Propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation have long been tools in a state’s arsenal to influence allies and adversaries alike. Now, turbocharged through the Internet and via social media everyone is a target and potential node in the modern incarnation of the information wars of days past.

In “How to Win an Information War” disinformation and propaganda expert Peter Pomerantsev tells the story of rogue WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer who confronts hard questions about the nature of information war: what if you can't fight lies with truth? Can a propaganda war ever be won?

Join CSPC as we welcome Peter Pomerantsev to discuss his new book and what Delmer’s life and experiences in the Second World War can teach us about modern propaganda, something Pomerantsev himself confronts directly as he helps shape America’s response to Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine.

In flashes forward to the present day, Pomerantsev weaves in what he's learning from Delmer as he seeks to fight against Vladimir Putin's tyranny and lies. This book is the story of Delmer and his modern investigator, as they each embark on their own quest to manipulate the passions of supporters and enemies, and to turn the tide of an information war, an extraordinary history that is informing the present before our eyes.

Register for this event here:

Biography

Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University where he co-directs the Arena Initiative. Between 2017- 2020, he was a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he was the director of the Arena Initiative, a research project dedicated to overcoming the challenges of digital era disinformation and polarisation.

His book on Russian propaganda, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and was nominated for the Samuel Johnson, Guardian First Book, Pushkin House and Gordon Burns Prizes. It is translated into over a dozen languages and was dramatized on BBC Radio 4. His new book, This is Not Propaganda, was released in August 2019 and has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burns Prize and was a Times Book of the Year.