Ethiopia, Egypt And South Africa: Pursuing Relationships Within And Beyond BRICS – Analysis

Professor Maurice Okoli

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Introduction

Ultimately, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has established itself as an informal association pursuing a comprehensive and multi-dimensional cooperation. It has also, in the course of its operations, created the platform for discussing important topics relating to economic growth, developing trade and economic exchanges, ensuring security as well as promoting education and culture. According to several previous summit reports, the economic power is shifting from the West to the Global South. One of the landmarked achievements was the ascension of three African countries: Ethiopia and Egypt (Jan. 2024) and South Africa (2010). Russia is chairing the association this year. The main event of 2024 for BRICS will be the summit, which will be held in Kazan in October.

Under Russia’s chairmanship, integrating more new members into BRICS has been suspended, although the ‘strategic expansion’ was considered as an explicit testament to the association’s remarkable growing attraction and its commitment to reshaping the global economic landscape.

Why Chinese Investment Should Be Encouraged In India, Albeit Security Concerns? – Analysis

Subrata Majumder

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At present, Chinese investment is almost barred in India in the wake of security concerns. All Chinese investments are subject to government approvals. They are not permitted through the window of Automatic Approval under the Foreign Investment policy of India.

Nevertheless, recently there was a turnaround in the outlook towards Chinese investment in India. Leaving aside security concern, a new thought was evoked in favour of Chinese investment.

Economic Survey 2023-24 – one of the important official documents for economic policy – advocated Chinese investment in India with the perspective of growth in manufacturing. It emphasized that partnership with China was imperative to increase manufacturing and boost supply chain. It intended to unfold a new chapter in India’s foreign Investment policy, where focus should be made on FDI as an weapon to reduce imports . China is the biggest import source of imports for India.

“Nehru’s Bandung: Non-Alignment and Regional Order in Indian Cold War Strategy” by Andrea Benvenuti

Francis P Sempa

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The late British historian Paul Johnson devoted an entire chapter of his 1983 classic Modern Times to what he called the “Bandung Generation”—the leaders of former European colonies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia who in April 1955 gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to form a non-aligned movement in the midst of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Johnson dismissed the group as a collection of moral poseurs “adept at words, but not much else”. Andrea Benvenuti, an associate professor of international relations at the University of South Wales, is not as dismissive about Bandung and its organizers as Johnson was, but he, too, concludes that Bandung failed to bring about its professed goal of “Afro-Asian solidarity”.

Benvenuti’s book, however, is not about Bandung in general, but rather its role in Indian foreign policy as envisioned by its prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was at first quite skeptical about convening such a conference. His vision for Indian foreign policy was to create a “zone of peace” in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East which would be free of Cold War alignments. Nehru opposed US efforts to organize anti-communist alliances in Asia and the Middle East. He viewed the US-led Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) as dangerous to peace. The backdrop for Bandung included the Korean and Indochina Wars, the Geneva Conference, and the crisis in the Taiwan Strait. Nehru saw the United States as a greater threat to peace than the Soviet Union or China. Benvenuti quotes a Commonwealth Relations Office assessment that Nehru had an “utter distrust” of the United States, and considered it an “ignorant power” that was “drunk and hopelessly unreliable”. SEATO and CENTO were viewed as an attempt to “encircle” India. Even worse from India’s perspective, was warming relations between the US and Pakistan.

Taliban Marks Three Years In Power By Showing Off American Military Equipment At Former US Base

Jake Smith

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After taking over Afghanistan three years prior, the Taliban hosted a demonstration on Wednesday at a former U.S. airbase featuring an extensive display of American military equipment.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan almost immediately after the Biden administration withdrew U.S. forces from the region in 2021, in what was widely criticized as a chaotic operation that left 13 troops dead. On the third anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal, members of the Taliban celebrated at the former U.S. Bagram air base on Wednesday and declared that they had restored “peace and security” to the country, even as the Afghani people continue to suffer under their rule, according to multiple reports.

A video of the demonstration at the base depicted Taliban fighters driving scores of U.S. combat and armored vehicles along an airstrip while helicopters fly by. Photos of the event showed a motorcycle convoy and fighters carrying weapons such as rifles and launchers.

