Authoritarian Advantage? - Information in Chinese and Russian Strategy

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

The capability of authoritarian regimes to exercise influence and undertake political interference, within their regions and beyond, has emerged as an urgent question for today’s policy debates that also raises distinct theoretical questions. There are notable parallels between the tools and tactics that China and Russia have employed, from Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections to Beijing’s united front work against Taiwan. As regimes with a legacy of Marxist-Leninist ideology, Russia and the People’s Republic of China share some notable commonalities in their approaches to controlling information at home and weaponizing it abroad, including as a result of seemingly learning from each other’s techniques. Such apparent skillfulness in wielding these instruments of national power must be contextualized by their respective experiences with active measures and political warfare, which date back to the early history of the Soviet and Chinese Communist Parties. At the same time, there are also critical differences in how these regimes are leveraging information to advance their strategic objectives. However, the existing literatures often examine these dynamics in isolation and without a historical or comparative perspective.

To bridge that gap, this roundtable brings together experts on international security, international relations, comparative politics, and regional studies with a range of perspectives on these issues, informed by scholarship that has addressed Russian and Chinese approaches to cyber policy, censorship, political warfare, propaganda, and psychological operations. Together, we will examine themes of authoritarian adaptation to the contemporary global information environment, including the domestic techniques for information control intended to maintain political stability, as well as the employment of new technologies for information manipulation at global scope and scale. We seek to highlight the distinct approaches of Russia and China to advancing their political objectives, the synergies between their domestic and international activities, and the ways in which each model is being exported. These issues have important implications for theories of coercion, the linkages between domestic politics and foreign policy, and the dynamics of international security in the information age.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 19: International Security

Chair

• Chris C. Demchak Naval War College

Presenters

• Fiona Cunningham George Washington University

• Elsa Babette Kania Harvard University

• Jaclyn Kerr Harvard University

• Nadiya Kostyuk University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Alina Polyakova The Brookings Institution

• Margaret E. Roberts University of California, San Diego