8336

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29 32 36 40

Mistakes of mainstream media

neither the JASon Institute nor the JASon Magazine editorial office is responsible for the views expressed in the contributions to this magazine.

Floris van Wieren

JASON MAGAZINE

EDIToRIAl Dear reader,

Whistleblowers

As Clean as a Whistleblower Bas Kleijweg

propaganda in the Greek media landscape

Media in Times of Crisis

The case of the Greek bailout referendum

panos Kontogiannis

Information warfare; rise of Miloševic ´

Miloševic’s ´ Rise to Power

A chronicle of old-school information warfare

Wouter Witteveen Boekrecensie

Oh, Oh, Europa

Floris Grijzenhout Website pick

Slavery is not Dead, it is Thriving Agata Chmiel

JASON Activity Report

The strategic use of information has always been an integral part of geopolitical reality. Yet today, it is perhaps more fundamental than ever. With the ascendance of the internet and cyberspace as a Theater of operations, the (mis)use of information finds itself front and centre in current discussions of security. Therefore, it is only fitting that this issue of JASon Magazine should be all about information wars. our leading story describes how digital weapons such as Stuxnet have raised the stakes in modern cyber warfare, and lays out some of the threats associated with the proliferation of cyber-attack capabilities. In the same vein, possibilities for the international legal system to ensure accountability for cyber-aggression are thoroughly explored in a separate article.

But there is more to information wars than just cyber-attacks. Consider for instance the use of internet trolls to influence the internal political dynamics of other nations, or the rapid spread of misinformation via a stream of fake news stories. These issues are disconcerting to any observer, but our articles aim to provide you with some handles to gain a better grasp on the matter. of course, the topic of propaganda cannot be left out of the discussion. one article uses the case of the 2015 Greek bailout referendum to examine the issue of propaganda in the media landscape – both in Greece and beyond. Meanwhile, the sly use of propaganda by Miloševic ´ to enable his personal rise to power in Serbia is an interesting example of old-school information warfare.

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These and many other thought-provoking stories are included: the subject of information warfare is complicated and varied, and it is our hope that this latest issue of JASon Magazine reflects that. We will leave the final verdict up to you. Enjoy reading! Rik van Dijk and Daniël Stuke Chief editors JASON Magazine

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Stuxnet

JASON MAGAZINE Cyber warfare

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The Crossing of a Normative Rubicon in Cyberspace

When the U.S. dropped two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, a novel era in warfare was ushered in with far-reaching ramifications with which the world is still trying to come to terms. However, the great oxymoron is that in its quest to contain further nuclear proliferation it may have opened up a new theater of war with the deployment of the computer worm Stuxnet in cyberspace. Stuxnet is the Hiroshima bomb of cyber-war: invisible, anonymous and devastating. With its deployment, a normative Rubicon has been crossed with incalculable long-term consequences for the weaponization of cyberspace and how future conflicts will develop and be fought. EMAnUEl SKooG

peration “Olympic Games” was the classiﬁed codename for the covert and unacknowledged campaign using sabotage by cyber disruptions directed at Iranian nuclear facilities by, most probably, U.S. and Israeli experts working in tandem to curtail Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Its aim was to slow down the nation’s perceived advancement towards the building of a nuclear bomb without engaging in a traditional military attack. It was initiated during the George W. Bush administration in 2006, which saw very few good options in dealing with Iran. e operation was subsequently accelerated during the Obama administration. Such was its importance that operation “Olympic Games” was probably the most substantial covert manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum since World War II, when cryptanalysts broke the Enigma cipher, allowing access to Nazi codes1. e U.S. government only recently admitted to developing cyber-weapons. is appears to have been the ﬁrst time the U.S. has repeatedly used cyber-weapons to cripple another country’s infrastructure, 40

accomplishing with a computer worm what until then could only be achieved by physically bombing a country or dispatching agents to plant explosive devices on the ground. The world’s firsT digiTal weapon e cyber-weapons deployed as part of “Olympic Games” became inadvertently exposed when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran in January 2010 and observed that the centrifuges used to

found malicious files on one of the systems and in the process discovered the world’s first digital weapon. It came to be known as Stuxnet. Instead of merely hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, its intention was to cause physical damage to the equipment the computers controlled. Stuxnet was reportedly credited with having destroyed roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and was instrumental in curtailing the country’s ability to develop its alleged nuclear weapons program. Irrespective of how well it worked, there is no question that

Stuxnet is the hiroshima bomb of cyber-warfare

enrich uranium gas were falling at an unparalleled rate, with its original cause a complete mystery. Five months later a computer security ﬁrm in Belarus was called in to examine a number of computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting. Once again, the presumed underlying primary cause behind it was an enigma, until they

Stuxnet was something novel; at the very least it can be seen as a blueprint for a new way of attacking industrial-control systems2. However, the most integral thing about Stuxnet is that it is now publically known and so is a growing realization about the potency of such weapons to reap largescale havoc.

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s Stuxnet is the Hiroshima bomb of cyber-war: invisible, anonymous and devastating.

The alTering face of warfare e deployment of Stuxnet and similar cyber-weapons was a gamechanger, since it highlighted the potential to cause actual physical damage to “real-world” infrastructure. Moreover, it has the potential to establish a precedent of attacking another country’s physical infrastructure by the deployment of computer worms, changing global military strategy in the 21st century3. is utter destructive power of cyberweapons such as Stuxnet led former Director of the National Security Agency and retired four-star general Keith B. Alexander to reach the conclusion that such weapons are as integral to warfare in the 21st century as

nuclear arms were during the 20th century4. Furthermore, the deployment of Stuxnet could be called the ﬁrst act of war unattributable to a particular actor. e implications of that concept are farreaching because cyber-weapons pose

practical problems of identifying the source behind a potential attack. Deterrence in cyber-warfare is more uncertain than in, for instance, nuclear strategy. ere is no concept of mutually

After land, sea, air and space, warfare has entered the fifth domain: cyberspace. This is, for instance, exemplified by nATo’s decision at the Wales Summit in 2014 to sanction an Enhanced Cyber Defence policy and by the recognition that cyber-attacks have the potential to be as destructive to modern societies as conventional attacks10. Furthermore, the declaration endorses the possibility of invoking Article 5 (stipulating that an armed attack on any of its member states should be viewed as an attack on all) following a cyber-attack, hence equating it with “an armed attack” in certain situations. however, a decision as to when a cyber-attack would lead to the invocation of Article 5 would be taken by the north Atlantic Council on a case-bycase basis11.

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Cyber warfare

Former Director of the National Security Agency and retired four-star general Keith B. Alexander equated the role cyber-weapons such as Stuxnet would play in 21st century warfare to the role nuclear weapons did during the 20th century.

However, what has really surprised cyber-experts is both the speed with which others, such as Iran, were able to do the same, and the general proliferation of cyber-attack capabilities. is is a sign of how cyber-attacks have the potential to be a force-equalizer between diﬀerent nation states which otherwise might have very dissimilar capabilities8. Since Stuxnet came to the world’s attention, there have already been numerous attacks on various critical infrastructure systems. A malware program known as BlackEnergy, attributed by the Ukrainian state security service to statesponsored hackers from Russia, shut down 30 electricity substations in Ukraine in connection with the ongoing hostilities in the country, while the deployment of Shamoon further accentuates the rapid escalation of the

assured destruction (MAD), the dividing line between criminality and war is vague and retaliation need not be limited to cyberspace5. Cyber-weapons are most eﬀective in the hands of large nation states; however, since they are relatively inexpensive, they may be most useful to the comparatively weak mostly non-state actors such as terrorist groups or criminal networks. is raises questions on how to best develop a functional deterrent against such actors.

novel weapon in their arsenal to try and stop it6. With Stuxnet becoming publicly known, the U.S. effectively legitimized the use of cyber-attacks outside the framework of an overt military conflict. It also seems to have emboldened Iran to carry out its own cyber-attacks in retribution for the attacks on the Saudi Arabian oil firm Saudi Aramco in 2012 with the deployment of the computer virus Shamoon7. No one within the cyber-

Stuxnet and cyber-warfare in a broader context are essentially about the growing proliferation of capabilities. When the U.S. and Israel thought Iran had crossed a line deemed unacceptable, they used a

expert community was astonished that ﬁrst tier cyber-states such as the U.S. the U.K., China, Israel and Russia were capable of carrying out destructive attacks on critical infrastructure systems.

With the deployment of Stuxnet we have crossed a threshold in cyberspace cyber-arms race with devastating consequences9. conclusion e great oxymoron is that the development of nuclear weapons which the U.S. has worked to restrict among states it deems hostile ever since it ﬁrst deployed them, is very diﬃcult to develop. It requires substantial resources attributed to a nation state and their usage has been limited due to recognizable deterrents such as the concept of MAD. However, by

comparison cyber-weapons are easy to develop and their use is not limited by any obvious deterrents. In order to bring an end to Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program and escape a known danger, the U.S. might have accelerated the development of a greater one. is crossing of a normative Rubicon within cyberspace has opened a Pandora’s Box with hard to evaluate long-term consequences pertaining to the weaponization of cyberspace and how future conﬂicts will develop and be fought. e only certainty is that there is no turning back. Summary Stuxnet’s potential to cause extensive physical damage to real-world infrastructure could previously only be achieved with traditional military attacks. The development and revelation of the computer worm ushered in a new era in cyberspace and changed warfare forever.

Biography Emanuel Skoog assists Swedish companies in their business internationalization development in the Benelux. Furthermore, he has worked and studied in Australia, Spain, Sweden, the Benelux and the United Kingdom.

t NATO decided at the Wales Summit in 2014 to sanction an Enhanced Cyber Defence Policy and recognized that cyber-attacks have the potential to be as destructive to modern societies as conventional attacks.

The deployment of Stuxnet changed global military strategy in the 21st century

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Cyber War fare before the ICC

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Cyber warfare; war crimes

A Hypothesis of (UN)Accountability?

space by States must comply with existing obligations under international law, and ensure the protection of human rights, and other fundamental rights and jus cogens norms. Moreover, States shall not use proxies to commit internationally wrongful acts by means of cyber technologies, and shall also ensure that their territory is not used by third parties to commit such acts. Furthermore, NATO’s 2016 summit

whaT is a cyber-aTTack? If we are to adopt a conservative deﬁnition of cyber-attacks based on academic, legal and military deﬁnitions and literature, within the broader context of cyberwar, thus excluding cyber-crime, the result would be something very similar to this: a cyberattack consists of actions (e.g. illegal access, interception, interference, forgery etc.) taken to undermine the functions of

in Warsaw recognized that cyberspace has become a domain of warfare.

a computer system for a political or national security purpose. Based on the considerations above and on the tentative deﬁnition, cyber-attacks could meet the threshold of an act of aggression. Nevertheless, the lack of a clear, universally accepted deﬁnition of cyber-attack in the context of cyber warfare renders prosecution almost impossible. For example, military attacks are predominantly illegal, with the exceptions of self-defence (Article 51, UN Charter) or upon authorization by the UN Security Council (Article 42, UN Charter). Although, the vast majority of economic and diplomatic

In cyber warfare an attack does not involve physical contact between armies

s The New offices of the International Criminal Court.

The international community faces a new challenge in confronting the use of force as front lines assume an extraterritorial dimension: the cyberspace. And so does the international legal system that has to adapt its norms in order to both deter and hold accountable perpetrators of cyber warfare. It has been argued that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is one of the few mechanisms that, in the foreseeable future, could ensure accountability within the scope of the crime of aggression. What are the possibilities of prosecuting cyber warfare within the current jurisdiction of the ICC, and what are the most pressing challenges when it comes to proving that a cyber-attack can indeed amount to an act of aggression? ElEnA URSU

he issue of information security has been on the agenda of the international community for decades. On the proposal of the Russian Federation, the UN General Assembly has adopted resolution A/RES/53/70, inviting all Member States, inter alia, to work toward the development of “international principles that would enhance the security of global information and telecommunications systems and help to combat information terrorism and criminality”. Ever since, four Groups of Governmental Experts have examined the threats stemming from the cyber sphere. eir ﬁndings call for compliance with international law, and reiterate that the UN Charter is applicable to the cyberspace in its entirety: “in their use of ICTs, States must observe, among other principles of international law, State sovereignty, the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, and nonintervention in the internal aﬀairs of other States.” Hence, the use of cyber-

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Whereas in traditional warfare the physical deployment of military force is one of the most emblematic aspects, in cyber warfare an attack can take a great variety of forms, from malicious hacking to systems disruptions, without involving physical contact between armed forces. Scenarios of every kind have been sketched and analyzed by academia and the military: viruses that disable the normal functioning of stock markets, encrypted messages that shut nuclear reactors, or cause the blackout of air traffic control and many more. In the scholarly and military community cyberattacks assume the features of catastrophically damaging acts, but what all these scenarios truly have in common is that the use of force evolves from physical to virtual. Scholars have claimed that it is urgent and necessary to ponder on the language used in describing those situations where conflicts go beyond physical borders, and use specific terminology that refers to non-physical conflicts. Given that the increasing number of non-state actors and the disaggregation of warfare have created new categories of territoriality and types of attacks, definitions should be created, or amended, so as to become inclusive and satisfy legal thresholds.