Over $7 billion worth of U.S. military equipment, including vehicles, weapons, and logistical and tactical assets, were left behind in Afghanistan when the Biden administration withdrew U.S. forces in 2021. The Bagram base, which served as the essential site for the U.S. troops operating in the region during the 20-year Afghanistan war, cost the U.S. tens of billions of dollars in construction and renovations.

Pakistan Uses Russian UAVs To Spy On India; Developer Says Supercam Drones Witness Massive Demand

Ashish Dangwal

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This announcement came from the Unmanned Systems Group, the developer of the Supercam drones, during the ongoing Army-2024 International Military-Technical Forum. The event is being held from August 12 to 14, 2024, at the Patriot Convention and Exhibition Center in Moscow.

The Unmanned Systems group said that the Supercam drones were experiencing significant demand not only in Russia but also among former Soviet Union countries like Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

In particular, the Supercam S150 has been supplied to the Armed Forces of Belarus, where it plays a vital role in various operations. The drone is utilized in command and staff exercises, border security, and other military activities, showcasing its versatility and effectiveness.

The Supercam S150 is designed as a multipurpose platform equipped to handle a wide range of tasks. Its functionalities include mapping, patrolling, monitoring, search operations, and surveying large areas.

Bangladesh Is In A Politico-Economic Quagmire – OpEd

P. K. Balachandran

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Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the de facto Prime Minister of Bangladesh, enjoys popular acclaim. But he is also subjected to great expectations from Bangladesh’s 172 million people who had suffered political and economic deprivation for a decade and a half under Sheikh Hasina’s tutelage.

Restoration of law and order will of course be the most urgent task. Rules and regulations governing politics, administration and the running of the economy, will also have to formulated quickly and to the satisfaction of the powerful students’ coordinating committee.

Writing in The Daily Star, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan warned that as the Arab Spring had shown, failure to meet the expectations of the protestors could pull back the Bangladeshi struggle for democracy by decades.

“The selection, prioritisation and delivery of those reforms will determine whether this moment in our country’s history is a new dawn or a false one,” Khan, who is a Bangladeshi, said.

Does China’s Defiance Show The Limits Of US Deterrence In The South China Sea? – Analysis

Collins Chong Yew Keat

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This year’s annual Balikatan joint military exercises between the Philippines and the United States from April 22 to May 10 was groundbreaking. So was China’s response to it. The exercise areas and the arms deployed to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait hotspots were more complex, prompting a surge in Chinese vessel presence in Manila’s western exclusive economic zone and another violent sea incident over a contested reef – exposing Beijing’s defiance amid the Philippine-U.S. alliance’s show of force. The tit-for-tat shows of force escalated tensions in choppy waters and raised questions about the drill’s deterrent value. The symbolism and messages show how parties are digging in, accepting more risk, and shrinking space for diplomacy.

Expanded and evolved allied show of force

The 39th Balikatan exercise was billed as the “most effective, most ambitious, and most complicated.” It builds on advances made in past iterations editions of the annual drill, which has become a laboratory for testing new defense concepts and weapons in the field. In 2022, U.S.-made Patriot missiles were inserted by land and sea in Cagayan, one of the Philippines’ northernmost provinces opposite Taiwan.

Last year, live-fire demonstrations of Patriot and Avenger missiles occurred in Zambales, a coastal province facing the West Philippine Sea. For the first time, a sinking exercise (SINKEX) was also conducted with a decommissioned corvette as a mock target hit by volleys from land, air, and sea platforms. The event was also held off Zambales, 235 kilometers from Scarborough Shoal, a contested feature between Manila and Beijing.

The geopolitics of water: how the Brahmaputra River could shape India–China security competition

Neely Haby

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Although hydroelectricity can be transported thousands of miles away from its origin, the impact it has on servicing the immediate region in which a hydropower plant is built begins with construction.9 The installation of hydroelectric systems builds communities by bringing electricity, highways, energy and commerce.10 China repeatedly uses village building to consolidate the central government’s control over the country’s periphery, moving interior Chinese populations to the country’s frontiers.11 Hydroelectric infrastructure is an indicator of Chinese efforts to build and support larger Chinese communities in territory disputed with India. 

