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Information wars : how we lost the global battle against disinformation & what we can do about it / Richard Stengel.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London, England : Grove Press UK, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 357 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780802147981
  • 0802147984
Other title:
  • How we lost the global battle against disinformation and what we can do about it
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 355.3/43 23
LOC classification:
  • U163 .S73 2019
Summary: "In February of 2013, Richard Stengel, the former editor-in-chief of Time, joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days, two shocking events made world-wide headlines: ISIS executed American journalist James Foley on a graphic video seen by tens of millions, and Vladimir Putin's "little green men"--Russian special forces--invaded Crimea, amid a blizzard of Russian denials and false flags. What these events had in common besides their violent lawlessness is that they were the opening salvos in a new era of global information war, where countries and non-state actors use social media and disinformation to create their own narratives and undermine anyone who opposes them. Stengel was thrust onto the front lines of this battle as he was tasked with responding to the relentless weaponizing of information and grievance by ISIS, Russia, China, and others. He saw the scale of what he was up against and found himself hopelessly outgunned. Then, in 2016, the wars Stengel was fighting abroad came home during the presidential election, as "fake news" became a rallying cry and the Russians used the techniques they learned in Ukraine to influence the election here. Rarely has an accomplished journalist been not only a close observer but also a principal participant in the debates and decisions of American foreign policy. Stengel takes you behind the scenes in the ritualized world of diplomacy, from the daily 8:30 morning huddle with a restless John Kerry to a midnight sit-down in Saudi Arabia with the prince of darkness Mohammed bin Salman. The result is a rich account of a losing battle against trolls and bots--who are every bit as insidious as their names imply."-- Provided by publisher.Summary: In February of 2013 Richard Stengel joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days ISIS executed American journalist James Foley on a graphic video seen by tens of millions, and Russian special forces invaded Crimea, amid a blizzard of Russian denials and false flags. These events were the opening salvos in a new era of global information war, where countries and non-state actors use social media and disinformation to create their own narratives and undermine anyone who opposes them. In 2016, during the presidential election, "fake news" became a rallying cry. Stengel takes you behind the scenes in the world of diplomacy, to examine our losing battle against trolls and bots. -- adapted from jacket
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 303.375 STE Available T00827180
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Disinformation is as old as humanity. When Satan told Eve nothing would happen if she bit the apple, that was disinformation. But the rise of social media has made disinformation even more pervasive and pernicious in our current era. In a disturbing turn of events, governments are increasingly using disinformation to create their own false narratives, and democracies are proving not to be very good at fighting it.

During the final three years of the Obama administration, Richard Stengel, the former editor of Time and an Under Secretary of State, was on the front lines of this new global information war. At the time, he was the single person in government tasked with unpacking, disproving, and combating both ISIS's messaging and Russian disinformation. Then, in 2016, as the presidential election unfolded, Stengel watched as Donald Trump used disinformation himself, weaponizing the grievances of Americans who felt left out by modernism. In fact, Stengel quickly came to see how all three players had used the same playbook: ISIS sought to make Islam great again; Putin tried to make Russia great again; and we all know about Trump.

In a narrative that is by turns dramatic and eye-opening, Information Wars walks readers through of this often frustrating battle. Stengel moves through Russia and Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and introduces characters from Putin to Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Mohamed bin Salman to show how disinformation is impacting our global society. He illustrates how ISIS terrorized the world using social media, and how the Russians launched a tsunami of disinformation around the annexation of Crimea - a scheme that became the model for their interference with the 2016 presidential election. An urgent book for our times, Information Wars stresses that we must find a way to combat this ever growing threat to democracy.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-339) and index.

"In February of 2013, Richard Stengel, the former editor-in-chief of Time, joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days, two shocking events made world-wide headlines: ISIS executed American journalist James Foley on a graphic video seen by tens of millions, and Vladimir Putin's "little green men"--Russian special forces--invaded Crimea, amid a blizzard of Russian denials and false flags. What these events had in common besides their violent lawlessness is that they were the opening salvos in a new era of global information war, where countries and non-state actors use social media and disinformation to create their own narratives and undermine anyone who opposes them. Stengel was thrust onto the front lines of this battle as he was tasked with responding to the relentless weaponizing of information and grievance by ISIS, Russia, China, and others. He saw the scale of what he was up against and found himself hopelessly outgunned. Then, in 2016, the wars Stengel was fighting abroad came home during the presidential election, as "fake news" became a rallying cry and the Russians used the techniques they learned in Ukraine to influence the election here. Rarely has an accomplished journalist been not only a close observer but also a principal participant in the debates and decisions of American foreign policy. Stengel takes you behind the scenes in the ritualized world of diplomacy, from the daily 8:30 morning huddle with a restless John Kerry to a midnight sit-down in Saudi Arabia with the prince of darkness Mohammed bin Salman. The result is a rich account of a losing battle against trolls and bots--who are every bit as insidious as their names imply."-- Provided by publisher.

