Description
Modern international relations scholarship is fascinated with the use of emergent technology including the rise of information operations (IO), artificial intelligence, and cyber operations. Yet, the question of race and racism inherent in these developing campaigns is ignored. Information operations attack the hearts and minds of the targeted population, seeking to alter the feelings and desires of the target. These operations hope to uproot the foundations of society and transform political views by promoting myths and disinformation. The challenge is that we have few theories about the course of IO, their intent, and the motivations behind the campaigns. More importantly, few have examined the various types of social cleavages targeted by adversary nations. Is the dominant course of IO about promoting natural political divisions, or is it about something else entirely? While accounting for all IO campaigns is beyond the scope of this paper, there are a certain category of IO that need further examination. In this research I will focus on and isolate the IO that are built and founded on racist or racial narratives. Attacks promoting racial justice, or (in)justice, mainly from Russia, seek to promote division within the United States where it already exists. This analysis seeks to identify and theorize about the racial dynamics put forward in prominent information campaigns to uncover the racism at the heart of the modern international security discourse.
