Strategic communications and disinformation in the early 21st century

Abstract

Disinformation campaigns in recent times have encouraged a less than critical understanding of what many have come to believe is the currency of contemporary geopolitics. A tendency to view disinformation as a unique phenomenon, however, clouds the way it sits within broader dichotomies of truth- versus untruth-telling. And it disguises more nuanced, associated concepts of strategic ambiguity and strategic opportunism practiced by nation states such as China and Russia. Failure to recognise such distinctions further undermines our understanding of the complexities of Strategic Communications in the 21st century.