All posts tagged: Institute for Statecraft

Selling Integrity

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David Macilwain Ever since Dud and Pete put a price on “Integrity” in their Welsh music teacher sketch of the ‘60s, the word has had suspicious undertones. Rebuffed by the teacher for thinking he can be bought, the rich industrialist says “- Integrity! – that’s a valuable thing and I’m willing to pay for it!” For a little light relief in these dark days I’d recommend listening to this classic and timeless social comment. It’s probably not just by chance that the “Integrity Initiative” was the title chosen to describe a program – or operation – that is the absolute antithesis of what it suggests. In fact the more that the activities of the organisation, and objectives of its overseer the Institute for Statecraft, are examined, the clearer this becomes; – the Initiative exists to spread disinformation about every action correctly perceived and acted upon by Russia. But far worse than that, the focus of the “Statecraft” of Chris Donnelly’s Institute is in manipulating public perceptions so as to craft States suiting the interests of …

British think-tanks call for “US leadership” in Europe

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“Rebuilding US leading role is the key for European security” say British experts, but the new political realities inspire doubts Jeremy McCoy January 4, Anonymous hackers released the new batch of documents from the Integrity Initiative – a government-funded program run by the London based Institute for Statecraft. The Institute for Statecraft describes itself as “an independent body dedicated to refreshing the practice of statecraft, to improving governance and to enhancing national security”. The Integrity Initiative: Defending Democracy against Disinformation is one of the Institute’s projects aimed at countering Russian propaganda as well as all kinds of “attempts to influence the policies and undermine the societies of the West”. The released batch inter alia contains the files on the Integrity Initiative efforts in the USA. These documents worth being examined more carefully because they show a questionable approach to European security shared by some British think tankers. The experts believe a reassertion of the US political and military domination in Europe is the only way for the West to counter Russia, China and Daesh/IS. “The …

Dad’s Army’s cover blown

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A formidable and secret UK government-funded anti-Russian StratCom (strategic communication) enterprise, its cover having recently been embarrassingly blown, now presents itself as a bumbling Dad’s Army outfit. But don’t be fooled: this pussycat is a tiger. Tony Kevin This published-sources-based story has been around for a few weeks but has so far gone completely unreported in Australian media: which is odd, because it is in my opinion quite an important foreign affairs story for Australia. A lengthy set of files, made up of downloaded (or hacked) Integrity Initiative and Institute for Statecraft papers, was published online in late November by British contrarian writer Tim Hayward, as a ‘working file in progress’, under the title ‘Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative’, with authors Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, and Piers Robinson (who call themselves the ‘Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media’). The URL is here. The authors introduce their set of papers as follows: A close examination of past and present posts held by individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative indicates that [TK- British] …