Crisis Discourse, Propaganda Technologies and Information Warfare in the New War’s Era: Challenges and Solutions

We have entered the era of world disorder, and it feels like not only in the terrorist attacks, not only in an enormous number of refugees, not only in the intensification of anti-liberal authoritarian movements and the rising of nationalism, but also, we are facing a new war that threatens to become a new world war (the Ukrainian-Russian war that broke out on 24 February 2022). Thus, actual political narrative encompasses all crucial components of crisis ideology: relativity of truth; truths and lies are defunct as antipodes, reality takes shape in fiction, fact-checking of breaking news is lacking as far as its necessary is arguable. New mechanisms of confrontation are using of principal components of information warfare that had been caught by traditional and digital media, new “soft power” as misinformation creating controlled personality.

This session seeks to contribute to understanding of strategic communication practices related to crisis narratives, propaganda technologies and information warfare as well as concerning armed conflicts. We seek participants focusing on what constitutes effective communication in situations of armed conflict, on ethical implications of communication campaigns and propaganda in times of war, and how we address the alarming issues related to the spread of misinformation and false information. We also hope to gain insight into both the specific area of crisis communication that is wartime communication and the major role played by communication in the manifestation of different types of power.