crime that could encompass cyberwarfare in its acts, means the “planning, preparation, initiation or execution, by a person in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State, of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations”. e second part of the definition lists a series of conducts that constitute acts of aggression according to the UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of 14 December 1974. ese include invasion, bombardment, blockade, attacking the armed forces of another state, contravening agreements to station forces on the territory of another state, offering the territory of a state for attacks to be launched to third States, sending armed bands or group to carry out attacks in another state. Fundamentally, the crime of aggression is the incarnation of individual criminal liability for unauthorized, thus illegal, use of force. And, as the International Court of Justice rightly ponders in the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion, the UN Charter regarding the prohibition of the use of force applies to “any use of force, regardless of the weapons employed”. For the sake of argument, let us dwell on a concrete example of alleged acts of

The lack of a universally accepted definition of cyber-attack makes prosecution impossible

measures, even if they cause loss of lives and target weak States, are not, on the whole, disallowed by the UN Charter. e question arising is: given a scale of licit and illicit, permissible and impermissible, where are cyber-attacks situated? For the purpose of the Rome Statute, ‘crime of aggression’, arguably the one

cyber warfare. During the RussianGeorgian conflict of 2008, cyber-attacks have been used as a means of engaging in a conflict that had already erupted. More specifically, between July 20 and August 13, most websites of the Georgian government and media were made unavailable. A number of experts believe that these disruptions were caused in order to reduce the decision-

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Cyber warfare; war crimes

making capability of the Georgian government, as well as its possibility of communicating with their allies, thus impairing operational mobility of Georgian forces. cyber-aTTacks as aggression To begin, the cyber-attacks have to be weighed against the definition of the crime of aggression. Let us assume that the perpetrator was “in a position effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State”. If so, what are the specific criteria to establish the character, gravity and scale of the manifest violation presumed to be aggression – in our case, the disruption of governmental and media websites? And finally, given that the seven acts considered to amount to aggressive conduct by the Rome Statute and the UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) shall all involve, or be carried out by armed forces, is a cyber-attack fitting the purpose of the definition?

During the negotiations of the Rome Statute some delegations opposed the expansion and elucidation of the terminology used by UN Charter – character, gravity, scale, manifest – for two reasons: a comprehensive list of acts of aggression are included in resolution 3314 (XXIX), and Article 1 of the

on the crime of aggression are not suﬃcient. By way of example, Article 46(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties deﬁnes as ‘manifest’ a violation that “would be objectively evident to any State conducting itself in the matter in accordance with normal practice and in good faith”. ough

Statute limits ICC’s jurisdiction to prosecute “the most serious crimes of international concern”. erefore, a general preference was voiced in favor of a laxer definition in order to avoid borderline cases. Over the years, the Office of the Prosecutor adopted various policy papers where the language was clarified, to a certain extent. Nevertheless, the instruments available to the judges who will have to deliberate

what is visible to some might be completely obscure to others, hence the principle would lack coherence in its interpretation. A loose wording such as “manifest by gravity scale and character” becomes a double-edged sword in the hands of international justice: whereas it accommodates a number of States which are not keen on expanding the language of the Charter, it leaves judges with the encumbrance of legally deﬁning the

Biography European by birth and sense of self, 2015 Yenching Scholar at peking University, strongly motivated with a knack for international criminal law, Elena is a young international justice professional based in The hague.

It is highly unlikely the Un will adopt anything but old strategies

t The New offices of the International Criminal Court.

s What amounts to a cyber attack?

meaning of the terms and of extinguishing the indeterminacy of the definition. Anticipatory self-defence, self-defence itself under Article of 51 of the UN Charter, as well as humanitarian interventions are just a few of the problematic and ambiguous circumstances will likely bring debates on the equivocal nature of the criterion. Secondly, how will cyber warfare, and cyber-attacks as an act of aggression, fit the all-encompassing list of resolution 3314 (XXIX) and Article 8bis (2) of the Rome Statute? It will not. Even if the crime of aggression outlaws the illegal use of force against another State, it does not apply to those situations where the illegal use of force has been employed by other means than armed forces, and it does not cover non-state actors. All seven acts enumerated above foresee the active participation of armed forces, while typically cyber-attacks are carried out by virtual means that do not involve physical contact between military. e language used for defining the crime of aggression reflects an overall unwillingness of the States to expand the jurisdiction of the ICC, and the status quo around aggression. Suffice it to say, that it is based on a resolution from 1974 which has not been amended for the purpose of the Rome Statute. Overall, the crime of aggression covers traditional acts of aggression which do not take into account the developments in international security and military operation: the presence of non-state actors, the disaggregation of warfare and the dissipating notion of territoriality. Without further amendments to the

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language of Article 8bis, hardly imaginable considering the eﬀorts put into crafting the current version, cyberattacks will hardly ever be brought before the Court as a crime of aggression. a way backward ere is a remarkable discrepancy between the realm of international security and international criminal law. Whereas the UN Charter fully applies to cyber-attacks as means for the perpetration of cyber warfare, the Rome Statute remains silent on this new development. At the Kampala conference in 2010 where the crime of aggression was adopted into the Rome Statute, the international community has missed the momentum for triggering the debate on innovating, and crafting international legislation to criminalize the use of the cyber sphere for the Summary As the cyber sphere gains more relevance in contemporary warfare dynamics, it is crucial to understand which mechanisms could deter and hold accountable perpetrators of cyber-attacks. Many have suggested that the International Criminal Court is the institution that could fulfill this goal. Yet, it is doubtful that the Rome Statute, in its current form, can be of any help to the deterrence and accountability of cyber warfare perpetrators.

perpetration of aggression against third parties. e Court was therefore left with a crippled, outdated definition of aggression and with its hands tied in terms of prosecutorial powers of cyberattacks. For the time being, the only body which can oversee the illicit use of force in the cyber sphere is the UN. Notwithstanding, it is highly unlikely that the organization will wake from its decades-long coma, or adopt anything but old strategies to perpetuate its politically-soaked system. liTeraTure – United Nations, General Assembly, Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security, A/RES/53/70, 4 January 1999. – Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, Report, Vol. II, available at: http://www.mpil.de/files/pdf4/ IIFFMCG_Volume_II1.pdf, pp.217-219. – Ibid. – International Court of Justice, Legality of the reat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, 8 July 1996, para.39. – Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, Report, Vol. II, available at: http://www.mpil.de/files/pdf4/ IIFFMCG_Volume_II1.pdf, pp.217-219.

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Russian Influence: a DIY Trojan horse

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Western paranoia towards Russia

In the wake of a disastrous series of popular shifts away from the liberal centrist parties of America and Europe the leaders of these parties, and their supporters in the press are returning to Cold War tactics in seeking out pernicious Russian collusion behind these shifts, turning cultural and political actions into conspiratorial ones. The result of this futile shadow-play is to make Russia appear more powerful and ideologically focused than it really is, and Western governments look aimless and disconnected by comparison.

How Western paranoia is undermining democracy, and transforming Russia from a regional power into a projected global threat.

GIlES lonGlEY-CooK

ne consolation of the incoming era of advancing right-wing nationalism is that for all its bizarre fearfulness it is not exactly new. e new Right drinks from a deep well of demagogic, backward traditions, which past opponents have managed to

overcome. Nevertheless, the idea that this new phenomenon is in some way out-of-time holds less and less credence given the reactions of their opponents in the liberal status quo. Unable to comprehend the failure of their project and its rejection by many populations, those in favour of liberal globalized

order are increasingly relying on conspiracy theories to explain their losses. Like McCarthyism before them, these theories call into question democracy and see an implacable enemy in the form of Russia. We must analyze how this reaction has grown and the possible consequences it may have upon

t Ukrainian peace rally.

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international relations, firstly by examining its effect within the US establishment, then upon the EU one, and finally how these developments intersect. The uniTed sTaTes: Trumpism goes mainsTream Whilst tactically unoriginal, the presentation and the extremity of Donald Trump’s campaign arguably shifted the goalposts of American politics. Indeed, so vicious has Trump been, and he has shown no sign of changing this course, that many critics, even within his own party, have tried to disqualify him as unpresidential and ‘illegitimate’1. But not only has Trump’s victory normalized a dangerous and divisive form of politics, it has done so to the extent that those trying to undermine him have resorted to co-opting his conspiratorial, dog-whistle approach, namely in their obsession with proving that he is a puppet of Putin’s Russia. If the run-up to the election was characterized by Trump’s wild, unverifiable claims about his conspiring, un-American enemies, the subsequent period of confirmation has seen an equally paranoid backlash. Claims ranging from alleged Russian electoralhacking, to personal indebtedness and fostering of Trump’s political career by Russian intelligence and of a lurid entrapment plot against Trump have dominated the news. ese narratives have been first presented – some would say nurtured – by sketchy sources within the US intelligence services themselves2. ey have then been openly declared by political actors such as senate minority leader Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton

herself, who described the leaking of the DNC emails as a personal attack on her by Putin. Mainstream media outlets have been even more zealous than the democrats in seeking out and authenticating such claims against the President, often with the same fanaticism in the face of incredibility with which Trump once sought out Obama’s Kenyan birth certiﬁcate. Undoubtedly some foul play has been practiced by Russia, and the Putin regime has openly expressed its preference for a Trump White House.

‘Trump’s victory normalized a divisive form of politics’

e former however is a sadly routine practice amongst intelligence agencies, as the CIA should well know, and there is no evidence Russia has outdone other states in this respect. e latter also should not indicate any ill will. States

always have a preferred US presidential candidate and Russia is no different. Unlike the intransigent Clinton, Trump has often expressed sympathy for Russia, making it sheer common sense for them to prefer him. e worrying trend of interpreting this normal, if unpleasant friendship as a mendacious plot confirms that the Democrats truly are becoming the ‘conspiracy party’, not only because of their paranoia, but because, like most conspiracy theorists, this paranoia covers a deep sense of isolation and anger3. In this case it is the Democrats’ inability to accept that their own unpopularity played a role in their defeat. Having convinced themselves that Trump could not win, those who dislike him have to find hidden reasons for his triumph, without delving too far into their own faults. at non-party progressives have taken up this narrative displays their delusions as well. Having sought salvation in Obama, they cannot accept that the Democratic Party’s inherent vice is that it is hardly more progressive than the Republicans in many ways. For many, to accept that neither party will act in their interests means becoming

Politics of Fear The cynicism that permeates conspiratorial minds tends to reject the idea that any relationship can be about anything other than malicious self-interest. Thus the Democrats and the progressives who compromised in order to support them, as well as the Republicans who sold out in order to ride Trump’s success, assume that the same must be true of putin and Trump, that they cannot possibly have ideological common cause but must instead be linked purely through a conspiracy. This whittling down of politics into interest groups and personal gripes resembles Trumps’ own narcissist fantasies. The trend reached its apex when Clinton claimed that any Russian interference must revolve not around her party’s confrontational attitude to Russia, but around a ‘personal beef’ between her and putin (L’etat C’est Moi indeed!)8

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Western paranoia towards Russia Hacking the Imagination The art of blaming foreign governments for intelligence crises resulting from domestic strife has a long pedigree, but cases have become even more surreal and paranoid in the era of ‘cyber-warfare’. In 2014 it quickly became accepted fact that north Korea was responsible for hacking Sony, angered apparently by the release of ‘The Interview’, a comedy film insulting Kim Jong Un. This despite compelling evidence emerging that disgruntled ex-Sony employees were in fact responsible. Rather than the company admitting the shame of its own security failure and poor employee relations, a geopolitical threat was overhyped, worsening global stability. In this case it would seem, history happened first as farce and second as tragedy15.

s It is love at first sight!

politically unmoored, resulting in the prospect of isolation and diﬃcult work to ensure change, neither of which are rewarding to a mindset that feels isolated even when it follows the crowd4.

set up to investigate the 9/11 attacks, forgetting the failure of these investigations to prevent two catastrophic wars5. More recent comparisons have been made between

‘Many ruling parties cannot conceive of any relation other than give-and-take’

As conspiratorial thinking intensiﬁes it is no surprise that an alliance is forming between Democrats and the great conspiratorial coven that is the US security establishment. Organizations like the CIA are equally keen to explain their years of failures away, and a good old-fashioned Russian plot is familiar territory – points for consistency, if not for originality! It’s no surprise that they would miss the simple, empowering days of the Cold War. e complexity of today’s world has made the polarized, anti-centrism ethos of security groups less tenable, until now. us unnerving parallels have been drawn between the recent dossiers against Russia and Trump and the intelligence reaction to 9/11. Most worryingly, some have even compared this activity favorably to the commission 14

these reports and the ‘dodgy dossier’ that led to the Iraq war. One result of this hysteria has been an increase in legitimacy for Trump, who parried excellently against accusations by reminding the CIA of its disastrous failure to assess Iraq’s WMD capabilities in 20036. As America braces for a potentially authoritarian president, his opponents are equally undermining democratic principles by driving the issue ‘beyond normal political concerns’7. In other words into the realm of secret, undebatable security interests, in which the public’s right to know and decide will be sidelined as much as possible. By pushing this route, the Democrats are potentially destroying any future chance of changing the course of US politics, which will increasingly be decided – out

of ‘necessity’ – by security forces and executive measures. europe: The iron curTain call e long and tangled history of Europe and its complex relationship with Eurasia should oﬀer much-needed nuance to the current dispute. Sadly, after years of Cold War binary-thinking, the specter of Russia as eternal threat appears to be the one facet of this relationship to remain intact. Ironically at a time when Russia has experienced massive decline in population, power and prestige, the image of the Everexpansionist Empire, heir to Czarism and Bolshevism, haunts the European elite9. European states should of course be weary of a clearly authoritarian nuclear power on their borders, but the danger is only increased by their severe overestimation of Russia’s dark potential, and their blindness to similar perﬁdy in their own ranks, a key example being their one-eyed reading of events in Ukraine. Recently Sweden went so far as to put its security forces on a ‘war-footing’ in fear of Russia10. Germany has been described as ‘bracing’ for cyber attacks on its election, and Russia is openly described as the assailant11. is siege language is hardly surprising,

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given that the EU and its various leaders have been experiencing a series of routs that would unnerve any statesman. From Brexit to the Italian referendum and the rise of Far Right parties everywhere, the liberal status quo is under attack, and many of the attackers openly cite Putin as an inspiration12. Once again much of this is simply kinship with his brand of old school chauvinistic nationalism, a not unexpected response to free market liberal cosmopolitan rule. Some have economic links as well, but not enough to explain away their electoral success. Like the Democrats, many ruling parties cannot conceive of any relation other than give-and-take because for so long it has been the one they have held with their own voters. When ‘ere Is No Alternative’ (TINA) is the ideology of the state, demanding an alternative becomes an existential threat to it13. Rather than examining the causes of this ﬁssure within their own societies, European governments are searching for outside conspiracies to blame, and all roads lead to Moscow. Ironically, such an outlook is being used to justify an increasingly aggressive attitude towards Russia, which could instigate a ﬁght in which a Trump-led America would not support Europe14. rough their paranoia, European leaders are disempowering not only themselves, but also their countries and alliances.