The strategic value for Beijing in establishing infrastructure and communities in its borderlands extends beyond the consolidation of domestic political control.12 It could also be used to substantiate China’s claims in disputed territory. The annual report released by the Pentagon on China’s military power in 2021 stated that ‘Sometime in 2020, the PRC built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control.’13 Populating disputed territory with civilians and infrastructure gives Beijing a better negotiating position in border talks to refuse the removal of ‘local’ populations.14 China is working to silently, and irreversibly, legitimise its control of its borderlands, including territory disputed with India.

An Intricate Fabric Of Bad Actors Working Hand-In-Hand: So Is War Inevitable? – OpEd

Alastair Crooke

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Now 61, Kirn has a newsletter on Substack and co-hosts a lively podcast devoted in large part to critiquing ‘establishment liberalism’. His contrarian drift has made him more vocal about his distrust of élite institutions – as he wrote in 2022: “For years now, the answer, in every situation—‘Russiagate,’ COVID, Ukraine—has been more censorship, more silencing, more division, more scapegoating. It’s almost as if these are goals in themselves – and the cascade of emergencies mere excuses for them. Hate is always the way,”

Kirn’s politics, a friend of his suggested, was “old-school liberal,” underscoring that it was the other ‘so-called liberals’ who had changed: “I’ve been told repeatedly in the last year that free speech is a right-wing issue; I wouldn’t call [Kirn] Conservative. I would just say he’s a free-thinker, nonconformist, iconoclastic”, the friend said.

To understand Kirn’s contrarian turn – and to make sense of today’s form of American politics – it is necessary to understand one key term. It is not found in standard textbooks, but is central to the new playbook of power: the “whole of society”.

Israel is the future of the Middle East

Spengler

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United Nations’ demographers project that, by the end of this century, Turkey’s labor force will fall by half and Iran’s will fall by two-fifths while Israel’s will double.

Turkish women in 2023 were estimated to have an average of just 1.5 children over their lifetime, half of Israel’s total fertility rate of 3 children per woman. The World Bank puts Iran’s 2022 fertility rate at 1.7.

Improbable as it may seem, the core scenario according to present trends will make Israel the economic center of the Middle East sometime toward the end of the century.

The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, Damon Runyon offered, but that’s how the smart money bets. Any number of things could upend a linear projection of present trends. The exercise nonetheless leads to striking conclusions.

Israel’s per capita GDP is now about US$55,000, or five times Turkey’s $11,000. One might quibble about the yardstick, but there is no doubt that Israelis produce more than Turks do. If these trends continue, Israel’s GDP will exceed Turkey’s by sometime in the middle of the present century.

Ukraine’s audacious move

Nigel Gould-Davies

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Russian territory is under occupation for the first time since 1944. Since launching a major incursion into Kursk on 6 August, Ukraine has taken about the same amount of Russian territory (approximately 1,000 square kilometres) as Russian forces have, at huge cost, taken from Ukraine since October 2023.

This is a major development. How it evolves will depend on Ukraine’s objectives for the operation and Russia’s decisions on how it musters forces to resist it. But it is already significant for what it tells us about the war and about Russia, and for its impact on the wider diplomacy of the conflict.

Significance for the war

Ukraine’s incursion demonstrates the continuing unpredictability of the war. A dominant narrative – in this case, that Ukraine was struggling to prevent a steady Russian advance in the Donbas and has little prospect of making further gains of its own – has once again been broken. While Ukrainian positions in the Donbas remain under threat, its forces have seized the initiative with an audacious and well-executed combined-arms operation into Russia. Through a combination of concealment, deception and Russian complacency, Ukraine achieved complete strategic and operational surprise – confounding the view that uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) have made the battlefield too transparent to achieve this.

Intelligence, US-Provided Weapons Key To Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive

Kateryna Besedina

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Superb Ukrainian intelligence and U.S.-provided weaponry are being credited for enabling the rapid advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory over the past week. Some analysts believe they could move even faster if Washington allowed them to use the most sophisticated weapons at their disposal.

