This was a joint seminar with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence.
In today’s information space, spreading fake news is as easy as a ‘Like,’ ‘Tweet’ or ‘Share.’ While NATO is deploying to Europe’s frontline, the Kremlin is field-testing new subversive techniques against Allied forces. What are the new lessons for force protection in the information space? What are the emerging do’s, don’ts and dangers of the information age? These and many more questions tried to answer leading experts from the Center for European Policy Analysis and the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence.
Programme:
10:00 – 10:30 Introductory Remarks.
- Peter B. Doran, Executive Vice President, CEPA
- Colonel Ilmārs Atis Lejiņš, LVA Army Brigade Commander
10:30 – 12:00 Understanding the Kremlin’s Toolbox: Force Protection in the Information Space.
- Mārtiņš Kaprāns, StratCom Program Contributor, CEPA
- Dace Kundrāte, Senior Expert of the Doctrine, Concept and Experimentation Branch, NATO StratCom COE
Moderated by Donald N. Jensen, Senior Adjunct Fellow, CEPA
13:00 – 14:30 How to Spot and Counter Virtual Manipulation.
- Rolf Fredheim, Data Analyst, Technical and Scientific Development Branch, NATO StratCom COE
- Magda Walter, International Media Consultancy
Moderated by Peter B. Doran, Executive Vice President, CEPA
14:30 – 15:00 CLOSING REMARKS
- Jānis Sārts, Director, NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence
- Peter B. Doran, Executive Vice President, CEPA
Peter B. Doran is CEPA Executive Vice President and Interim Director, Warsaw. He contributes articles for Time, Foreign Policy, Defense News, the National Review and the American Spectator. His commentary and analysis is featured in U.S. and European broadcast and print media, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Previously, Doran served as a Foreign Affairs Fellow in the U.S. Congress and as a George C. Marshall Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He holds a master's degree from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. He received undergraduate degrees from Arizona State University's Barrett Honors College in History and Russian language.
Donald N. Jensen is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis where he edits the Information Warfare Initiative's weekly monitoring brief. Jensen is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. A former U.S. diplomat, he writes extensively on Russian foreign and domestic politics, especially Russia's relations with Europe.
Mārtiņš Kaprāns is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia. He received Ph.D. in communication science from the University of Latvia in 2012. From 2013 to 2015, Kaprāns was a research fellow at the Institute of Government and Politics, University of Tartu. His research interests involve long-distance nationalism, transnational remembering and strategic narratives. Kaprāns has published academic articles in the Journal of Media and Communication, the Journal of Baltic Studies, Memory Studies as well as several book chapters in international volumes. Recently, Kaprāns has been involved in the development of the media policy guidelines of Latvia.
Magda Walter is a media consultant based in London. She advises international organizations on media and communications strategies, and trains journalists in emerging democracies. She was the NBC News Bureau Chief in Moscow in the late 1990s. In the past five years she has served as the Regional Editor for East and Central Europe for the Mapping Digital Media Study of the Open Society Foundation, and Media Adviser to the feasibility study on Russian language media options conducted by the European Endowment for Democracy. She has contributed to CEPA’s StratCom Program and participated in past events focusing on Russia’s strategy of disinformation. Currently, she acts as Principal Development Adviser to the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence.
Rolf Fredheim is a Data Analyst at the Technical and Scientific Development Branch of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia. Rolf runs the Centre's research into robotic trolling in social media, and is responsible for collecting, archiving, and analysing large data flows in real time. His PhD, awarded by the University of Cambridge in 2014, drew on quantitative methods and automated text analysis to track historical themes in a large corpus of Russian media articles. Subsequently at Cambridge he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Leverhulme-funded research project "Conspiracy and Democracy". He holds an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford, as well as a BA in Russian and History from Trinity College Dublin, where he was elected Scholar and awarded a gold medal. He has taught Digital Data Collection at postgraduate level at the University of Cambridge and has published on Russian politics, media and social media in top peer-reviewed academic journals including Post-Soviet Affairs, Europe-Asia Studies, Information, Communication & Society, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, and Nationalities Papers.
Dace Kundrāte is a Senior Expert at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia. She has been working at Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia for almost ten years having focus on Strategic Communications, Public Affairs and Military Public Affairs. Currently, Ms Kundrāte is responsible for launching and managing a project about Russia`s (dis-) information activities against the Nordic – Baltic region.
Colonel Ilmars A. Lejins, LVA Army Brigade Commander is a graduate of the United Kingdom’s Joint Services Command and Staff College (Advanced Command and Staff Course 8) and holds a MA in Defence studies from the King’s College in London. Notable military courses taken are the UN Junior Officers Course at SWEDINT and the UK Combined Arms and Tactics Course (CATAC) at Warminster. He has various LVA service, MOD and Armed forces awards, NATO IFOR and ISAF medals, the US Army Commendation medal with oak cluster and is a Cavalier of the Order of Viesturs.