If secretive hackers attack democracy the response must surely be a strengthening of democratic values and transparency. By digging deeper into this conspiratorial hole, instead of coming up for the air of serious self-criticism, public actors are making themselves look either impotent or manipulative, justifying popular turns to the control of nonelected bodies and ideological echochambers. As these organs grow in power, so does Putin, a skillful but not all-powerful manipulator. Elected bodies in the West may think that by making a Faustian pact with these forces, and draining the masses’ power to make decisions and hold them accountable, they are preserving their own power. In reality they are merely ascertaining their own demise, and potentially that of democracy too. As Trump’s success has proven, the real danger is not the long overdue collapse of the transatlantic elites, but the fact that Putin-esque autocratic rule has eﬀectively become the main ideological alternative.

Biography Giles longley-Cook is a Masters graduate of political Theory at Radboud University, nijmegen. he previously achieved a BA in political Science & philosophy at University of Birmingham.

Summary The desperate search for Russian involvement behind all the recent disruptions in Western politics are an attempt to mask the lack of responsibility and power held by political and media elites within the affected societies themselves. In the USA, liberals are turning to the security establishment for support, potentially empowering it to a dangerous degree. Meanwhile, the EU’s fear of popular upheaval and denial of responsibility is leading to a potentially disastrous showdown with Russia.

t Angela Merkel meets Vladimir Putin and his dog.

conclusion In the accusations made against Russia and others regarding their intervention in Western politics certain phrases reappear with telling frequency. ey are accused of spreading ‘uncertainty’16 and ‘undermin[ing] faith’ in democracy17. e focus on such vague, subjective damage gets to the heart of the matter, displaying the lack of concrete evidence and the feeling of general insecurity within the establishment which makes its search for outside causes futile and dangerous. Trying to deﬁne Russian characteristics has only exposed the lack of certainty and imagination within our own political sphere. JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

Russia is Winning the Information War

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Russian disinformation and media

The war on information between Russia and the West is not new; it has been around since the start of the Cold War. However in recent years this conflict has become more sophisticated and intense. Russian state-sponsored news outlets are spreading fake news stories to create distrust and erode public discourse in Europe and the United States, influencing individual people, and recently influencing democratic elections. How this old conflict has bounced back with such intensity will be discussed in this article.

JASON MAGAZINE spread by Russian media outlets, however this is uncertain. Russian media are all state owned; they are therefore able to spread disinformation in unity. is is no match for Western media, with many acting individually and separately. e traditional emphasis on balance allows for the Russian side of the story to be reported along with the counter-narrative, which makes even the Western media a platform for spreading Russian disinformation.5 e shortcomings of Western media can be seen in the aftermath of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17, above Eastern Ukraine. It became quite clear that Russia was ultimately responsible for the tragedy.6 However, Russian stateowned news agencies denied any involvement and soon people started to believe that Russia was not involved.

This confusion over who is to blame shows how effective the campaign of disinformation is

FloRIS C. VAn WIEREn

he term “information war” has been used to describe the pursuit of a competitive advantage in information and communication over an opponent. is technique was hugely popular during the Cold War, with the Soviet Union using it against the West to spread the word of Communism. With the fall of Communism many people believed the information war was over. However, in recent years Russia has started using state-owned media outlets such as RT and Sputnik to spread fake news and propaganda to increase polarization in the EU and inﬂuence the core principles of Western democracy. hisTory Historically, the information war between the Soviet Union and the West was seen as a war between ideologies.1 e spread of propaganda was focused on the left-wing, anti-colonial and labour causes that the Communist party tried to promote. Nowadays the concept of information war has been largely forgotten by the targeted audience. e aim of the disinformation has changed. e Kremlin is no longer interested in spreading communist ideology, but is 16

now using it to deny the concept of Western society. Russian propaganda is meant to undermine Western institutions. ere is no ideology or strategy in today’s propaganda, there is only one purpose and that is to create chaos. whaT is The goal? e wider world was ﬁrst introduced to the new information war in 2014, when Russian forces invaded Crimea in Ukraine. However, the campaign had started much earlier in Russia with the objective to control the domestic media, and secure the national information space. is has allowed the Kremlin to dictate what the Russian people see on

s President Putin Speaking at RT celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

confusion. is has allowed Russia to deny its involvement in the Ukraine conﬂict. e fact that the EU did not refer to Russian troops in Ukraine for almost a year, shows the success of the Russian disinformation campaign. It shows the EU’s inability to eﬀectively challenge the Russian version of events. We have seen what Russia is capable of in recent months, with intelligence agencies in the US blaming Russia for

There is no ideology or strategy in today’s propaganda

the news. By securing the domestic media, they were able to divert attention to Western media.2 When the World was confronted with the new campaign, the aim was to spread disinformation to cause

trying to inﬂuence the election in favour of a particular candidate.3 If Russia is able to inﬂuence the narrative of individual countries and an election, it can exercise a huge amount of power over democratic countries. With the upcoming elections in Western Europe,

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this could be used to undermine democracy and ensure election of a proRussian candidate. is seems to be the ultimate goal of the new information war. how are They achieving This? Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has invested in enabling greater capabilities of information warfare. ese investments have resulted in the following main three areas: domestic media, social media and language skills.4 As mentioned earlier, the Kremlin has focused on the domestic media. By ensuring the domestic media has one single narrative, they are able to use media outlets such as RT and Sputnik to inﬂuence the foreign media narrative and increase their online presence. is enables them to ensure the penetration of the Russian narrative across the

internet. Most of the information released by these media outlets, on TV or online, is in English. is is to engage with the targeted audience in the West. By reaching millions of people in the Western world, media outlets are able to spread the Russian narrative and inﬂuence the narrative of individual countries. By doing this, they inﬂuence what people think and, in a time of elections, possibly which candidate people will vote for.

is occurred even after a formal report was released stating that Russia was ultimately to blame for the tragedy. However, even now people are demanding a reinvestigation stating that Russia is not to blame.7 is confusion over who is to blame shows how eﬀective the campaign of disinformation has become, with clear facts being undermined. how can The wesT respond? One of the best ways the West can respond is by creating awareness. For example, in Estonia the government is

how does The wesT fiT in? For years the West was oblivious to the fact that people watching Western media were spreading the disinformation Russia was releasing. It was only after the invasion of Crimea, that Western media realised that they were spreading disinformation. Western media broadcasters claim that they are able to combat the disinformation that is being JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

Interestingly enough, when Russian officials were being confronted with their incursion into Ukraine, they still managed to deny the whole event. Many pictures taken by satellites and on the ground show the movement of Russian troops. however, when confronted, the Russian officials would state that these images are fake and Western propaganda. This message is then spread through RT and Sputnik and Western media.

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Russian disinformation and media

providing an alternative for the Russian minority, with the creation of a Russian language channel to combat the Russian financed mainstream media.8 Another way for the West to counter Russia media is to pass legislation that ensures that information being told is reliable and objective. According to CEPA, the West should create an agency which monitors Russian activity. CEPA also states that the West should ensure media quality, deconstruct disinformation and increase targeted audience interaction.9 However, the disinformation that is being spread is targeted at a specific audience. is targeted audience is usually already sceptical of mainstream national media and will therefore be hard to convince of the dangers of disinformation. whaT are The consequences? One of the main consequences of Russia’s campaign of disinformation is the influence the Kremlin gains on the policy-making process itself. If you are able to control the flow of information, you are able to influence a decision which is based on this information. However, more dangerous is the ability to influence a democracy. Many people vote based on the information they

Biography Floris van Wieren is a bachelor student currently International Studies studying at leiden University. he is currently in his second year and is fascinated by the ongoing geopolitical situation.

s NATO might be influenced if Russia is successful in interfering in an election and get pro Russian candidates elected.

receive through the media. If people start believing the disinformation spread by RT and Sputnik they might be steered to have a negative image of certain candidates or certain ideas. If Russia can influence the popularity of politicians in a time of election, it is effectively able to influence which candidate is elected. If Russia is able to do this, it may alter the nature of international alliances, as well as democracy itself. conclusion In conclusion, we come to the realisation that Russia is ahead in the competition to gain a competitive

t Investigators investigating the crash site of MH17 in Eastern Ukraine.

advantage in information and communication strategies. Looking at the news in any country which faces election, the fear that Russia might interfere in the election is high. With intelligence agencies stating that Russia tried to interfere in the US election, these fears have only grown. e ability of Russian institutions to work collectively towards one goal is an ability Western media are unable to combat. If this situation continues, it could lead to further fragmentation, distrust of national institutions and ultimately the compromise of democratic elections themselves. e spread of disinformation is causing confusion among ordinary citizens, with many people in the West starting to doubt their core institutions. It is therefore key that the West responds to this threat by ensuring its own media’s quality and increasing interaction with the audience to ensure the audience is aware of the dangers of disinformation. However, in some cases this might already be too late.

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Mistakes of mainstream media

When asked which top trends dominate the world, members of the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils named “the rapid spread of misinformation”.1 Sponsored content, satire, unverified rumors and conspiracy theories – or “alternative facts”, as Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway would call them – run wild, confusing, misinforming and deceiving the public. DAnA CohEn

hether looking at news coverage of national elections, reading articles on global warming or searching for information on vaccinations, it is getting increasingly harder for the public to distinguish fact from fiction. Some media outlets purposefully publish false claims by way of satire, others make up stories for profit and then there are those who willfully lie to further their own political agenda. Arguably the most worrying trend of all, however, is the struggle of mainstream media outlets in fulfilling their duty to inform their audience with the closest attainable version of the truth. misinformaTion e most respected news organizations occasionally fall for unverified rumors, fake news and satire. When the deadly Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, a New York politician claimed on Twitter that the New York Stock Exchange had flooded. is falsehood was then copied by, among others, e Weather Channel. After the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013, e New York Post wrongly labeled Fake news article in The Onion on July 21, 1969.

Summary Russia’s spread of disinformation is starting to have a profound impact in democracies in the Western World. With the upcoming elections of the netherlands, France and Germany this will only increase. Their ability and the inability of western media will continue to play a big role in this growing problem.

Fake news, Real Consequences

JASON MAGAZINE

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JASON MAGAZINE

Mistakes of mainstream media

s Comet Ping Pong in Washington, DC, after the shooting in December 2016, prompted by fake news.

a picture of two innocent men at the marathon as the “BAG MEN”. A lot of misinformation surrounded the bombing, including a rumor that an eight-year old girl who was a contestant had been killed. In 2015, channels ranging from USA Today and e Huﬃngton Post to Fox News and Breitbart incorrectly reported that eleven commercial airplanes were stolen from the Tripoli airport by Islamist group Libyan Dawn.

breasts, she is absolutely zero”. Although this sounds like a plausible quote from Trump, he actually said “the press” rather than “breasts”. NOS also claimed that August 2016 saw over 6000 refugees arriving in Greece, while the actual number was 2302. On top of that, they showed a map of Great Britain and Ireland covered in the Union Jack, falsely insinuating that the Republic of Ireland belongs to the United Kingdom. Even satirical news by the likes of e

is issue is certainly not limited to American media. In the past few months, Dutch media channel NOS mistakenly claimed that it is unknown who executed the mass murder of Polish people in Katyn in 1940, while Russia admitted its guilt back in 1990. Paul Cliteur was named a defendant in the trial against Geert Wilders, while in fact he served as a witness. Donald Trump was wrongly accused of saying “e only thing [Hilary] Clinton has going for herself is her breasts. Without her

Onion, National Report and Daily Currant is frequently taken seriously. In 2002, Chinese newspaper e Beijing Evening News reported that “Congress reatens to Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol is Built,” two Bangladeshi newspapers – e Daily Manab Zamin and e New Nation – were duped by “Conspiracy eorist Convinces Neil Armstrong Moon Landing Was Faked” in 2009, and in 2012 U.S. Congressman John Fleming shared that “Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion

“Fake election news was more widely read, liked and shared on Facebook than real news.”

