Description
Part of the UK’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine is to be a counter-disinformation actor. This includes ‘pre-bunking’ disinformation before Russia’s invasion, developing domestic resilience, and debunking Russian narratives in multilateral forums. The UK has come to understand that it has a role as a provider of truth in the context of Russian disinformation. I argue that being a provider of truth is not just an identity, but a foreign policy role. The provider of truth role embeds international expectations for appropriate international behaviour in the context of Russian disinformation. Utilising a combination of role theory, narrative methodology and interpretive process tracing, I show how the role of provider of truth emerged since the 2014 invasions of Ukraine. As the UK interprets Russian disinformation at key moments, it developed an expectation for a special role to defend a ‘rules-based international order’ from Russian threats and to support allies in their own efforts against disinformation. Interpretations of Russian disinformation against Ukraine, Western elections, and the Salisbury poisonings, to name a few, has produced a set of policies, narratives and expectations that the UK will counter disinformation with ‘truth’.