The Ukrainian troops continued their advance through the Kursk region on Wednesday, Day 9 of the first such incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. Ukrainian forces now control up to 1,000 square kilometers of land and more than 70 settlements inside Russia.

“The grouping of defense forces continues to conduct an offensive operation on the territory of the Kursk region,” Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a video conference on Wednesday. “Since the beginning of this day, Ukrainian troops have advanced from one to two kilometers.”

Vladislav Seleznyov, a former spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff, told VOA’s Russian Service that Ukrainian intelligence and the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, had been critical to the stunning advance.

We Need a Real Marine Corps To Fight a Two Front War

Gary Anderson

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The term "axis of evil" (AOE) originally coined by President George W Bush in response to the attacks on September 11th, 2001, included adversarial foreign governments that sponsored terrorism and sought weapons of mass destruction, namely Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Certainly not a Warsaw Pact-like organization. However, today's axis of evil may come closer to threatening the U.S. with a multi-front war, a war we are not ready for.

The new AOE, if it exists, consists of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. US intelligence suggests there are plans afoot to coordinate any Chinese attack against Taiwan, East China Sea or South China Sea with military action elsewhere. The most likely candidate is Iran. Russia is otherwise engaged, and North Koreas is not ready to engage in a major regional conflict (MRC),

Until 2019, the United States was reasonably well positioned to wage a two-front war, The theory was win-hold-win, Win in the major theater (in this case China). Hold in the secondary theater (Iran here); then win in MRC 2.

The key to the two MRC strategy was the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps had several capabilities vital to the second MRC.

Russia Building Trenches In Kursk To Defend Against Ukrainian Advances

Howard Altman

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In a sign that it is digging in to blunt Ukraine’s now nine-day-old invasion of Kursk Oblast, Russia is building trenches near the town of Lgov, about 30 miles north of the border, according to Maxar satellite imagery provided to The War Zone on Wednesday. The construction comes as Ukrainian forces are pushing their way northward from the area of territory they currently control.

Lgov is about 13 miles north of the most recently geolocated position of Ukrainian troop concentrations, according to imagery analyzed on Tuesday by the Institute for the Study of War. It is also about 15 miles to the west of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Kurchetov. The trenches are being built parallel to the E38 highway, according to Maxar. That is a key east-west artery cutting across the middle of Kursk and connects Lgov to Kurchetov.

Maxar captured the images on Aug. 12. There aren’t any apparent additional fortifications associated with the trenches, which were constructed in the last week. However, it appears to be less extensive than the massive networks Russia was able to build up in the year leading to last year’s failed Ukrainian counteroffensive which played a big role in halting it. Given that Ukrainian forces are still a good distance away, the area is most likely not yet mined, but that can’t be assessed from the satellite images. However, should Ukraine reach this far, it will have control of a great deal more territory than it does now.

Russia is paying up to $4,000 a month for people to dig trenches to hold back Ukraine's offensive

Tom Porter

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Job websites in Russia are advertising trench-digger roles in Kursk province as Russia hastily seeks to boost its defenses.

According to job adverts, first reported by the BCC, the postings call for "general workers" who can dig fortifications in the border region of Kursk.

The roles pay between 150,000-371,000 rubles (around $1,600-$4,000) a month.

It comes after Ukraine launched an audacious cross-border attack on Kursk last week, taking the Russian military by surprise. Ukraine says it has now advanced 390 square miles into Russian territory.

According to experts, Russia's response to the attack has been hampered by confused command structures and inexperienced troops.

But it's deploying extra soldiers to the region and building fortifications to stop Ukraine from advancing any further.

Trump or Not, NATO Must Change

James H. Armstead

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In 1952 General Hastings Lionel Ismay, the first NATO Secretary General, was asked why the North Atlantic alliance was necessary and responded with an acerbic quip oft repeated in the intervening years. “To keep the Soviets out, the Germans down and the Americans in,” Churchill’s former military secretary wryly explained.