Abortionplex.” A satirical petition in 2016 urging readers to “Allow Open Carry of Firearms at the Quicken Loans Arena during the RNC Convention,” meant to display what the author perceived as Republican hypocrisy on gun control, was assumed real by mainstream media like the USA Today. Stunningly, after National Report posted that a marijuana dispensary in Colorado accepts food stamps, state senator Vicki Marble ﬁled a bill prohibiting the use of food stamps at such places even though food stamps were never accepted as pay for marijuana, or any other non-food item for that matter. e fact that satire can prompt real-life legislation should be disquieting to all. consequences When politicians or law enforcement are duped by media hoaxes, serious consequences can ensue. In September 2011, U.S. Capitol Police formally investigated false claims on Twitter that U.S. congressmen were holding twelve children hostage, wasting valuable time and resources. More recently, readers have started to believe in “Pizzagate.” is conspiracy theory holds that the Clinton family is running a child prostitution ring from the basement of the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in

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Washington, DC. Last December, Edgar Maddison Welch entered the restaurant to “investigate” this claim, which was quickly disproven since the restaurant does not have a basement to begin with. e 28-year old fired several rounds with his AR-15 assault rifle inside the restaurant, luckily hurting no one. Another prominent example involved the 2014 Ebola crisis. Stories such as e National Report’s “Texas Town Quarantined After Family of Five Test Positive for the Ebola Virus” were widely believed and shared, spreading fear of the disease in the Western World. Doctors Without Borders nurse Kaci Hickox found this out the hard way when she tried to return to her home in Maine after volunteering in Sierra Leone. Showing no symptoms of the virus, she was nevertheless quarantined for 80 hours by the New Jersey Department of Health. In addition, her landlord asked her and her partner to move out of their home and her partner was not allowed to attend nursing school while living with her. ough above stories are mostly anecdotal, fake and false news narratives undoubtedly impact all of our lives politically, economically and environmentally. A 2014 study of merger rumors in the financial press concluded that merger speculation in the media significantly impacts stock prices.2 Fake news spread by advertising companies on food and food supplements, medication and vaccines endanger public health. Moreover, if rural areas stay misinformed about the future of traditional manual labor jobs and the necessity of postsecondary education, unemployment and poverty rates in these areas will increase even further. NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense even concluded that if American consumers accept the false claim that global warming is a hoax, the country will suffer lower economic growth and a higher risk of war.3 During last year’s elections in the U.S. fake election news was more widely read, liked and shared on Facebook than real news.4 is helps to explain the disturbing conclusion of a recent PPPsurvey that many Trump voters were grossly misinformed about a plethora of subjects. To illustrate, 39% of Trump voters incorrectly believe the stock market declined under Obama’s administration and 67% think that unemployment went up. Even though Clinton got three million more votes than Trump, 40% of Trump’s supporters believe he won the popular vote.5 It is reasonable to assume this misinformation played some part in the

results of last year’s presidential election. When fake news damages people’s ability to make prudent decisions that serve their best interest, democracy is at risk. verifying sources Time pressure is one of the main problems of today’s media. Whereas traditional outlets generally had set hours and set days in which they published stories, nowadays articles are posted online constantly. Because of their drive to be (one of ) the ﬁrst to post news online, journalists often forego the task of veriﬁcation, even when debunking or verifying the rumor could be done with a simple phone call. Rumors that start on social media get repeated by fake news sites and eventually reported on even by

from headlines more so than that from body text. Asking the question in the headline implies that the rumor might be true. e human brain functions in such a way that the claim is read and stored before the facts disproving the claim are registered. e claim will thus forever linger on inside the memory. Moreover, some people will read the headline, take it at point value and disregard the rest of the text. Alarmingly, even when someone does not read or click on a shared article there is “still an element of ambient awareness at play as they scroll by a declarative headline” on a social media site. 7 To walk back a claim made in the headline, journalists tend to use hedging language and attribution formulations such as “this person claims,” “reportedly” and “allegedly”, while the source they

“The fact that satire can prompt real life legislation should be disquieting to all.”

mainstream media. Instead of investigating the veracity of the claim, journalists cite other websites as their source, which often cite other websites as well. Sometimes it takes mere hours for one report or tweet to generate thousands of shares on social media. e danger of repetition is that it entices plausibility in the minds of the masses. Rumors “are accepted by people with low thresholds ﬁrst, and, as the number of believers swells, eventually by others with higher thresholds who conclude, not unreasonably, that so many people cannot be wrong.”6 ambiguous language A crucial mistake frequently made by media is the provocative use of headlines. Oftentimes the headline will inaccurately and dishonestly pose the rumor either as a fact or as a question, while the body text walks back the claim. is is a dangerous habit, since academic research has proven that readers remember information retrieved

cite is often unreliable. ese subtleties can be confusing and are not always properly registered by readers, while the unverified/false claim is given a sense of credibility.8 Once the possibility of a rumor being true has snuck into our working memory, it is there to stay, impossible to simply erase. debunking Even when an unverified rumor is later disproven, media outlets often neglect issuing a corrective statement. When a correction is posted, this tends to gain a much lower readership than the original article did. ere are several reasons for this. First, news websites rarely put as much effort in advertising corrections as they put into advertising the initial articles. Also, when news organizations publish a follow-up story, the original article – including the false rumor – can still be found and read online. ird, when an issue has been discussed for a while, widespread interest dwindles. e best chance of success in debunking a

t PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.

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Mistakes of mainstream media

false news item is thus by doing so within 24 hours of its first publication. Fourth, generally fake news tends to spread faster and wider than facts. After all, fake news is specifically engineered “to meet emotional needs, reinforce beliefs, and provide fodder for our inherent desire to make sense of the world.” Importantly, fake new is not restricted by reality and ‘boring’ facts.9 In a process called confirmation bias, the human brain prefers information conforming to already existing ideas. Subconsciously, we are constantly working to reinforce evidence that supports the beliefs we already have and disproves any contradictory evidence. When debunking of fake news happens too aggressively, this can result in the socalled backfire effect, where the receiver actually strengthens his or her belief in the original rumor. For example, when some parents unsure whether to vaccinate their children because they worry it might induce autism are confronted with hard facts disproving the vaccination-autism myth, they tend to grow less likely to have their children vaccinated. Humans are inherently subjective creatures, easily persuaded with ideas that already fit with our view of the world.10 debunking for dummies Skepticism is key for anyone unwilling

to be fooled by fake news, as is awareness of our own biases. When hoping to debunk a false rumor, we should always avoid repeating the entire claim, especially in the headline. Of utmost importance is to start debunking a claim as soon as it is starting to gain attention, preferably within 24 hours. e most successful debunking article will be one that plays on emotions, just as the initial hoax story does. Also, it is essential to refrain from personally attacking people who believe in the rumor, for instance by using sarcasm. is might evoke the backﬁre eﬀect and strengthen people’s belief in the false claim. Although the necessity of such platforms is somewhat disheartening, we should welcome websites such as PolitiFact, FactCheck, Snopes and Hoax-Slayer. Authors at these sites investigate rumors circulating in the media and report on their veracity. Even big mainstream media have started to dedicate more time debunking fake articles, for example e Washington Post’s Fact Checker blog. It is critical for established mainstream media to participate in the debunking process, even regarding false stories they themselves did not publish. In today’s media landscape, correcting hoaxes and fake news is undeniably linked with journalists’ responsibility to inform the public.

Biography Dana Cohen is a graduate of the University of Utrecht, where she studied Gender Studies during her BA and Conflict Studies and human Rights during her MA.

Summary Fake news is and has been on the rise for a number of years. Some rumors are malicious lies spread with intent, while others were unwittingly shared by impressed readers or timepressed journalists. The result, however, remains the same: a misinformed public, less capable of making decisions that serve their own best interest.

t Vicki Marble, the Colorado State Senator who filed a bill prohibiting the use of food stamps to buy marijuana, which was already impossible, in reaction to a fake article by satirical news site The National Report.

hybrid Trollfare

JASON MAGAZINE

Internet trolls

The Future Strategic Use of Internet Trolls

The year 2016 has seen a hitherto unknown intensity of internet trolls in the political arena, whether during the US elections, the Ukraine conflict, the European referenda and more. In this article I will argue that, like hackers, governments and militaries will come to recognize trolls as a valuable asset to spread disinformation and destabilize political systems in target countries by delegitimizing national elites, whether politicians or academic experts and journalists, and creating fake news stories. RIK VAn DIJK

he ﬁrst troll was a rather harmless one, an English engineer named Nevil Maskelyne. He detested the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio telegraph system. So when the Italian came to England to show his invention, Maskelyne hijacked the transmission to make the telegraph send out obscenities.

Fast forward to the present day where in Washington D.C. a man waving an AR-15, a military grade assault riﬂe, stormed a pizzeria. How are these two incidents, more than a hundred years

now known as #pizzagate, an outrageous conspiracy theory on the internet that accused the pizzeria in question, Ping Pong Pizza, to be a cover for an underage sex traﬃcking ring run by the Hillary Clinton campaign and especially her campaign manager John Podesta. e accusations pointed to the mails of Podesta which were leaked by WikiLeaks. ese emails mention the word pizza a number of times. Podesta who, among many Washington insiders, is a frequent guest at the restaurant, ordered his pizza´s there as the mails

The owner of ping pong pizza was confused by his rising followers on

apart, related? Both cases were caused by trolls, although the modern version of trolls can have much more serious consequences. e man with the AR-15 was spurred on by what in the American media is 22

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indicate, since he – like most human beings – apparently enjoys pizza. However conservative trolls and bloggers ´uncovered´ that the word pizza must be code for something much more sinister, namely underage prostitutes and Ping Pong Pizza was the place these girls were

held and supplied to high ranking Democrat officials. e site Buzzfeed tracked the birth and maturation of the insane theory, from a white supremacist twitter account, through fake news sites in Macedonia and Albania, whose creators discovered that fake articles about Hillary Clinton and Trump were a goldmine for their ad revenue1. And so the rumors grew into fabricated news articles, supported by non-existent sources, spread by anonymous names on blogs like Reddit, Breitbart, 4chan and more. e owner of Ping Pong Pizza was confused by his rising followers on Instagram in October and terrified by the death threats and harassments that followed. His employees received the same treatments. e epitome of instigated hatefulness was the twentyeight-year-old who stormed the restaurant trying to investigate the wild claim. e internet provides information, but since it has no owner it is easy to place deceitful information on it. If one is skilled, it is easy to make that deceitful information look very convincing. A recent example of this is the Macedonian youngsters who created fake news sites with pro-Donald Trump styled articles and spread them on social media.2 e articles drew large amounts of visitors to the Macedonian sites, allowing the youngsters to earn a good amount on advertisement sales and prompting them and friends to expand their business – a crude form of trolling capitalism. professionalizaTion of Trolls So what is an internet troll? We can look define the term in multiple ways. In the narrow sense of the word a troll is a person who purposely seeks to draw out emotional reactions online through making controversial statements or

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JASON MAGAZINE

Internet trolls

Biography Rik van Dijk is editor-in-chief of JASon Magazine.

large corporations. Over the years we have seen cyber warfare increase: only this week the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD stated that numerous Dutch ministries were at the receiving end of Chinese and Russian cyber-attacks.3 e Democratic Party in the United States was haunted by several massive e-mail hacks. Hacking has professionalized very quickly, it is safe to assume that its nephew trolling will follow soon.

s A portrait of inventor Nevil Maskelyne in 1903, the first troll.

posting disinformation. It is the spreading of disinformation that gives trolling a valuable strategic element. Successful online disinformation contributes to rising unrest in nations,

employees have full-time jobs placing Russian propaganda online. e 50-cent Youth movement of the Communist Party in China is said to have a similar job description for members. In this

Trolling as a 9-to-5 desk job is an important step in the professionalization of trolls

political strife based on fake news and the undermining of political opponentsall things we have seen in 2016.

article I will show that professionalization of internet trolls is at hand and will be a force in the digital world.

e Russian Federation already operates a Troll oﬃce in Saint Petersburg where

Good indicators of change are movies. In the 80s a hacker was portrayed as a loveable geek pranking people through their modems. In the new millennium they are skilled agents penetrating entire city grids and military bases. While exaggerated, it shows the professionalization hackers went through in the last two decades: from nerds with a hobby to indispensable units in a country’s defence.

In 1954, the CIA was responsible for organizing a coup d’état against the government of Guatemala. president Jacobo Arbenz, whom the US government wrongly suspected of being communist, was overthrown in favor of the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas. The CIA flooded latin American countries with leaflets denouncing the Guatemalan movement. Moreover, the CIA created a radio station, the Voice of liberation, urging the Guatemalans to rise up against their ‘communist’ government. Through its propaganda the CIA was successful in its coup. A pre-digital era form of professional trolling.

