The weapon of disinformation in politics:

ASERI is pleased to present the volume

The weapon of disinformation in politics:

 from the war in Iraq to the war in Ukraine

by Serena Giusti
Life and Thought

Monday 13 November 2023, 6.30 pm

in ASERI (Via San Vittore 18) and ONLINE

Introduces:

Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, Director of ASERI

Speakers:

Serena Giusti, Professor of International Relations, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa
Fausto Colombo, Full Professor of Media Theory and Techniques, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

The propagation of manipulated, distorted and false information has always been a lever of political influence and power that empires, states and other political entities have widely used to pursue strategic interests and objectives. However, in the era of online platforms and viral content on the web, disinformation and fake news have become an integral part of the political strategy of parties and states. It is above all the non-democratic states that 'arm' disinformation in their external projection, making it an instrument of a composite, articulated foreign policy, hybridized in a material and immaterial way. In fact, if disinformation is subjected to securitization, states can tighten control over circulating information, and not only that of exogenous origin. Platforms allow any actor – individuals, groups and states – to reach a global audience, flooding it with manipulated truths and outright falsehoods, but also with strategic narratives, ensuring that the boundaries between true and false are so blurred that there is no longer trust in the truth, or that a space is created in which conflicting and opposing truths can coexist. Therefore, the cognitive chaos that the speed and capillarity of the spread of manipulated news cause is amplified on the one hand by the de-responsibility guaranteed by the network to those who produce disinformation, and, on the other, by the persistence of the effects produced by false information, even when it is disavowed. This phenomenon is determined by technological sophistication that makes the false plausible and deeply affects the emotional sphere. Among the events in recent history permeated by disinformation – which profoundly affects the international system and the relations between the actors operating in it – are the war in Iraq, the 2016 US elections, the Brexit referendum and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The volume offers the reader an analytical compass and a conceptual apparatus that reveals the multiple applications of disinformation in foreign policy, indicating the possible future repercussions of this practice and the complex ways of reacting in order to contain the harmful consequences.

The author:
Serena Giusti teaches International Relations at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and is a Senior Associate Research Fellow at ISPI (Institute for International Political Studies). She is one of the founders and a member of the advisory board of Women in International Security Italy (WIIS). He has worked for the European Commission, UNICEF and the OSCE and has taught at several universities in Russia, Belarus, Hungary and Kazakhstan.

Participation is free upon registration. 

Limited seats in the hall.

Info: info.aseri@unicatt.it