That original formula, with a few modifications and a lot of diplomacy, has essentially remained unchanged and been successful throughout the remainder of the 20th Century and into our current era.

The Atlantic alliance has forestalled a land war in Continental Europe between major powers for eight decades and has also provided the strategic space for the development of the European Community into the European Union (EU), the world’s most successful international federated economic union.

The Kursk Offensive and the Risk of a Wider War

James W. Carden

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As the Kursk offensive heads into its second week, Ukrainian forces now claim to control nearly 30 Russian villages comprising 1,000 square miles of Russian territory. In a meeting with security advisers at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin directed his ire at Ukraine’s sponsors, claiming, “The West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians.” The Kursk offensive marks a significant escalation in the two-and-a-half-year-long conflict.

So, what are some of the broader implications of the Kursk offensive?

A few observations:

• The Kursk offensive highlights, among other things, the inherent risk of what I would call “non-allied allyship.” Washington has no treaty of alliance with Ukraine, yet the Biden administration persists in acting as though Ukraine is not just a treaty ally—it acts as though Ukraine’s survival in the form it took for three short decades (1992–2022) is essential to the national security of the United States. Washington’s granting of non-allied allyship to Ukraine has led Kiev to act in ways that are detrimental to its own survival—including through Kiev’s refusal to implement agreed-upon provisions of the Minsk Accords, which, if implemented, would probably have demonstrated to the Russians that waging a war of choice was unnecessary.
• The Kursk offensive also shows, once again, that the idea that “if the Russians are not stopped in Ukraine they will go on to conquer Eastern Europe” is patently absurd. Russia could not conquer Kiev in 2022 and has been fighting a costly war of attrition even since.

Ukraine Advances: How the West Can Help

Kurt Volker

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Vladimir Putin has become the first Russian leader since World War II to have provoked an invasion of his own country and to have lost sovereign territory. Having previously compared himself to Peter and Catherine the Great, Putin may end up looking more like the final czar, Nicholas II.

Ukraine’s Kursk offensive has already achieved several goals. It has:

• Demonstrated that Russian forces are stretched to the maximum of their abilities, incapable of both attacking Ukraine and protecting Russia simultaneously, and incapable of escalating their war effort.
• Proved that Western fears of Russian escalation are unfounded: The Kremlin has no ability to escalate.
• Forced Russia to pull some forces out of Ukraine in order to defend inside Russia.
• Destroyed Putin’s narrative that Russia’s war of aggression is merely a “special military operation” with no real costs to Russia. (Over 200,000 Russian civilians have had to be evacuated.)
• Demonstrated that billions of dollars in Western military and financial assistance are being put to good use.
• Given a much-needed morale boost to the Ukrainian people.
• And undermined the assumption that future peace negotiations are only about how much territory Ukraine cedes to Russia. (Now it is about mutual force withdrawals.)

Despite these tactical gains, however, we are still far from an end to the fighting, let alone a just and lasting peace. Russia bombs Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on a daily basis, attacks along the front line in eastern Ukraine, occupies significant Ukrainian territory (around 20%) and insists on eradicating Ukraine as a people and as an independent state.

As Kyiv makes gains in Kursk, Russia strikes back in Donetsk

Veronika Melkozerova

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Russia is evacuating another district in its Kursk region, the regional governor announced overnight, as Ukraine's forces continue to make gains in the area.

Ukrainian forces have secured their hold on Sudzha, the administrative center of the Sudzhansky district in Kursk, and advanced several kilometers further into Russian territory. Overnight, acting regional Governor Alexei Smirnov said in a Telegram statement that the Glushkovsky district in Kursk, which has a population of 20,000, was being evacuated.

Kyiv forces took six more settlements in Russia over the past day. Ukraine currently controls more than 80 settlements in Kursk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. Kyiv currently controls 1,152 square kilometers of Russian territory, Ukrainian Army Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi added at a defense staff meeting with government officials.

Ukraine captured 102 Russian soldiers in the Kursk region on Wednesday — a record number for a single day, a high-ranking official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who was granted anonymity to share the update, told POLITICO.