A more prominent example is the troll house on 55 Savushkina Street, Saint Petersburg; an office building with several hundred employees inside tasked with flooding internet fora, both Russian and Western, with targeted propaganda.4 Trolling as a 9-to-5 desk job, it is an important step in the ongoing professionalization of trolls. After the success of the Russian propaganda machine in Ukraine, Syria and even the United States during the election, it will not be long before other states will follow suit. e Communist Party in China has trolls operating on a similar schedule. e 50 Cent Movement, a name derived from the amount paid for an internet comment, is a group of Party members who flood blogs and sites with praise of the Chinese government.5 ey operate especially during times of debate, such as the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, to stifle any criticism of the government and to limit the

Trolls and hackers have a lot in common. Both spend a large amount of time on the internet, mostly on special fora with like-minded individuals which develop in communities that operate as a group or at least in contingency. Contrary to popular belief, hackers rarely operate alone and the same goes for trolls. Unlike a decade ago, cyber security divisions are a vital part of every military and intelligence community and even JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

s The leaked emails of Democratic campaign leader John Podesta led to #pizzagate, a troubling example of the power of online trolls.

possibilities of social media as a force that may be used by political opponents. conclusion Since Nevil Maskelyne’s hijacking of Marconi’s radio to make it send out obscenities, trolling has come a long way. Always seeking to defame, the rise of the digital world has given trolls new power and purpose. Whether it is innocent teasing, a way to make quick money or something more nefarious, trolling will only become more common in the near future.

e professionalization of internet trolling is already underway, as we have seen in Saint Petersburg and China. Fake news stories, viral political memes and carefully exploiting hacks will become part of the standard toolkit of the professional troll, a paid expert in disinformation and delegitimization employed in bulk by states and political organizations.

steps are being made as social media giants and news agencies have committed to ﬁghting the spread of fake news online. But this eﬀort will become a digital ‘whack-a-mole’ if people are not more critical on their news intake through the internet. Otherwise, trolls will have an easy time sowing the unrest they are after.

Like hacking, professional trolling will require a strong reaction from the intelligence community. Again the ﬁrst

t 55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg. Here paid workers spent their time flooding the internet with Pro-Putin comments.

people should be more critical on their news intake through the internet

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

As Clean as a Whistleblower

JASON MAGAZINE

Whistleblowers

and, ideally, balancing the public’s right to know with the safety of security personnel. Of course, ideological bias and risk of lawsuits also figure in the judgement made by journalists. is is in contrast with WikiLeaks, which does not apply such a filter and puts large batches of documents online at once. Most citizens do not have the time or attention to trawl through such a trove, so the journalists still do their job after the fact, but it also means more details can slip through which might endanger running operations. It is not always evident at first glance what information can be compromising.

Whistling past the graveyard is not an option

The sentence of Chelsea Manning was commuted by ex-president Obama in the final days of his term, drastically reducing it from 35 years to 7 (she will be released in May 2017). The views on her act of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks vary wildly across the political spectrum. Some see her as a traitor who deserves the death sentence, others view her as a hero who should never have been in jail in the first place. As a more authoritarian president takes up residence in the White House, a retrospective on the ethics of her act, and whistleblowing in general, is in order. BAS KlEIJWEG

histleblowing is an act which aids in exposing wrongdoing by organizations that only an insider would have knowledge of. However, when this is done in the military or in an agency that plays a role in national security, this act needs to be weighed against the possible danger an exposure might bring to operational security. Hindsight is 20/20, and, looking back over the years, Manning’s leak did not lead to any deaths, as was reported to a court by the Pentagon’s chief investigator of Manning’s case, Brigadier General Robert Carr.1 From an ethical standpoint, we must look at the precautions and moral considerations that Manning took to assess her decision. First oﬀ, one should consider the argument that an accountable military is in the best interest of all parties. e military and other security organizations will 26

However, Manning actually approached several prominent newspapers before she came to WikiLeaks; these newspapers rejected her oﬀer3. On balance, one can conclude that Manning tried to reduce harm as much as possible and did not act recklessly.

s General Robert Carr, who headed the investigation.

inevitably dirty their hands during the course of their operations, and even though both have stringent protocols on what behaviour does and does not cross a line, there are countless cases in which lack of accountability and ﬁddling with technicalities can result in units and operatives getting away with heinous acts. A prime example of the latter was the manner in which the Bush

not only a danger to a state’s enemies, but the citizenry back home is also under constant scrutiny by the NSA surveillance programme, to give an example. legal and moral duTies e clincher is that it is actually the explicit duty of a soldier such as Manning to report war crimes, Marjorie

Manning’s leak did not lead to any deaths

Administration used the deﬁnition “enemy combatant” to exempt insurgents and suspected members of terrorist organizations from the Geneva Conventions. If such practices take place and internal criticism is put aside, then the case for whistleblowing becomes that much stronger. After all, an unaccountable security apparatus poses

Cohn argues in Truthout2. She names several acts exposed in the documents that could reasonably fall under the deﬁnition of war crimes, such as the civilian deaths and mutilation of a dead body in the infamous “Collateral Murder” video, which depicts an airstrike taking place on 12 July 2007 in Iraq, as two U.S. Apache helicopters

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open ﬁre on a group of Iraqi citizens which they mistake for insurgents. Among the victims are two journalists. e question rises, why not raise concern about this internally? While there are procedures in place for bringing up these concerns, the Pentagon has an abysmal track record of enforcing accountability on its own personnel without outside pressure. Perhaps the most prominent example from an earlier decade is the initial cover-up of the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War (an incident in which U.S. troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians), which only led to courtmartials after exposure in the media and the public pressure that followed. Even if it would never come around to actual court-martials, the information Manning exposed led to an even harsher spike in already unfavourable public opinion on the conduct of American troops abroad, increasing the likelihood of the U.S. government increasing

standards of conduct to avoid such incidents in the future, or even withdrawing from the war entirely. senTencing and severiTy e usual procedure for a whistleblower is to leak information to one or several journalists, who will proceed to condense the information, picking out the most important and impactful parts

It was almost inevitable that she would be caught and appear before military court. While earlier big-name whistleblowers [see text box] have fled and are now living in exile, Manning did not escape and was arrested. A sentence of 35 years is the highest that has been handed out for whistleblowing in American history, though the fact that it concerns military affairs puts this into perspective somewhat. Furthermore, Manning, who came out as transgender, was held in a men’s prison in spite of starting hormone treatment. Finally, she was often put in solitary confinement, where she experienced prolonged humiliating treatment, such as sleep deprivation and being forcibly stripped naked4. is was in part as punishment for an earlier attempt at suicide. With

The other whistleblowers Aside from Manning, there are other prominent leakers still wanted by the U.S. government: •Julian Assange, who founded Wikileaks in 2006, was already well known for this site of leaked documents and kept the data Manning published publicly available. he is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, avoiding extradition to Sweden (and subsequent possible extradition to America) for allegations of rape. • Edward Snowden, a former nSA contractor, leaked documents on the organization’s mass surveillance program and the complicity of many companies and countries in it to various newspapers and online outlets, sparking global outrage among the public. he avoided prosecution by escaping to Russia and was granted asylum. he still remains in the country to this day.

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JASON MAGAZINE Whistleblowers

s Artwork “How Chelsea Manning sees herself” by Alice Neal.

Snowden and Assange escaping prosecution, it is not far-fetched to suggest that Manning is used as an example for potential future whistleblowers. While martyrdom is a weak argument, if the response to exposing wrongdoing is a harsh crackdown, it highlights that a government’s own ethics are more oriented towards self-protection than serving the public.

against the Iraq War (though he used to be a supporter) and the enormous ﬁnancial costs of American military presence abroad, but he has also called for an expansion of the army’s budget and suggested military conduct (such as killing enemy combatants’ families5) that constitutes war crimes by even the most generous standards. Furthermore, the Republicans made use of their political windfall to gut oversight and thus accountability in a variety of government departments. Trump’s reaction to this move is decidedly ambiguous6, only going against the move of his own party after public criticism. Both of these facts only increase the importance of ethical whistleblowers: it suggests the government will do what it can get away with now that the Republicans hold the reigns, and that in particular Trump is extra sensitive to public approval or disapproval. ough whistleblowing might be prosecuted even more harshly under Trump’s more authoritarian administration, this just means the public and other governments have a duty to aid anyone who steps forward as best as they can.

The new adminisTraTion Since Manning’s sentencing, a new administration is replacing the one of the Obama era. It is diﬃcult to predict what changes this will bring. On the one hand, Trump has repeatedly spoken out

Summary Chelsea Manning and whistleblowing in general has been vindicated in part by the outcome of her leaks, the precautions she took beforehand, the pentagon’s response to it and the authoritarian turn the new U.S. administration is taking.

Biography Bas Kleijweg is a master student literary Studies, an article writer at various outlets, and he does volunteer work fighting extreme poverty.

conclusion Manning paid a steep price for her role in exposing misconduct by U.S. military forces. ough she will be free shortly, her life has been altered forever by the sentence she underwent. Considering the above evidence, she has the moral high ground in the dilemma between freedom of information and security. If a security apparatus does not make itself accountable, it is imperative and healthy that other parties step up to make up for this lack. It is likely that in the current political climate in the United States the malpractices of the past decade will continue, perhaps on an even greater scale. In such times, whistleblowers perform a public duty that should be lauded. A military that lets ethics slip in order to achieve its goals will always become a hazard to the society it is meant to protect. Whistling past the graveyard is not an option.

t Trump is sworn in as 45th president of the US.

Media in Times of Crisis

JASON MAGAZINE

Propaganda in the Greek media landscape

The case of the Greek bailout referendum s Protesters attend an anti-austerity rally in front of the parliament building in Athens, Greece, June 29, 2015.

The purpose of writing this article is to answer the following research question: How was the Greek bailout referendum in 2015 framed in the major Greek private media channels? The issue of propaganda in the media landscape is not new in Greece, where clientelism dominates the relationship between politics and the media. However, studying this reality in the context of the Greek bailout referendum is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first of its kind. Studying the subject can provide insights to the ways media employ techniques of propaganda, agenda setting and priming that can help the readers recognize efforts of vote manipulations from elites.

pAnoS KonToGIAnnIS

n January 25, 2015 Greece elected its first left-wing government of SYRIZA that formed a coalition with ANEL (Anexartiti Ellines), a nationalist party. e government of Alexis Tsipras experienced early the suffocating experience of dealing with the country’s creditors. After a failed five-month round of negotiations, on June 27, 2015 it announced a referendum as an attempt to open the field of negotiations for a “mutually beneficial” bailout package. After the announcement of the

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

referendum, allies and opponents of the government strategically framed, each for own beneﬁts, that the aﬃrmative answer “yes” declares a desire to remain in the Eurozone and the negative answer “no”, the desire to exit5. Although the real question was on whether the Greeks should accept or deny the proposed measures of further taxation and pensions cut, the private mass media framed the issue as a dilemma of leaving the euro zone or not. For the week preceding the referendum,

the country experienced a consistent eﬀort of turning preferences into a “yes” vote, employing propaganda in the media’s daily agenda, making use of the capital controls imposed and the general uncertainty in the society. However, against this climate, the citizens voted “no” by 62%. Driving upon the principle introduced by philosopher Noam Chomsky, that the role of mass media is to defend the political and economic agenda of elite groups, driving the media act as instruments of propaganda, this article examines the

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JASON MAGAZINE

Propaganda in the Greek media landscape An interesting news fact is that none of the major privatelyowned television channels kept an equal on-air share for projecting the two demonstrations. Skai TV gave zero minutes to the “no” rally which drew thousands to a square in front of the parliament building and more than 7 minutes to the “yes” rally3. Similarly, Mega Channel covered the “no” for 40 seconds opposed to the “yes” for 8 minutes and Ant1 TV the “no” for 1 minute while the “yes” for 14. The bulk of the coverage for the “no” rally came only from the public TV ERT keeping an equal air time for both rallies.

Another example is the way a newscast was covered by MEGA Channel’s central presenter on the issue of erasing journalists from the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers due to their unethical behavior in covering the s Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras casting his vote at a polling station in Athens, Sunday, July 5, 2015.

