Description
This paper maps the evolution of the British state’s beliefs about Russian disinformation and shows how these beliefs shape British foreign policy (FP) behaviour towards Russia. The British state’s FP narrative of Russian disinformation articulates a segment of the United Kingdom’s evolving threat perception of Russia. This threat perception has shifted from rare and indirect recognition of the potential for malign information interference, to framing Russia as “the most acute threat to our security” and labelling disinformation as one of the “state threats to the UK” in the 2021 Integrated Review. So how has the UK come to foreground disinformation in its perception of Russia? This research conceptualises the British state’s beliefs about Russian disinformation as part of the repertoire of the UK’s understanding of its own and Russia’s place in the world. In doing so it will reveal the intrinsic beliefs about Russian disinformation held by the British state and provide an alternative interpretation of the impact of disinformation at the level of FP. An interpretive narrative methodology is applied to reveal the British state’s experience of Russian disinformation as expressed in its FP narrative between 2011-2022.
