Rules and processes shaping the information environment keep on changing. These changes have a tremendous impact on policies and perceptions, so players wishing to stay relevant are required to maintain a dynamic ability to adjust. The task of governments is two-fold: ensuring the fundamental rights and liberties of citizens while encouraging the maximum level of innovation and progress. It is an issue that requires the immediate attention of policy makers and their societies.
The world is encountering new fundamental changes in the information environment. These recent developments can be attributed to shifts in information consumption habits in our societies – sophisticated communications technologies are rapidly changing the way people access, use, and exchange information. This, in turn, is changing our societies, our institutions, and the way our adversaries operate in our countries and beyond. As these changes have become one of the top challenges for the military leadership today, it is necessary to reconsider the military’s modus operandi.
Modern society was built on the idea that educated and empowered human beings are the source of progress and development. But what happens when computers are becoming increasingly intelligent and powerful? Power and knowledge seem to increasingly reside in networks beyond individual human understanding and control. Does this threaten the ability of individuals to shape society for the better? Does the answer lie in embracing ‘dataism’ to save the humans species? This panel will discuss the limits of Artificial Intelligence, big data, the future role of humans, and tomorrow’s governance of societies. These issues converge on the existential question “What is the role of free will in a changing world?”
Democracy is the fundamental characteristic of Western nations, as well as a soft-power asset. As such, free and fair elections are a core part of the practice of democracy. However, recent cases have shown democratic nations to be vulnerable to hostile objectives.
The principles of journalistic freedom and free speech can be exploited to undermine the very values they defend. Moreover well-established regulations do not deter creative actors in their attempts to break the rules. Audiences are now targeted with methods that have previously been used only within the military, which raises ethical questions when trying to address and counter such such operations.
This session will engage with the key issues surrounding human decision-making, from politics, to questions of identity, to capitalism. The panel will enable a conversation between many different disciplines: neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. We will consider how human decision-making has evolved. How do sense perceptions and experience form judgments that lead to a decision? What role do emotions play in all this? And finally, how have social and political shift and technological innovation impacted these cognitive processes?
This discussion will be moderated by Prof Neville Bolt, Director of the King's Centre for Strategic Communications at King's College London and editor-in-chief of "Defence Strategic Communications". Panelists: Charles Kriel (digital theorist & practitioner, broadcaster and journalist), Ofer Fridman (lecturer at the Department of War Studies, King's College London), Claire Yorke (nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council), Dr Andriy Tyushka (Research Fellow, European Neighborhood Policy Chair, College of Europe).
Building on experience from the seminar “Trends in Social Media and Their Further Development“ that was held in 2017 (you can watch the videos here), in 2018 we will discuss emerging challenges and opportunities for strategic communications in social media. Experts speaking at this seminar will come from the private sector, academia, media, military and government institutions.
Much confusion surrounds the nature of “hybrid warfare” – conflict that includes multiple dimensions such as conventional/unconventional, regular/irregular, cyber and informational tactics. Emerging threats are redefining security priorities for NATO allies which include Canada and a majority of European Union member states. The panelists will offer insights on these evolving tactics, and share experiences and best practices from the Baltics.
This seminar will focus on tools the commercial sector deems fundamental to successful communication - collaboration and gamifcation, internal communication, and storytelling.
