The Battle for Truth: Mapping the Network of Information War Experts in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of the key political concerns in today's Europe and United States and led to searching for new solutions to the problem of how to fight the spread of mis- and dis-information. The challenges of information disorder, however, are increasingly perceived as a part of the information war – which involves the intentional Russian propaganda using new media. Yet who gets to help our societies build resilience against the information war? This research looks at how this novel problematization of security affects the politics of security expertise. Or, who gains power in this ‘battle for truth'? Building on sociological approaches in security studies, this paper focuses on the Czech Republic as a country that has become very active in the fight against disinformation and analyses the network of actors recognized as providing security expertise on information warfare. Based on social network analysis, the research maps the structure of social relations among actors recognized as experts and points out the empowerment of think tanks and journalists, who are able to build social capital, mobilize their knowledge of Russian politics and the new media environment, and design new practices to make the society resilient towards information warfare.

Conspiratorial thinking and foreign policy views: evidence from Central Europe

“…By contrast, we do not find that conspiratorial thinking is related to a greater preference for Slovakia to be aligned with Russia. This is important for the policy debate on the role of conspiracies in foreign policy, where this assumption has been voiced (Bentzen 2018;Daniel and Eberle 2018;Rychnovská and Kohút 2018).…”

Science, technology, security: Towards critical collaboration

“…The academic article (Rychnovská and Kohút, 2018) triggered similar reactions when it was published. Some contested the value of academic research that not only lacks clear policy solutions, but also goes against the dominant foreign policy and security orientation of the country.…”

“…In response to the escalating rhetoric related to this issue, one of us (Rychnovská) co-authored an academic article analyzing how this novel problematization of security (i.e. framing information disorder as information warfare or hybrid warfare) affects the politics of security expertise ( Rychnovská and Kohút, 2018 ), and briefly after that a newspaper commentary that criticized the militarization of the public discourse ( Rychnovská and Smetana, 2019 ). Both pieces were written from the perspective of academic researchers contributing to the national debate, without any prior experience of engaging in these specific issues or the community of practice.…”

“Putin, You Suck”: Affective Sticking Points in the Czech Narrative on “Russian Hybrid Warfare”

“…To tackle the novel and insidious tools of hybrid warfare, both increased the resolve of civil society in its struggle against “Russian agents” and a Russian information campaign as well as the strengthening of security agencies as needed (Janda, ; Ministry of the Interior, ). While comprehensive mapping of the private and public actors who subscribed to this narrative can be found elsewhere (Daniel & Eberle, ; Rychnovská & Kohút, ), in this article we focus rather on the narrative's public articulation. Specifically, we concentrate on two of its major proponents—Jakub Janda and Ondřej Kundra.…”

“…Specifically, we concentrate on two of its major proponents—Jakub Janda and Ondřej Kundra. They became the central figures of the RHW agenda, due to their ability to connect different parts of this like‐minded group together, participation at numerous public events, and their public recognition as experts on the information (or hybrid) warfare (Rychnovská & Kohút, , pp. 72–78).…”