BREAKING: The Russians, Chinese, and who knows who else are trying all sorts of things to influence the US presidential election. The Department of Justice is moving to indict several groups as paid agents of Russia conspiring to help select the presidential candidate or otherwise disrupt the political process.
Need proof? Russian President Putin calls Kamala Harris' laughter “InfectiousWould we see this as a clear sign of support, despite all the allegations about Russian control over Donald Trump?
And don't underestimate the Chinese. InvolvementLinda Sun, former deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hockle (Democrat), Arrested Explaining how she and her husband were able to own multimillion-dollar homes on Long Island and Hawaii with their modest income. Huge Rewards Originated from China.
Foreign interference Interference in American elections is as old as the Republic itself: the Soviet Union began such efforts a century ago. In fact, the Communist Party of America had its own newspaper back then. Daily WorkerSoviet propaganda was everywhere, so it is not surprising that the United States had a long and rich history of subverting other countries' elections.
In the early 20th century, America was hard at work south of the border. After World War II, the U.S. Intervened in Greece, Italy and IranIn Vietnam, the United States did everything in its power to ensure that its presidential candidate received overwhelming public support, and it also tried to influence people on the other side of the Iron Curtain through the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
It would be easy to dismiss these election-influencing efforts as an almost comical “spy-versus-spy” exchange, but that would be a major political and strategic blunder. America's adversaries seek to exploit, expand, and, if successful, destroy political coherence and unity by: Clausewitz These are called “other means.”
This is what happened almost a decade ago with the UK's vote to leave the EU. Dominic CummingsFormer Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser found that around one million British voters were unaffiliated with either the Conservative or Labour parties, and Cummings targeted this demographic, using misinformation and outright lies to influence their Leave vote.
Russia The campaign was also carried out It would have been difficult for Russia to secure a vote to leave because leaving the EU would weaken European unity, with implications for NATO as well. interest The UK will leave.
From the perspective of America's adversary, Russia, America is irreversibly and almost equally Politically divided about 45-46 percent Supports Democrats and Republicans.
The presidential election, Approximately 100,000 to 150,000 yen If a few key states don't vote, as they did in 2020, the results will be rejected and almost certainly challenged in court, so the strategy would be to make the situation worse.
Russia is using influence to sow election deadlock, just as it did with Brexit. Congress and many states are Preventing a recurrence in 2020 Challenges to the validity of the vote. Putin likes Trump Given his past interactions with the Russian leader and Trump's demonstrated deference to him, he would not be a good fit to become president.
China A different approachThe company that employs Intelligence The vacuum cleaner strategy involves gathering intelligence about the U.S. and using it to its advantage. China also recruits sympathizers based on financial incentives or on the more idealistic basis of improving U.S.-China relations.
Iran and North KoreaelementThe advantages that these adversaries have — Russian influence operations and Chinese intelligence gathering — depend on the very open foundations of American society and the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, which takes both to their limits. The explosion of social media has made this openness much easier to exploit.
US response Until now, that has been done primarily through law enforcement. But as long as both political parties wage their own campaigns of misinformation and disinformation that are not based in fact or truth, law enforcement will not be enough to limit foreign infiltration. And that is a brutal recognition of today's reality.
Harlan UllmanHe is a senior advisor to the Atlantic Council and lead author of “Shock and Awe” Military Doctrine. His twelfth book, “The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How a Massive Disruption Attack Became a Looming Existential Crisis for a Divided Nation and the Entire World,” is available on Amazon.
