Disinformation and the Ukraine War: Historical and Cross-Cultural Approaches

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by an unprecedented campaign of state propaganda and disinformation, the West’s response to which has resulted in an intense battle of narratives, many of which have long, complex histories, and in Russia’s extensive and dynamic mirroring of allegations against it. This raises wider questions about the significance of shifts in how the meanings of both terms (propaganda and disinformation) have been reinterpreted over time, contested across lingua-cultural and geopolitical environments, and reshaped by their discursive encounters with liberal democratic counter-disinformation measures. Linked to these shifts is a parallel process in which 'disinformation narratives' themselves are adapted for specific cultural settings and time periods and construed differently by various target audiences. Focusing primarily on the Soviet and Russian contexts, the panel will spell out the implications for approaches to the Ukraine war, and to disinformation and state propaganda more generally.

Sub Unit

• International Relations, Security Studies, Foreign Policy

Chair

• Stephen Charles Hutchings, U of Manchester (UK)

Papers

• Russia’s 'Deep State' Conspiracy Narratives: Historical and Cross-Cultural Dimensions and Their Implications for Counter-Disinformation Practices - Stephen Charles Hutchings, U of Manchester (UK)

• Reexamining Soviet Approaches to Western Propaganda and Disinformation Theory from a Contemporary Perspective - Vera Tolz-Zilitinkevich, U of Manchester (UK); Alexandr Voronovici, U of Manchester (UK)

• One Person’s Belief Is Another’s Propaganda: Disinformation Discourse, Cross-State Reciprocity and Motivated Reasoning in Authoritarian Russia - Maxim Alyukov, U of Manchester (UK)

• The logic of collective historical knowledge among social media users in political conflicts: the case of the Odesa incident of May 2, 2014, and beyond - Aleksei Titkov, U of Manchester (UK)