In February of 2013 Richard Stengel joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days ISIS executed American journalist James Foley on a graphic video seen by tens of millions, and Russian special forces invaded Crimea, amid a blizzard of Russian denials and false flags. These events were the opening salvos in a new era of global information war, where countries and non-state actors use social media and disinformation to create their own narratives and undermine anyone who opposes them. In 2016, during the presidential election, "fake news" became a rallying cry. Stengel takes you behind the scenes in the world of diplomacy, to examine our losing battle against trolls and bots. -- adapted from jacket

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Glossary of Acronyms (p. ix)
  • Introduction (p. 1)
  • Part I Welcome to State (p. 15)
  • Part II Getting There (p. 39)
  • Part III The Job (p. 51)
  • Part IV Information War (p. 75)
  • Part V The Battle Is Engaged (p. 115)
  • Part VI Disruption (p. 203)
  • Part VII What to Do About Disinformation (p. 287)
  • Postscript (p. 309)
  • Acknowledgments (p. 315)
  • Notes (p. 319)
  • Index (p. 341)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In this somewhat choppy memoir, Stengel, the former editor of Time, recounts his three years as a political appointee in President Obama's State Department focusing on the weaponization of information. He describes the department's sometimes but not always successful responses to ISIS's videos of journalist beheadings, Boko Haram's mass kidnapping of girls in Nigeria, and the growth of Russian disinformation through state-led infotainment networks such as RT. He also chronicles the department's efforts to track anti-American disinformation across social media platforms--and social media platforms' slow responses--and eventually creating the Global Engagement Center to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation efforts. A running thread is Stengel's unfavorable comparisons of the State Department, where he was frequently stymied by slow-moving bureaucracy, to his previous life in the private sector, despite the snafus he regularly created at the State Department when he acted on his impulses. The final, strongest section of the book introduces ways to reduce the impact of disinformation and propaganda, including real-time disclosure of who's paying for political ads and more transparent sourcing in news reporting. Readers interested in how disinformation fits into today's foreign affairs landscape will want to give this a look. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency. (Oct.)

CHOICE Review

Clear evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Russia's renewed efforts to skew 2020 voting, reveals the urgency for counter-weaponized disinformation. Stengel, former editor of Time and Obama's undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs (2013--16), addresses the "global information war." His book is part narrative as participant in the war and part argument for a more robust response to cyberthreats and disinformation. The narrative points to some successes in response to cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, but is also points to failures in response not only to Russian efforts but to threats of others. Stengel concludes with recommendations that have been on the public agenda but not effectively implemented: requiring social media platforms to police content, shoring up privacy to prevent targeted deceptive messaging, and bolstering media literacy to decrease vulnerability to "fake news." Stengel recounts some insider anecdotes, but the core of the book is based on publicly available sources, including journal and newspaper accounts. For experts this is familiar ground, but for others the book is an excellent introduction to information wars. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. --Rita P. Peters, Harvard University

Booklist Review

It was during Stengel's tenure as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs for President Obama in his second term that the public witnessed the emergence of fake news and its repercussions on national and global levels. In this astute account, Stengel, former editor of Time, plots the mechanics and layout of a labyrinthine governmental organization as he implements measures to counteract the dissemination of disinformation that threatens the U.S. and other democracies around the world. As a Washington insider and former journalist, Stengel writes from a rare and illuminating double perspective. It is this duality that led to his initiating prescient actions which combated the onslaught of junk news perpetuated by ISIS and Russia on social media, hence the apt title of this fascinating book. Stengel's recounting of the events and individuals, including Putin and Trump, involved in the surge in and fight against propaganda and misinformation is jarring yet hopeful as he concludes with a blueprint for remedy and change.--Elizabeth Joseph Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Former Time editor Stengel (Mandela's Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage, 2010, etc.) offers a gloomy view of America's efforts in the "battle of ideas" with Russia, the Islamic State group, and other entities.We "still don't know how to fight" disinformation, writes the author, who served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2013 to 2016. "The truth is, it's impossible to stop people from creating falsehoods and other people from believing them." In this refreshingly frank account, Stengel describes his stint in the byzantine State Department, where he focused on countering IS messaging and Russian disinformation in the last years of the Obama administration. With great clarity, he recounts the hurdles he encountered: bureaucratic procedures, acronyms and government-speak, endless vetting and turf battles, all of which slowed efforts to bring his print-oriented office into the era of social media. Foreign-service officers with no media experience insisted it was "easy" to create content. He was also greatly hampered by the very openness of American society, which info-savvy IS and Putin used to their advantage. Most of his book details the creation of a messaging coalition with Arab nations to thwart incessant "out-tweeting" by "digital jihadis" bent on undermining the U.S. with messages and videos on kidnappings and beheadings of Americans. "Not everyone can afford an F-35," writes Stengel, "but anyone can launch a tweet." Even so, few in government were tweeting. One exception, social media guru and Ambassador to Ukraine Geoff Pyatt, warned, "we are being out-messaged by the Russians.They don't feel the need to be truthful." Stengel relates the thinking of participants in the information war in ways that bring the dangers of this global messaging onslaught home. He notes how IS migrated to the dark web as a result of U.S. counterefforts, and he argues that artificial intelligence has great potential to detect and delete false information.A revealing look at America's difficult struggle to combat false, misleading narratives. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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