Greek bailout referendum and the role of the media outlets in it1. overview of The greek media landscape Greece, in its modern political history has experienced a rapid decline in party membership, a massive distrust of people against politics, politicians and public institutions, resulting in an increasing number of non-aligned and disillusioned voters open to radical left or right political options5. Due to the large number of media outlets, the problem in Greece is perceived to be the increase in media power and its impact on the political system rather than the

access to lucrative state contracts or by promising to do so in the future. e evolution of the Greek media system has been aﬀected by the continuing relevance of clientelism, in the sense that political actors promote the economic interests of the media owners in exchange for political support by the latter. After deregulation in 1989, the number of private television stations in the country increased steadily, and two decades later there were 135 private analog TV stations win a national, regional or local license. A major problem of cross-ownership has emerged. Whereas in other countries eﬀorts were made and legislation was

The District Attorney of Athens investigated complaints media coverage violated election laws

need to promote plurality through improving the diversity of content. e media can pressure politicians, by selectively exposing corruption, therefore exert strong inﬂuence on the political process. ere are accusations that some politicians attempt to cultivate preferential relations with the media by oﬀering state services and especially 30

passed to discourage or forbid the concentration of media, in Greece law 1866/89 gave preference to the media companies in granting licenses for private television stations, and several anti-concentration rules and restrictions were never enforced. Due to the weak legislation, media entrepreneurs in Greece tended to

ignore it, leading to frequent violations of advertising and copyright rules and labor legislation. erefore, the Greek media industry was thrown into immorality right from its inception, due to “savage deregulation”. MEGA, SKAI, ANT1, ALPHA, STAR channels belong to the conglomerates with activities in many sectors of the economy and dominate the scene.4 The media and The referendum One striking example of manufacturing consent through the employment of propaganda techniques, is the coverage of the 2015 referendum by the largest media channel in the country: MEGA Channel. e journalists of the corporation attempted via newscasts and political analyses on air to manipulate voting preferences via eﬀorts to divide the citizens. e channel – known for its partisan orientation towards right-wing parties – tried to terrorize the citizens to vote for “yes” via reporting on the streets using fake images and videos. Examples were many; from the use of an archive image in South Africa, presenting it as a visual from an ATM line in Greece during the capital controls to a distorted image capturing an old man in the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, with the caption reading “agony for a few euros”.2, 7

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imprint upon the voter’s mind that a “no” vote would be catastrophic, the newscasts portrayed images of people lining in supermarkets and gas stations in order to stock up, as if they were preparing for war. On the side, polls on behalf of the media companies showed a fake tight battle between the two sides1. why did The “no” voTe prevail? e principle Noam Chomsky introduced on the role of mass media (see introduction) was obvious at the 2015 Greek bailout referendum but the citizens were proven resistant, as the no vote triumphed. e “yes” campaign failed because the Greek Prime Minister was still popular at that time among the masses, and he was not blamed for the crisis. Instead people recognized his eﬀorts during the period of the negotiations to save the economy of the country. What is more, the “no” vote subconsciously referred to the word “no” that throughout the history of Greece has been uttered. From 1940 to

Greek journalists have been accused of participating in IMF seminars

referendum talks. e newscast was accompanied by analyses from the channel’s presenters and MPs of the opposition unanimously arguing that the decision of the Union was illegal, and that democracy was under attack. Several guests were invited in studio to attack the decision with no room for debate with the opposing view. e private channels were keeping an agenda with right-wing communication specialists, economists, sociologists and political scientists who were recruited daily to participate in strategically framed discussions to promote only the “yes” part7.

Mussolini’s ultimatum demanding access to strategic Greek sites, to 1821 to the ﬁght for independence from the Ottoman Empire, recollections inherited in the hearts and minds of Greeks that woke up their patriotic sentiments8.

Biography panos Kontogiannis’ studies include a B.Sc. in Sociology and a M.Sc. in political Science (leiden University). he is finishing an M.A. in new Media and Journalism. he has worked at leiden University as a Research Assistant at the Department of political Science, at the Greek Embassy in The hague and in communications at a Dutch nGo and the hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. his research focus is media & politics and electoral behavior.

t PM Alexis Tsipras addressing the public shortly before the referendum was held.

Shortly after the referendum was held on July 5, 2015, the Greek National Council for Radio and Television examined a series of complaints for numerous violations of the electoral legislation by the media channels. e Council moved as its warnings to the media corporations to cover the elections according to the journalistic ethics went unheeded2. Until Election Day, major privately-owned Greek television stations gave a recital of terror. Exaggerated scenarios of the aftermath of a NO vote prevailed, including an exit of the euro zone which would result in deep poverty. Analysts appeared in newscasts verifying such scenarios and to JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

Miloˇševic’s ´ Rise to power

JASON MAGAZINE

Information warfare; rise of Milošević

A chronicle of old-school information warfare

“No one should dare to beat you”. This short sentence may very well be seen as the most influential sentence spoken in the Balkans since the death of Tito. One last, old-school, display of information warfare (ab)using newspapers and state television was performed by Slobodan Miloševi´ c, just before the world entered the next stage in information warfare with the introduction of computers and internet access. This was to become information warfare that within four years resulted in the rise of Miloševi´ c as leader of Yugoslavia, the rise of nationalism throughout the six Yugoslav republics and eventually in four wars, ethnic cleansing, genocide and war rape. A chronicle of how Miloševi´ c used false information to ignite violence amongst Serbs in Kosovo for personal gain.

an ample opportunity like this. For the first time Milošević donned the mantle of protector of all Serbs. Upon arrival Milošević faced thousands of local Serbs. Galvanized by the fact their cries for help had finally been heard by the Yugoslavian and Serbian leadership they crowded around a seemingly nervous Milošević, trying to shake his hand while reciting the need for change in Kosovo due to Albanian oppression. e whole thing was filmed by Yugoslavian government television networks and parts of it were broadcast live2. Once inside the building Milošević started the talks with the local leaders, but this abruptly halted after the first rocks were hurled towards the House of Culture, where the talks took place. e Kosovar police, consisting of mostly Albanians and headed by an Albanian chief of police dispersed the crowd by using batons. is culminated in a backand-forth between local Serbs and the police while the Serbs were shouting “murderers” and “we are Tito’s, Tito is ours!”. It was a bizarre situation that, due to the presence of cameras was

broadcast live throughout Yugoslavia. Milošević seemed impressed, unsure of the right thing to do next. Eventually he entered the balcony; he claimed he wanted to see what was going on, perhaps addressing some protest leaders personally. After looking out over the

Serbs claimed they had been attacked, beaten up and forced to leave their houses by the Albanians. Milošević hesitated, but after taking a deep breath he spoke loud and clear. “No one should dare to beat you”. His voice grew with every word. He then entered the crowd

protest for a couple of minutes, which by now started to look like a battleﬁeld, he insisted on leaving the building to give in to the protestors’ demands of speaking with him directly. As he entered the perimeter surrounding the House of Culture desperate local Serbs, on the face of it wounded by ﬁghting, clenched onto him, begging for help against Albanian tyranny.

and assured their safety from outsiders, referring back to the battle of 1389. Protest leader Šolević was able to stir up the crowd some more, attacking ethnic Albanians, calling for the abolition of Kosovo as an autonomous region within the republic of Serbia. Milošević stood by and allowed the situation to get out of control. Everything was still being ﬁlmed and broadcast live throughout Yugoslavia. e whole event made Slobodan Milošević the new tsar of the Serbs, and due to Serb power in the

no one should dare to beat you. This may the most influential sentence spoken in the Balkans since the death of Tito.

Milošević heard them out for several minutes. One after the other the local

t Map of Former Yugoslavia.

WoUTER WITTEVEEn

osovo had long been a place of big sentiment for the ethnic Serbs. During the Byzantine and Roman empires Kosovo was the center of cultural clashes. is is where versions of the Latin, Illyrian and Cyrillic alphabet could all be found within one square mile, where Orthodox, Catholic and Islamic cultures lived alongside each other. is was a place torn between periods of inherent tensions and reconciliation. Along with periods of cultural tension came cultural pride. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire the lands currently known as Kosovo became extremely important for the history of Europe. Orthodox Slavs faced an almighty enemy in the form of the expanding Ottoman Empire. In 1389 the Serbs lost their lands in a heroic battle against the Ottomans1. It became known as the last stand of Christians against Ottomans. 32

e Ottomans won the battle, but suﬀered so many casualties that their progress in conquering Europe came to a halt. e Serbs take extreme pride in the fact they successfully held back the Ottomans, even though it cost them their land for over ﬁve centuries.

sTambolić’ miscalculaTion In April 1987 President Stambolić of Serbia cancelled a trip to Kosovo. At the request of some local leaders, who kept urging the Serbian leadership to come see the situation for themselves, a talk

At the end of the eighties, almost 600 years after the epic defeat of the Serbs, the situation in the region resembled the situation just before the battle in 1389. Albanians, for the greater part consisting of Muslims, had overtaken Kosovo in earlier years. e ethnic Serbs felt abandoned by their Yugoslav and Serbian leadership who proclaimed Kosovo to be the ‘motherland of Serbia’, but never acted out they actually cared about the faith of the Slavs living there.

was planned to discuss the rising tensions in the region between Albanians and Serb minorities. Stambolić however did not consider these talks important enough to travel oﬀ himself, so he sent his deputy; Slobodan Milošević. is turned out to be a careless move. Milošević had no intention of representing the Yugoslavian or Serbian government’s interests. He was there to pursue his own agenda, and had been waiting for

The rise of Miloševic ´ consists of two acts of information warfare.

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JASON MAGAZINE

Information warfare; rise of Milošević Albanian recruit was framed by Milošević himself. e rise of Milošević consists of two acts of information warfare.

s Slobodan Miloševic. ´

Yugoslav parliament, he would soon become tsar of Yugoslavia. downfall of sTambolić Upon his return in the Serbian parliament Stambolić immediately attacked Milošević for his rigorous tone in Kosovo. He demanded Milošević take back his nationalist statements, together with accusations towards the Serbian restraint to stand up for Kosovo. But it was too late. By sending his until then protégé Milošević, Stambolić had forfeited the opportunity to act as protector of all Serbs. In just a few weeks it became clear that whoever controlled the rallied-up Serbs from Kosovo would be the leader of all Serbs. Milošević gained ﬁnal momentum when, ﬁve months later an Albanian

Five days before travelling to Kosovo, Milošević had met with ‘protest leader’ and local strongman Šolević, ensuring a riot would be provoked between local Serbs and the police3. Milošević had Šolević park a truck full of stones conveniently nearby the House of Culture, making sure the local Serbs had ammunition. He had Šolević rally up hundreds of men ready for battle and sometimes even force other demonstrators to ﬁght with them against Kosovar police. Šolević and Milošević had prepared speeches and statements together. To guarantee media attention Milošević brought national television networks with him, where normally local networks would have reported about such talks. Although Milošević had made a nervous impression, it cannot have been the nerves the crowd gave him. He knew exactly what would happen. It now appears that his nerves were rather caused by the uncertainty of whether or not his plan of becoming the strongman of the Serbs would succeed. In the words of Šolević in a later interview with the BBC: “He walked into the hall as the chairman of the Central Committee of the Serbian League of Communists and left it as a leader. We wanted a leader, but we got a tsar”4.

the media tell the separatist story over and over again, once more stirring up tension amongst Serbs. Against the wishes of the parents of the Albanian perpetrator, who according to reports committed suicide half a mile from where he had killed his fellow recruits, the funeral was attended by ten thousand people, all local Serbs. Milošević had made the funeral a political demonstration against the Kosovo Albanian leadership. He succeeded to overthrow Stambolić in the following days, and took the leadership of Yugoslavia soon after. classic Tale In an age of false news, ‘alternative facts’, Russian hackers and Dutch political

parties employing internet trolls to manipulate voters it has become increasingly important to realize the impact of (social) media on the average citizen and yourself. Although the information warfare utilized by Milošević seems outdated, (ab)using newspapers and television, it simply is a classic tale of a politician rising to the top based on lies. An event that because of the internet has become more plausible to occur again over time. Hopefully, the knowledge we now have about how Milošević rose to power will prevent it from happening in future occasions.

Summary The rise of Miloševic ´ is based on two acts of information warfare. Before seizing power in the Serb parliament he managed to abuse state television networks to rally up Serbs from Kosovo. he figured that the person controlling these masses would control Serbia. The article is a casestudy of how exactly Miloševic ´ came to power, which provides a classic tale of information warfare.

t Battle of Kosovo, oil painting by Adam Stefanovic (1870). ´

Biography Wouter Witteveen is a graduated MSc in Conflict Studies. he is currently enrolled in the Master program of Sociology at Radboud University. he specializes in radicalization processes and the recent Balkan history.

However, the events had not wounded Stambolić fatally; Milošević needed another event to be able to overthrow his former mentor in Parliament. e

Although Miloševic ´ had made a nervous impression, he knew exactly what would happen.

recruit opened ﬁre on four fellow Yugoslavian army soldiers, killing them in their sleep. e event was reported as an Albanian attempt of separatism against Serbia. Milošević told the story over and over, forcing Stambolić to resign during a sitting of Parliament, which again was broadcast on live television. He humiliated his former friend Stambolić, who had been his mentor for 25 years. Two big lies Few government oﬃcials and even fewer civilians at the time knew that the protest was staged and the attack by the 34

attack by the Albanian soldier became known as a separatist attempt. In reality it is very hard to name this brutal killing of his fellow soldiers an act of separatism from Serbian/Yugoslavian authority. e four killed soldiers consisted of one Croat, one Serb and two Muslims. It was not an act against Serbia. Pavlović, Belgrade Party Chief, tried to downplay the rumors arising in the media. He called Belgrade media bosses to state the facts: it simply had nothing to do with separatism. What he found was a blocked door. Milošević had beaten him to it. He had JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

oh, oh, Europa

JASON MAGAZINE

Boekrecensie

We schrijven 1992. De boekwinkels liggen vol met de bestseller van Francis Fukuyama. The end of history and the last men is voor historici en politicologen een absolute must-have. De titel spreekt voor zich. In hetzelfde jaar wordt het Verdrag van Maastricht gesloten tussen 12 landen en de Europese Unie opgericht. Een geest van optimisme waait over het continent.

