New NATO report on Russian ‘robotrolling’ shows value of small allies

A new report on Russian trolling against NATO shows the important contributions that small frontline allies are making to the alliance, Dr Waller tells Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon. Gertz reports: “‘While we provide the real military might, our smaller frontline allies focus on Russian information operations and psychological ops that we often … Read more

Waller praises DIA for report citing Russian psychological strategy

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s latest report on Russian military power is “a vital development in American military intelligence analysis,” Dr Waller told the Washington Free Beacon. “This is an important development, because the U.S. military has not adequately addressed the fact that Russia has a global psychological strategy to compensate for its relative military weakness,” … Read more

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

13 reasons to expand the Russia probes

Ample evidence exists of illicit and/or damaging Russian efforts involving the Kremlin’s interference in American governmental operations, domestic politics, the U.S. economy and often to the detriment of America’s national security. Dr Waller explains in this Center for Security Policy memo (download PDF: Broadening Russia probe) Whatever activities Vladimir Putin’s regime undertook in this regard with … Read more

Time to up the ante on Russian subversion in America

By J Michael Waller / Forbes / January 4, 2017.  The real scandal about Russian subversion of the American political process is that the nation’s leadership has known about it for years and done nothing. Now is the time to put an end to it. Candidate Hillary Clinton uncharacteristically decried “Russian subversion” during the campaign. … Read more

At Harvard, celebrating 25th anniversary of Soviet collapse

Veterans of the 1991 Soviet collapse met at Harvard University to mark the 25th anniversary of their disparate efforts to take down the USSR. Gennady Burbulis (right) was Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s right-hand man who was instrumental in arranging for Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia to secede from the Soviet Union on December 8, 1991, thus … 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

Helping the Army Special Operations Forces understand subversion in an age of countering violent extremism

Subversion: Non-Violent Warfare in an Age of Countering Violent Extremism  By J. Michael Waller, Ph.D. John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center, Fort Bragg, NC, September 12, 2016 Abstract Subversion is an ambiguous form of conflict in war and peace that does not rely on violence. From the perspective of the target, subversion is so ambiguous … 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

US may hand Putin an excuse to stop monitoring of Russia’s breeder reactors

by J Michael Waller / AMI Newswire / March 30, 2016. The Obama administration risks giving the Kremlin a pretext to ban inspectors from  Russia’s plutonium-breeding fast reactors because of a U.S. budgetary policy change. Lawmakers and diplomats are concerned that the administration’s handling of cost  overruns on a controversial U.S. Department of Energy project … Read more