The Economist - USA (2020-05-16)

TheEconomistMay 16th 2020 73

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nhisannuallectureinDecember,Gen-

eralSirNickCarter,Britain’schiefofde-

fencestaff,warnedthat“theideaofpoliti-

calwarfarehasreturned”.Tanksandjets

stillmattered,heassureda bemedalledau-

dience,butauthoritarianrivalswereun-

pickingtheseamsofsocietyandpoliticsin

theWestusingdisinformation,espionage,

assassinations,cyber-attacksandproxies.

GeneralCarterhadstruckonthesamepro-

blemidentifiedbyGeorgeKennan, are-

nownedAmericandiplomat,attheoutset

ofthecoldwar.Americans,Kennansaid,

viewedwar“asa sortofsportingcontest

outside of all political context”. Russians

grasped “the perpetual rhythm of struggle,

in and out of war”.

Four new books reveal different facets

of how that murky struggle between Russia

and the West has played out and evolved. In

“Active Measures”, Thomas Rid, a professor

at Johns Hopkins University, surveys the

history of disinformation, with an empha-

sis on the kgb’s prodigious output. “The

Folly and the Glory” by Tim Weiner, a veter-

an journalist, examines America’s cam-

paign of propaganda against communist

rivals. Gordon Corera, a security corre-

spondent for the bbc, looks at Russia’s “il-

legals” programme of deep-cover sleeper

agents in “Russians Among Us”. And in

“From Russia with Blood”, Heidi Blake, a

journalist for BuzzFeed News, investigates

Russia’s killing spree in Britain.

The notion that invisible weapons—

“facts, fakes and ideally a disorienting mix

of both”, as Mr Rid puts it—can yield fam-

ousvictoriesiswidelyacceptedtoday. That

isinnosmallmeasurethanksto Russia’s

intervention in America’s presidential

electionof 2016 usinginflammatory social-

mediapostsandthepublication of hacked

emails.Butthepracticewaspioneered in

the1920sandrefinedinthecoldwar.

Atfirsttheciawas“evenmore prolific

andbrazen”thanthekgb, explains Mr Rid.

A cia-funded printing house in Berlin

churned out more than 855,000 media

itemsin 1957 alone,includingpamphlets,

forgedandreal,aswellasa magazine de-

voted to jazz. Personalised horoscopes

weresenttounnerveStasiofficials. In 1951

onefrontorganisationwassending 15,000

propaganda-packed balloons east every

monthandmaintainedthreeballooning

basesuntil1960.

Butthekgb’s efforts would come to

dwarfthat.Bythemiddleofthe1960s it was

co-ordinating300-400“activemeasures”

annually—everything from fuelling the

Europeanpeacemovementto,in later de-

cades, spreading allegations that America

had created aidsas a weapon. A large bu-

reaucracy was devoted to the task. One

campaign, directed against America’s

plans to build neutron bombs, cost $200m

(over $700m in today’s money). In 1985 the

annual budget for active measures was

conservatively put at $3bn-4bn (more than

$7bn today).

Mr Rid pulls important insights out of

this tangled history. Three stand out. One is

Disinformationanddemocracy

Therhythmofstruggle

Fourbooksanalysetheweaponsofpoliticalwarfare

Active Measures.By Thomas Rid. Farrar,

Straus and Giroux; 528 pages; $30.

Macmillan; £25

Russians Among Us.By Gordon Corera.

William Morrow; 448 pages; $32.50. William

Collins; £20

From Russia with Blood.By Heidi Blake.

Mulholland; 336 pages; $30. William Collins;

£20

The Folly and the Glory.By Tim Weiner. To

be published by Henry Holt in October; $29.99

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