The European Union's handling of Russian disinformation
Author
Søgaard, Martin Hessellund
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2022
Pages
50
Abstract
This thesis examines why and how the European Union seeks to address the growing spread of Russian disinformation, which is viewed as a threat to open, fact-based public debate and to free and fair elections. It adopts an embedded case study design and conducts a qualitative content analysis of official EU documents and three elite interviews, using realism and social constructivism as the analytical framework. The focus is on initiatives launched since 2015, including the establishment of the East StratCom Task Force as the first major EU effort in this area. The analysis indicates that the EU’s primary motivation is to protect public deliberation and democratic processes from foreign interference, and that most measures emphasize internal, cooperative, and resilience-building actions rather than offensive sanctions against Russia. The study contributes theoretically informed insight to a still underexplored topic in international relations, grounded in EU policy materials and interview evidence.
Dette speciale undersøger, hvorfor og hvordan EU søger at håndtere den øgede udbredelse af russisk desinformation, som anses for at true åben, faktabaseret offentlig debat og frie og fair valg. Studiet er et indlejret casestudie baseret på kvalitativ indholdsanalyse af officielle EU-dokumenter og tre eliteinterviews og anvender realisme og socialkonstruktivisme som teoretisk ramme. Fokus er på initiativer efter 2015, herunder etableringen af East StratCom Task Force som den første større EU-indsats på området. Analysen af EU-tiltagene viser, at Unionens hovedmotivation er at beskytte den offentlige meningsdannelse og demokratiske processer mod udenlandsk indblanding. De fleste tiltag prioriterer interne, samarbejds- og robusthedsopbyggende handlinger frem for offensive sanktioner målrettet Rusland. Specialet bidrager med teoretisk forankret viden om et felt, der hidtil har været sparsomt belyst i international politik, med afsæt i EU’s egne politikker og interviewdata.
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