Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy
October 2017
Shatter the House of Mirrors:
A Conference Report on Russian In uence Operations
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is engaged in a well- nanced and determined campaign to undermine democratic political and social institutions as well as international alliances, and to remove resistance to Russia’s foreign policy objectives. Russia has the motive and the means to do so.
Russia’s motives are clear. Putin resents the collapse of the Soviet Union and seeks to restore Russia’s lost empire in order to give the Russian government a freer hand at home and abroad. Russia’s intervention in the American election was part of a broader effort to undermine con dence in Western democracies and the credibility of Western institutions; weaken trans-Atlantic relationships, including NATO; diminish the international appeal of the United States as well as reduce American power abroad; reassert Russian power; and, ultimately, protect Putin’s regime from the threat of people power.
The means at Russia’s disposal include: of cial Russian state-organs, such as its intelligence services, that have a long history of conducting such operations; state controlled media outlets, such as RT and Sputnik which are propaganda arms whose narratives seep into Western media coverage; and Russian-controlled bots and trolls in social media that engineer the trends and popularity of both individuals and narratives. Russia has a long history of employing so-called “active measures” that by 2016 included traditional propaganda and computational propaganda, cybercrimes, as well as weaponized information—in the form of selective release of information to groups like Wikileaks. Finally, there is evidence of Russian support to and ties with the American so-called “Alt-Right,” ethno-nationalists, and secessionist movements in California and Texas, among other places—all of which serve to undermine U.S. political cohesion.
Russia’s assault on Western democracies, including the United States, exploits features of free and open societies. To ght-back, the United States must take decisive actions:
• Improve transparency and raise public awareness of the threat. Too much of the public discussion has focused on possible crimes committed by people around then- candidate Donald Trump. That focus obscures the magnitude of the challenge and the enduring nature of the threat, regardless of what happens in the investigation of the Trump team. Accordingly:
○ Congress must create an independent, bipartisan commission to establish a widely-accepted understanding of Russian actions, means, and objectives in the 2016 election.
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Shatter the House of Mirrors
○ Among the commission’s objectives, it must look beyond the 2016 campaign and expose the activities of trolls, bots, and other foreign actors, including those that are still active today, whether in battleground states or in states with active secession movements or vulnerable to exploitation over divisive social issues.
○ The news industry must determine whether their current standards and practices allow them to identify when they are the vehicle for a propaganda campaign and expose other outlets that lack those standards.
○ Social media platforms must be regulated so that political ads and sponsored content are clearly identi ed as such and there is transparency about who is paying for that content.
○ Public and private resources must be brought to bear to fund the scholars, journalists, and investigators who will educate the American public and policymakers about a threat that has not waned.
• Prepare the executive branch for a new cold war. Organizations from the White House to the intelligence community need to be reviewed for their ef cacy in meeting the propaganda challenge to the West. The White House must communicate to Congress the need for any new authorizations to meet this threat. It must also request suf cient appropriations for these activities and prosecute these programs vigorously. The administration also must provide the diplomatic leadership required for an international response to the common challenge posed by Russian intervention in the democratic processes of the West.
• Congress must lead. In the absence of clear executive branch willingness or readiness to lead on this issue, the U.S. Congress must take the initiative. It can do
so by eliminating “dark-money” in American politics; requiring more transparency by corporations operating in the United States; embracing bipartisanship in the defense of American democracy; and reforming the laws governing the activities of foreign agents operating in the United States—to begin by considering legislative changes that would require state-sponsored media outlets, such as RT and Sputnik, to publicly reveal their sources of funding.
• Invest in the American people. We must once again consider education a national priority and the cornerstone for an effective defense of democracy. Russia exploited America’s media illiteracy, our civic illiteracy, and our historical illiteracy. Programs
to increase the public’s resistance to in uence by foreign powers should be either buttressed, expanded, or created. This is a long-term effort and one we must begin now.
The press and the American public are mistaken if they focus exclusively on the question of whether President Trump or his team colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. The Russian effort is larger than the election of a president. It seeks to sow division within the United States and within the broader community of Western democracies. While crimes need to be prosecuted if they occurred, the public should be sensitized and their attention reoriented to combat the broader Russian effort to weaken our faith in our free institutions, and undermine the political cohesion of the United States.