Deception and a Gamble: How Ukrainian Troops Invaded Russia

Kim Barker, Anton Troianovski, Andrew E. Kramer, Constant Méheut, Alina Lobzina, Eric Schmitt and Sanjana Varghese

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The scenes were decidedly Russian. A Gazprom facility. Flags with the country’s signature three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red. A Pyatyorochka supermarket.

The soldiers posting the videos, verified by The New York Times, were Ukrainian, almost giddily showing off just how easily they had pushed over the border and through Russian lines of defense in the past week.

In the Russian town of Sverdlikovo, a Ukrainian soldier climbed onto another’s shoulders, broke off the wooden post anchored to a town council building and threw the Russian flag to the ground. In Daryino, a town five miles to the west, other soldiers also grabbed a Russian flag. “Just throw it away,” a Ukrainian soldier said, grinning, as another flexed his muscles.

On Aug. 6, Ukraine launched an audacious military offensive, planned and executed in secrecy, with the aim of upending the dynamics of a war it has appeared to be losing, town by town, as Russian troops have ground forward in the east. The operation surprised even Kyiv’s closest allies, including the United States, and has pushed the limits of how Western military equipment would be permitted to be used inside Russian territory.

The ‘Axis of Evil’ Is Overhyped

Daniel R. DePetris

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Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in July, longtime U.S. intelligence official John McLaughlin described the threat posed by China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia as “the distinguishing characteristic of our world right now.” McLaughlin, the former acting director of the CIA, warned that the United States’ adversaries had “formed a group” and were increasingly cooperating against Washington and its allies.

What next after Ukraine’s shock invasion of Russia?

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UKRAINE’S LIGHTNING incursion into the Russian province of Kursk has exceeded the expectations of even those who planned it. On August 12th General Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, claimed that his forces controlled roughly 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory. “Control” may be an overstatement. But in seven days the Ukrainians have seized almost as much territory as Russia has managed, at huge cost, to take from them since the start of the year (1,175 square kilometres). In the next few days the incursion will probably culminate, as troops tire and supply lines become stretched. The question is whether Ukraine can translate short-term gains into lasting strategic advantage.

Ukraine gambled on an incursion deep into Russian territory. The bold move changed the battlefield

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Ukraine's stunning incursion into Russia's Kursk border region was a bold gamble for the country's military commanders, who committed their limited resources to a risky assault on a nuclear-armed enemy with no assurance of success.

After the first signs of progress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke his silence and spelled out Kyiv's daily advances to his war-weary public. By Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said they controlled 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of enemy territory, including at least 74 settlements and hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

But a week after it began, the overall aim of the daring operation is still unclear: Will Ukraine dig in and keep the conquered territory, advance further into Russian territory or pull back?

What is clear is that the incursion has changed the battlefield. The shock of Ukraine's thunder run revealed chinks in the armor of its powerful adversary. The attack also risked aggravating Ukraine's own weaknesses by extending the front line and committing new troops at a time when military leaders are short on manpower.

National Defense University PressJoint Force Quarterly (JFQ), no. 113, April 2024

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Hacking minds and machines

Nad’a Kovalčíková

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In today’s security landscape, foreign interference (1) has become a pervasive threat. Hostile actors are infiltrating everything from social media to government websites, targeting trade secrets, and posing an increasing risk to critical infrastructure systems. This requires heightened vigilance and concerted efforts to detect, expose and counter these malign activities. The impact of intentional and harmful interference operations is amplified when wielded simultaneously across diverse societal sectors. Therefore, it is crucial to devise cross-sectoral frameworks, tools and responses and examine specific incidents of foreign interference, in order to address critical threat vectors.

In April this year, with the US presidential elections looming on the horizon and Russia’s war against Ukraine having entered its third year, yet another episode of foreign interference was detected. The viral clip, containing false claims about a Kyiv troll farm attempting to interfere in the US elections (2), aimed to discredit the Ukrainian authorities. This incident was part of a larger campaign conducted by a group of disinformation experts connected to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. These hostile actors are deploying increasingly sophisticated technology to disrupt Western democracies and their allies, and fabricating and spreading manipulated audio-video content online.