Securitizing Information in Russia's State Policy

• In Event: Chinese and Russian Information Warfare

Abstract

The approach of the Russian state to information warfare in the 21st century has been largely described as an example of “hybrid warfare.” By this, scholars usually mean that the Russian state has utilized troll farms, misinformation, and propaganda in its repertoire of capabilities to compete with its adversaries and challenge the liberal world order. However, discourse analysis of various state documents suggests that the Russian approach to the so-called “information warfare” is better understood through the securitization lens. I observe that the securitization framework helps to illuminate that virtually anything relating to mass media and communication technologies became the responsibility of the Russian state to defend within the scope of its national security.

Author

• Dinara Urazova, Northwestern University