At the Atlantic Council, discussing how to combat Russian disinformation

The Atlantic Council sponsored an innovative and badly needed #DisinfoWeek to pay serious attention to Russian disinformation and how to combat it. The event, featuring speakers and experts from North America and Europe, wound up on Friday, June 30, with an off-the-record discussion about what to do next. Dr. Waller was among the invited participants. … Read more

Our NATO Defence Strategic Communications journal is out (Vol. 2)

The second issue of NATO’s Defence Strategic Communications journal is out, and we’re already having a surprisingly good impact. Published from the fortresslike former Red Army recruitment center that’s now NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia, the journal’s big focus is on information warfare pertaining to Russia. Dr Waller is a founding … Read more

Teaching at JFK Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg

This week has Dr Waller back down at Fort Bragg, teaching at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Dr Waller is a frequent teacher and trainer for American special operations forces and others at Fort Bragg, and this week he is providing military officers and their interagency civilian counterparts with a historical, … Read more

Russia’s info war & what to do about it

“Russia’s New Information War: What It’s Like and What to Do About It,” by J. Michael Waller, Ph.D., in Fred Fleitz, ed., Putin’s Reset: The Bear Is Back and How America Must Respond  (Washington: Center for Security Policy, 2016), is a policy essay that examines Moscow’s information and propaganda warfare against the West, with a list … Read more

WikiLeaks game can turn Kremlin fortress into glass house

by J Michael Waller / Forbes / August 16, 2016. For the first time since the 1950s, Russian subversion of the American political process has become a presidential campaign issue. The Kremlin’s latest act of espionage-driven propaganda–document dump of Democratic National Committee emails via WikiLeaks–achieved its desired effect of immediate politicization. We should step back to learn two … Read more

In front-line NATO states, urging them to exploit Russia’s internal weaknesses

In the face of unprovoked danger from Moscow, NATO’s front-line states should exploit Russia’s internal weaknesses to deter external aggression. Visiting Lithuania as a guest of the foreign ministry, Dr. Waller urged the country’s leaders and its growing online community to be assertive in the face of Russian subversion of their small country. Moscow has … Read more

For US Army Special Ops Command: Designing an information warfare campaign against the global jihadi movement

Dr. Waller’s paper, “Designing an Information Warfare Campaign Against the Global Jihadi Movement,” was published as part of a report for the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, US Army Special Operations Command. The 2014 report was commissioned by the Threat Knowledge Group’s and published in 2015 as a chapter of The Islamic … Read more

Waller is part of Team B report on enemy threat doctrine

[IWP news release] An IWP professor is part of the now-famous ‘Team B’ report on enemy threat doctrine and operations, including the Muslim Brotherhood penetration of the United States. Annenberg Professor of International Communication J. Michael Waller joins a range of noted defense, intelligence and security experts as a contributor to Shariah: The Threat to America, a new … Read more

Strategic Influence: Public diplomacy, counterpropaganda & political warfare

Strategic Influence is the work of 13 scholars and practitioners in the fields of public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare. The book surveys the subjects from the American Revolution, through the Cold War, to present-day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We strove to make the book the best single volume on the subject. It’s a combination … Read more

Larry, Curly and Osama: Killing the enemy by ridicule

by J Michael Waller / Los Angeles Times / May 21, 2006.  The piece, titled in the print edition as “Larry, Curly and Osama,” appears online as “Larry, Curly and Musab.” OSAMA BIN LADEN says he doesn’t fear dying. He says he fears being humiliated. So let’s give it to him. Bin Laden and others have thrived on … Read more