SESSION II: TRUTH, LIES AND TRUST: MANAGING POPULISM AND OPERATING WITHOUT RED LINES

TOPICS and QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED: challenges of the current information environment where adversaries influence society through aggressive propaganda; fake news and cyber-attacks - efficient tools to distort countries’ foreign policy goals, to discredit Western values and divide societies; and “populist”, “anti-European” and “anti-establishment” campaigns directly challenging the existing political systems.

Are the countries in Russia’s neighbourhood more vulnerable to disinformation operations than Western countries? How should we understand, forestall and impede disinformation operations that use cyber-space to attack political systems? How should we communicate with our societies to protect them from disinformation and how do we regain public trust in the meantime?

FORMAT: Moderated discussion

MODERATOR:

Mr. Nik Gowing – International Broadcaster

SPEAKERS:

H.E. Aleksandre Jejelava – Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Education and Science of Georgia
Mr. Giles Portman – Head of East StratCom Task Force, European External Action Service – EEAS
Mr. Sven Sakkov – Director, International Centre for Defence and Security
Mr. James Sherr – Associate Fellow, Chatham House
Mr. Brian Whitmore – Senior Russia Analyst, Author of Power Vertical Blog, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Followed by Q&A