Het einde van de geschiedenis blijkt nu, 25 jaar later, een illusie. Het rommelt in Europa. Er staan vluchtelingen aan de grenzen, de eurocrisis suddert nog na en populistische partijen staan juichend te wachten op de komende verkiezingen. Dit in ogenschouw nemend is het niet verwonderlijk dat Mathieu Segers, Hoogleraar Hedendaagse Geschiedenis aan Maastricht University, zijn nieuwste boek de titel ‘Europa en de terugkeer van de geschiedenis’ heeft meegegeven. FloRIS GRIJzEnhoUT

Wie een goede inkijk in de besluitvormingsprocessen wil krijgen heeft met dit boek goud in handen. De EU is ontstaan vanuit een streven om Duitsland te binden aan samenwerking en zo het land onder de duim te houden. Nu is juist bínnen die samenwerking Duitsland uitgegroeid tot de stabiele factor bij uitstek en ligt een leidersrol voor het oprapen. Merkel is zich bewust van de erfenis van Duitsland in Europa en gaat hier goed mee om, maar wat als een andere Bundespresident zich aandient? Ook in Frankrijk wordt dit jaar een nieuwe president gekozen. Ook deze verkiezingen zijn cruciaal, want het hele Europese idee werkt alleen als er constructief wordt samengewerkt tussen gelijkwaardige partners. Tegelijkertijd weet iedereen dat Frankrijk momenteel de Zieke Man van Europa is. Het land wil maar niet uit de economische crisis geraken. President Hollande durft niet eens meer mee te doen aan de verkiezingen.

s Het boek ‘Europa en de terugkeer van de geschiedenis.’ Uitgeverij prometheus.

n zijn boek blikt Segers vooruit op 2017, een spannend jaar voor Europa. Met presidentsverkiezingen in Duitsland en Frankrijk en parlementsverkiezingen in Nederland in het vooruitzicht kan er veel veranderen in 2017. Zal Angela Merkel erin slagen om voor een vierde termijn te dienen als Bondskanselier? En wat betekent dit voor de rol van Duitsland in Europa?

Maar wat kunnen Le Pen en Fillon? Zullen zij in staat zijn om Frankrijk uit het slop te trekken? Fillon is een rechtse kandidaat, afkomstig van de elite en hij richt zich op oude ideeën om de Franse economie aan de gang te krijgen. Le Pen is weliswaar populair bij het gewone volk, voelt zich gesteund door de Brexit en de verkiezing van Trump, maar is economisch toch erg links: een richting waarmee Hollande de afgelopen vier jaar geen successen mee heeft geboekt. Wie de hoogleraar wat langer volgt zal het boek een teleurstelling vinden. Omdat het bestaat uit eerder verschenen columns leest de trouwe volger niets nieuws. Echter, wie een goede inkijk in de besluitvormingsprocessen wil krijgen heeft met dit boek goud in handen. Segers gaat verder dan de waan van de dag, maar duidt wat er werkelijk aan de hand is. t Deze steen in Maastricht herinnert aan het Verdrag van Maastricht van 1992. Nu, 25 jaar later, is de geest van optimisme die toen heerste, bijna verdwenen.

s Zal Le Pen erin slagen om de Franse presidentsverkiezingen naar haar hand te zetten?

Over Reis naar het Continent In 2013 presenteerde Mathieu Segers zijn boek ‘Reis naar het Continent’. hierin schrijft hij op basis van diepgaande bronnenonderzoek over de nederlandse houding ten opzichte van Europese Integratie. had ons land daarin een keus en hoe is dat nu? Segers laat zien dat hij niet alleen wetenschappelijk kan schrijven, maar dat hij ingewikkelde materie ook op een eenvoudige manier kan uitleggen. het is daarom niet verwonderlijk dat hij een veelgevraagd duider is van de ontwikkelingen in de Europese Unie.

Op die manier is de lezer klaar voor het spannende jaar 2017: krijgen anti-Europese partijen de overhand bij de verkiezingen? Scepcis over Europa is namelijk populair onder de bevolking. Segers geeft daar in zijn boek wel een verklaring voor: te lang zijn vragen over de identiteit van Europa onbeantwoord gelaten. Men geloofde in een voortgaande, technische samenwerking via beleidsmechanismen. Daarbij is de burger vergeten.

Te lang zijn vragen over de identiteit van Europa onbeantwoord gelaten.

Aan de hand van eerder verschenen columns in Het Financieele Dagblad neemt Mathieu Segers de lezer mee naar de impact van zo’n verkiezing. Secuur laat hij zien dat de rol van Duitsland in de huidige Europese Unie paradoxaal is aan de ontstaangeschiedenis van de waardengemeenschap.

Tegelijkertijd geldt dat er ook positief nieuws is. Het Europese project is nog niet verloren. In tijden van crisis wordt er nog steeds gewoon samengewerkt tussen de Europese staten. Of het nu gaat om de Eurocrisis of de Vluchtelingenproblematiek, de landen zoeken elkaar steeds weer op om in Europees verband een oplossing te vinden. Als Europa ondertussen antwoorden vindt over haar eigen identiteit, kan 2017 best eens een gunstig jaar zijn voor Europa.

Wie is Mathieu Segers? Mathieu Segers is hoogleraar eigentijdse Europese geschiedenis en Europese integratie aan de Universiteit van Maastricht, decaan van het University College Maastricht en verbonden aan de WWR. hij is columnist van het FD en een veelgevraagd commentator in de media. Eerder verschenen van hem Reis naar het continent (dat bekroond werd als beste politieke boek van 2013) en Waagstuk Europa.

Summary The author reviews the recent publication of Mathieu Segers, the Dean of University College Maastricht. In ‘Europe and the return of history’ Segers writes about actual events in Europa and their historical ties. 2017 is, in many aspects, a crucial year for Europe. Thinking about elections in the netherlands, France and Germany the question is at stake whether the European Union will continue to stay in its current form.

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

Slavery is not Dead, it is Thriving

JASON MAGAZINE

Website Pick

Every week on Sunday, the editors of JASON Magazine bring you an exclusive article on the JASON Institute website at www.stichtingjason.nl. Below you can read one selection from the many excellent articles that we offer exclusively online. Please be sure to check them all out. AGATA ChMIEl

resident Obama proclaimed January to be the US Human Trafficking Awareness Month, proving that the issue, not only in Americas but internationally, is on the rise. roughout the last decade of economic and migration crises occurring across the globe, human trafficking in itself seems to have been off the main headlines. ere could be two reasons for this. Firstly, it is a reoccurring issue without a concrete beginning and

e New Millennium for human traﬃcking victims opened with the ‘United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’2, further supported by three Protocols (aka ‘Palermo Protocols’), among which the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Traﬃcking in Persons, Especially Women and Children’3. Not only was the Protocol a landmark international guideline on how to prevent and combat the issue, but it also brought a

More and more trafficked persons are abused in a manner other than sexual

certainly no vision for an end. Secondly, it seems that in the 21st century society as a whole has been taking the notion of “personal freedom” for granted. At the same time, various international organizations, such as Interpol or Europol, are continuously alarming of the actuality of the issue1. at is why it is worth to use the Human Traﬃcking Awareness Month as the “pretext” to take a look on how this transboundary organized crime evolved in the past decade and what threats to human security it poses today. 38

(somewhat) universally acknowledged definition of it: “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation (…)” 4

It is worth to add that “exploitation” refers not only to sexual profiteering, which is the most popular form, but also to forced labour or removal of organs. is is a significant point because more and more trafficked persons are abused in a manner other than sexual. In the end, it is up to an individual state’s criminal code to determine what constitutes as “human trafficking”. International guidance as the Protocol, however, is an invaluable benchmark for policymakers. Necessary to remark here is that the UN Convention calls upon mutual cooperation and legal assistance among the states5. On the one hand, it can be argued that there has been great improvement in this area in the past 16 years. On the other hand, hesitance of sharing information between domestic law enforcement agencies remains an issue. Interpol and Europol together are the main transnational agencies that aim at changing this situation and supporting domestic law enforcement to act as quickly as possible when the illegal trafficking occurs. ere are numerous measures taken against this issue, including “[law enforcement] training, (…) intelligence gathering, victim identification, planning and executing victim rescue and suspect-arrest

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

operations, and the securing and preservation of traﬃcking-related evidence.”6 Even though those measures have evolved from the time when the Protocol came to force (2003), there is still a high level of uncertainty when it comes to statistics on traﬃckers and

kind of understanding of a “threat” and is of particular relevance here as it focuses on the protection of the “vulnerable”10 members of society. In consideration with such a theory, it can be said that human traﬃcking, being one of the four fastest growing organized criminal activities, is a threat that cannot be ignored.

It is difficult to determine a future perspective for the eradication of human trafficking

victims. More and more often they are being called a “hidden population”7, which makes it difficult to provide a valid estimate of how many ‘modern slaves’ exist today exactly. As of 2014, the International Labour Organization reported an estimate of 21 million victims, of which over 14 million involved forced labour, another 4.5 million based on sexual exploitation and over 2 million concerned so-called “state-imposed labour”. Overall, 55% victims are women and 45% men, of which collectively 26% are individuals under 18 years old. e ‘business value’ of human trafficking, at least reported officially, oscillates around 150 billion US dollars on a yearly basis. To have a grasp on how large this sum is, Facebook’s total revenue for 2014 was 12.46 billion8.

Following activist organizations that help victims of human traﬃcking, there is one conclusion that matters. It is crucial to understand that none of the innovative and hi-tech based measures used by the UN policymakers, Interpol or Europol altogether will ever substitute for a human instinct. Cautious observation of the world around us and empathy that is used to understand it might help thousands of undiscovered victims of human traﬃcking.

Biography Agata Chmiel is an international master student of Crisis and Security Management at leiden University. She holds a bachelor in Global law from Tilburg University and is particularly interested in public international law, transnational organised crime and victimology.

As a start, you can have a look on how many slaves work ‘for you’ right here: http://slaveryfootprint.org/

As the mere statistic shows, the response to this highly complex issue relies on several interrelated factors, such as socioeconomic background of victims and offenders, relevant domestic legislation, level of corruption in law enforcement or even level of mental health within particular community9. In turbulent times like these, it is difficult to determine a future perspective for the eradication of human trafficking. Perhaps, when in 1865 Abraham Lincoln was signing the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolishing slavery, he was barely aware that 152 years later the issue would not have been resolved. It can be argued that, today, anyone coming from any socio-economic background and of any race, could fall a victim of illegal trafficking and exploitation. Modern slavery is far from being a myth, which perhaps does not pose a threat to states in traditional sense, but certainly generates a danger to the security of individuals. Scholarly theories of “human security” refer to this JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

039

Russian Disinformation

JASON MAGAZINE

A lecture by JASON Institute

In a Nutshuis packed with students, three experts discussed the growing problem of disinformation and fake news coming out of Russia, the reasons behind it and the threats it poses to Western states. All from a different background, Tony van der Togt from Clingendael Institute, Mark Bader, a lecturer from Leiden University specialized in post-Soviet Russia and Rosa Toxopeus, an analyst from the bureau of the National Coordinator against Terrorism and Security (NCTV) shed some light on the destabilizing effects of the information warfare coming out of the Russian Federation. Dr. Toxopeus identified the spread of disinformation as a form of hybrid warfare, or as she put it hybrid threat, since the the strategy of disinformation is to stay below the threshold of armed conflict. Hybrid threats are often cloaked, executed through proxies and incorporate not only information warfare but also economic pressuring, such sanctions or closing fuel routes, diplomatic pestering and cyber attacks. Ambiguity and deniability are key in this strategy. A definition of disinformation is information that is deliberately false or misleading and is spread in a calculated way to deceive target audiences. Information warfare is simply the policy of utilizing disinformation. How does it work then? Dr. Mark Bader discussed this, through the example of Russia, a state prominently skilled in utilizing disinformation, the various agents of information warfare and the roles they play and the goals they have. Large Media outlets such as Sputnik and Russia Today operate under a narrative of Western decay and corruption towards susceptible Western audiences. Both major outlets are under heavy government control. e news these outlets distribute targets Western news 40

JASON MAGAZINE

What is JASon Institute? In 1975 the JASON Institute (Jong Atlantisch Samenwerkings orgaan nederland) was founded by a group of young professionals interested in international relations and peace and security issues, looking to inform and interest a younger audience in these sorts of questions. In the beginning JASon, focused mainly on peace and security issues within transatlantic relations, especially on the role of nATo. later, JASon expanded its horizon, organizing lectures and publishing articles about a growing number of topics in the spectrum of international relations and security issues. JASon is a neutral observer and not bound to any political conviction, religion or worldview. This is to ensure objectivity and provide our audience with a broad scale of views.

We seek to inform our audience through two instruments. First we publish our magazine, the one you are reading right now. In each number we strive to cover a broad number of topical subjects tied to the broad spectrum of international relations.

