Virtual icon Virtual Panel - Hybrid Wars and Information Environments: Challenges for the EU in a New Global Constellation of Power

Abstract

The spectre of war and the rise of illiberal tendencies and authoritarianism in the 'old' Western democracies, including several EU member countries, have exposed the fragility of democratic institutions if left unsupported by strong, free public opinion and vibrant, self-managed civil society. The wars in Ukraine and Israel triggered a geopolitical overturn in international relations, further weakening international organisations and institutions – most importantly the United Nations – responsible for mediating peaceful conflict solutions and protecting human lives, rights and liberties. The new geopolitical (dis)order has led to the creation of effective military alliances, while diplomatic cooperation and pressure on warfare leadership has been marginalised and made weak. It appears that major international conventions on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are applied in an ambiguous and arbitrary manner; this is occurring alongside a delegitimisation of institutions such as the International Criminal Tribunal. The absence of a clear common EU foreign policy and of its own military forces has once again been highlighted as one of its main shortcomings. The perils of a new model of warfare, named 'hybrid war', are manifold. It has a back-door effect on the democratic political ordering, exposing the 'foe' societies to forms of misinformation, disinformation, conspiratorial narratives, and even deliberate interference within their specific information environments. Defence strategies may also use the same tactics, instead of facts and truths, to destabilise the 'enemy' and potentially legitimise the further securitisation of democratic societies, to the detriment of fundamental rights and liberties. These tendencies are evident in the populist discourse of increasing far-right political actors in the EU and the USA under Trump's administration. The panel will analyse how information environments are used as a battlefield in a new geopolitical order. It will focus on the EU institutions and their main competitors in different regions: the Western Balkans and Eastern Neighbourhood, Mediterranean and African countries. The panel is looking for papers that examine these phenomena from theoretical and empirical perspectives. This includes research on new methodologies that can grasp and untangle the interplay of voices in an increasingly complex European and global information environment.

Title	Details
Hybrid Wars and the Pursuit of Peace: the Militarisation of Political Discourse in the EU and its Neighbourhood	View Paper Details
Foreign Information Manipulation: What Makes it Possible, and What Makes it Profitable?	View Paper Details
Influence of Russian Information Operations and Narratives on the Countries of Global South	View Paper Details