Secondly, the JASon team organizes a number of activities each year, ranging from debates and lectures to conferences and field trips. You don’t have to be a member of JASon to sign up as they are open to everyone.

media as deceitful and lying and Western elites as corrupt and its institutions as morally decaying. Some stories on important topics twist or distort the truth, providing alternative facts. e goal of these alternative facts is not to convince Western leaders but sow ambiguity and distrust in Western public opinion. e MH17 incident is a case in point. Almost immediately after Western media reported that the plane was shot down by a BUK-missile by Russianbacked rebels, a counter story was launched that a Ukrainian ﬁghter jet had been spotted near the plane. While there was no evidence for this claim, some Western media picked it up. Especially among internet blogs and more questionable news sites this story still pops up, disinforming Western citizens. Some in the West are attracted to these Russian stories. ey agree that Western elites are weak and corrupt and some see Putin as a strong leader, others see in Russia a country with the right conservative values. It makes them willing to accept Russian disinformation and spread it, undermining public opinion and political stability in the West. Does that mean no Russian news can be trusted? at is not the case. While there is heavy government involvement in outlets such as Russia Today and it

exploits vulnerabilities in Western society expertly, there is no grand design to permanently undermine the West. As Tony van der Togt convincingly showed, rather Russia feels threatened by the recent developments in Ukraine and the loss of the Baltic states before. It is now falling back on a identity of Orthodox Christianity and national sovereignty as a counterweight to what it perceives as the growing forces of Western internationalism. Russia feels information warfare is an eﬀective strategy, at a low cost, to utilize pro-Russian groups in Western states and halt Western expansion. rough information warfare Russia can promote its interests and identity in the West while simultaneously sowing distrust against Western elites. In the hope of holding on to its diminished sphere of inﬂuence and tilt Western public opinion toward its interests, information warfare has served the Russians well and its is a threat that will be there for a long time. For Western countries, resilience is key. Resilience of its institutions and democracy, and trust in its news media and society. It is the only way to mitigate the damage of disinformation. Rik van Dijk attended the JASON Lecture on Information Wars and is Editor-inChief for JASON Magazine

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

The magazine and most of the activities are free of cost. All those interested can sign up easily either through our Facebook or our site www.stichtingjason.nl

RECEIVE JASON MAGAZINE FREE DIGITALLY! JASon magazine is free for students, young professionals and all those interested in international relations and international security. To subscribe the magazine, go to our site stichtingjason.nl. If you want the magazine in printed form, please contact our editorial board at redactie@stichtingjason.nl and we will contact you as soon as possible about the possibilities.

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JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017

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JASON MAGAZINE Sources

Stuxnet 1 2

4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11

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Ambinder, Marc (2012) “Did America’s Cyber Attack on Iran Make Us More Vulnerable” The Atlantic, Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/did-americas-cyber-attack-on-iran-make-us-more-vulnerable/258120/ Gross, Michael Joseph (2011) “A Declaration of Cyber-War” Vanity Fair, Retrieved from: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/03/stuxnet201104 and Gross, Michael Joseph (2013) “Silent War” Vanity Fair, Retrieved from: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/07/new-cyberwar-victims-american-business langer, Ralph (2013) “Stuxnet’s Secret Twin”, Foreign Policy, Retrieved from: http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/11/19/stuxnets-secret-twin/ and lauder, Jo (2016) “Stuxnet: The real life sci-fi story of ‘the world’s first digital weapon’, ABC, Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/the-worlds-first-digital-weapon-stuxnet/7926298 Bamford, James (2013) “nSA Snooping Was only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief leading Us Into Cyberwar” Wired, Retrieved from: https://www.wired.com/2013/06/general-keith-alexander-cyberwar/ “War in the fifth domain”, The Economist, Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/node/16478792 See: note 2 perlroth, nicole (2012) “In Cyberattack on Saudi Firm, U.S. Sees Iran Firing Back” The New York Times, Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/business/global/cyberattack-on-saudi-oil-firm-disquiets-us.html Corera, Gordon (2015) “Rapid escalation of the cyber-arms race” BBC, Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-32493516 “hackers caused power cut in western Ukraine – US”, BBC, Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35297464 and zetter, Kim “Inside the cunning, unprecedented hack of Ukraine’s power grid”, Wired, Retrieved from: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunningunprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/ “Wales Summit Declaration”, NATO, Retrieved from: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_112964.htm#cyber See: note 10

Russian Influence: a DIY Trojan Horse 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Collins. S (2016) Trump: It wasn’t Russia Wot Won It, http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/trump-it-wasnt-russia-wot-wonit/19103#.WIC4MyolT6Y Slater. T (2016) The (new) paranoid Style in American politics, http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-new-paranoid-style-inamerican-politics-trump-russia/18939#.WIC4lColT6Y Whitney. M (2016) The Democrats ‘Russia hacking’ Campaign is political Suicide, http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/12/the-democratsrussia-hacking-campaign-is-political-suicide/ The nation (2016) Declassify the Evidence of Russian hacking!, https://www.thenation.com/article/declassify-the-evidence-of-russianhacking/ Chozwick. A (2016) Clinton says ‘personal Beef by putin led to hacking Attacks, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/us/politics/hillaryclinton-russia-fbi-comey.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=topnews&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1 See note 1 See note 5 See note 5 Black. T (2016) Russia-Bashing is Making the West Blind, http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/russia-bashing-is-making-the-westblind/18911#.WIC5lSolT6Y England. C (2016) Sewdish Authorities told to prepare ‘in terms of War’ amid Russia Tensions, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-is-preparing-for-a-possible-war-a7476316.html Europe Braces for Russian hacking in Upcoming Elections, http://www.politico.eu/article/europe-russia-hacking-elections/ See note 11 heyden. U & Koltashov. V (2016) ‘putin and Russia are ideal scapegoats for Europe’s leaders’, http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/22/putin-and-russia-are-ideal-scapegoats-for-europes-rulers/ See note 3 Rayman. n (2014) new Research Blames Insiders, not north Korea, for Sony hack http://time.com/3649394/sony-hack-inside-job-north-korea/ See note 11 Swanson. D (2016) What’s Behind Time Magazine’s putin demonizing?

Russia is Winning the Information War 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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pomeranzev, Edward lucas and peter. “Winning the Information War.” CEPA (Center for European policy Analysis ), August 2016: 0-71. Keir, Giles. “Russia’s ‘new Tools for Confronting the West Continuity and Innovation in Moscow’s Exercise of power. Russia and Eurasia programme (Chatman house), March 2016:0-73 Adam Entous, Ellen nakashima and Greg Miller. “Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win the White house”. Washington Post, December 9, 2016 Keir, Giles. “Russia’s ‘new Tools for Confronting the West Continuity and Innovation in Moscow’s Exercise of power. Russia and Eurasia programme (Chatman house), March 2016:0-73 Id. Cnn Ahead of Mh17 report, Russia says if plane shot down, Ukraine pulled trigger, September 21, 2016 Robert van der noordaa. “Baudet vraagt Trump om nieuw onderzoek naar Mh17, nabestaanden geschok”. De Volkskrant, 31 Januari 2017 pomeranzev, Edward lucas and peter. “Winning the Information War.” CEPA (Center for European policy Analysis ), August 2016: 0-71. Id.

Fake News, Real Consequences 1

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Silverman, C. (2015) ‘lies, damn lies, and viral content,’ in Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Silverman. Roth, B. (2016) ‘The Dangers of A Fake news Economy,’ in TriplePundit. Akpan, n. (2016) ‘The very real consequences of fake news stories and why your brain can’t ignore them,’ in PBS Newshour. Maddow, R. (2016) ‘poll shows Trump voter gap with facts, rest of Americans’ views’ in MSnBC. Silverman. Silverman. Silverman. Silverman. Silverman.

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Hybrid Trollfare 1 2 3 4 5

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https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/fever-swamp-election?utm_term=.ufwqlpnlm#.euGWbzA23 https://www.ft.com/content/333fe6bc-c1ea-11e6-81c2-f57d90f6741a_ http://justitie.eenvandaag.nl/tv-items/71885/aivd_honderden_cyberaanvallen_door_rusland_en_china https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/19/meet-the-chinese-internet-trolls-pumping-488-million-posts-harvard-stanford-ucsd-research/

As Clean as a Whistleblower 1 2 3 4 5 6

Media in Times of Crisis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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Chomsky, n. (1997), Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of propaganda, The Open Media Pamphlet Series, Seven Stories press, new York Efimeros, C. (2015), Mainstream Media lie in Greece, published by The Press Project news Agency, available at: http://bit.ly/2hpzzfJ, [last assessed on Thursday, December 8th, 2016] Daley, S. (2015), In Greek Referendum Campaign, a Barrage of Doomsday Ads, published by The New York Times, available at: http://nyti.ms/2gpv9MY, [last assessed on Thursday, December 8th, 2016] leandros, n. (2010), Media Concentration and Systemic Failures in Greece, International Journal of Communication 4 (2010), pp.886-905 Mavrozacharakis, E. & Tzagkarakis, S.I. (2015), The Greek referendum: an alternative approach, University of Crete, Department of political Science nikolaidis, A. (2015), The Impact of Austerity on the Greek news Media and public Sphere, PERC Paper Series: Paper No.12, Goldsmiths, University of london, pp.1-8 Tvxs.gr (2015), MEGA continues the propaganda with no regrets (trnsl.), available at: http://bit.ly/2jnrg2X, [last assessed Sunday, January 15th, 2017] patrikarakos, D. (2015), Why Greece’s yes campaign failed, published at: theguardian.com, available at: http://bit.ly/2iQnp2W, [last assessed Wednesday, January 18th, 2017]

Miloševic’s ´ Rise to Power 1 2

3 4

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”no, Chelsea Manning’s leaks Did not Result in Any Deaths.” Rare.us, 18 January 2017. Cohn, Marjorie. “Bradley Manning’s legal Duty to Expose War Crimes.” Truth-out.org, 3 June 2013. pilkington, Ed. “Manning Says he First Tried To leak To The Washington post and new York Times”. The Guardian, 28 February 2013. Blake, Andrew. “The Torture of Bradley Manning”, VICE, 15 December 205. Matharu, hardeep. “Trump Reiterates Desire To Murder Terrorists’ Families.” The Independent, 4 March 2016. Graham, David A. “how Trump had It Both Ways on Congressional Ethics.” The Atlantic, 3 January 2017.

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Information about the battle can be found at: http://vandaagindegeschiedenis.nl/28-juni/ BBC Documentary. The Death of Yugoslavia; Enter nationalism (episode 1). As can be seen on youtube, Miloševic ´ brought the national television networks when he came to Kosovo. Documentary can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_pzsfXbyAw&list=plqD5Su3zJjjbCsgVCE90msl9d4nhdV4pu Silber, l. & little, A. (1996). The death of Yugoslavia. penguin group & BBC Worldwide ltd. Sense Tribunal. (2005). Who killed more Albanians? Quote can be found at: http://www.sense-agency.com/icty/who-killed-morealbanians.29.html?cat_id=1&news_id=8948

Slavery is not Dead, it is Thriving 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9

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‘Europol Chief Says people Smugglers At Record levels As Criminal Gangs Move In’ (Reuters UK, 2016) <http://uk.reuters.com/article/ukmideast-crisis-smuggling-europe-idUKKCn0zS2D1> ‘United nations Convention against Transnational organized Crime’, 2225 UnTS 209, done nov. 15, 2000, entered into force Sept. 29, 2003 <http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UnToC/publications/ToC%20Convention/ToCebook-e.pdf> ‘protocol to prevent, Suppress and punish Trafficking in persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United nations Convention against Transnational organized Crime’ GA Res. 55/25, Annex II, Un GAoR, 55th Sess., Supp. no. 49, at 53, Un Doc. A/45/49 (Vol. I) (2001), done nov. 15, 2000, entered into force Dec. 25, 2003 <http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UnToC/publications/ToC%20Convention/ToCebook-e.pdf> See note: [4] ‘United nations Convention against Transnational organized Crime’, 2225 UnTS 209, done nov. 15, 2000, entered into force Sept. 29, 2003 <http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UnToC/publications/ToC%20Convention/ToCebook-e.pdf> A. Gallagher and p. holmes, ‘Developing An Effective Criminal Justice Response To human Trafficking: lessons From The Front line’ (2008) 18 International Criminal Justice Review. <http://icj.sagepub.com/content/18/3/318.full.pdf>; p. 327 Van der laan et al, ‘Cross-Border Trafficking In human Beings: prevention And Intervention Strategies For Reducing Sexual Exploitation’ (2011) The Campbell Collaboration <https://www.campbellcollaboration.org/media/k2/attachments/Van_der_laan_Trafficking_Review.pdf> ‘Statistics on Forced labour, Modern Slavery And human Trafficking (Forced labour, Modern Slavery And human Trafficking)’ (Ilo.org, 2014) <http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/policy-areas/statistics/lang–en/index.htm> Sian oram and others, ‘prevalence And Risk of Violence And The physical, Mental, And Sexual health problems Associated With human Trafficking: Systematic Review’ (2012) 9 ploS Med. <http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001224&type=printable> Michele Anne Clark, ‘Trafficking In persons: An Issue of human Security’ (2003) 4 Journal of human Development <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1464988032000087578>; p. 249

JASon Magazine * Volume 42 * Issue 1 * 2017