Octavian Manea
Manea: What are the convergences and divergencies between Russian and Chinese modus operandi in IO (Influence Operations/Information Operatuibs)?
Tatham: The West has long studied Russia. The Cold War sustained vibrant linguistic and analysis education and training programs across most NATO nations. Whilst the general public may not have had the understanding or interest in Russian disinformation that they do today, our various Armed Forces and intelligence agencies certainly did. For three years I worked at the Advanced Research Group of the UK Defense Academy, a successor to the Soviet Studies Research Center, that for years had tracked and written about Russian military affairs and information warfare. In the US the Foreign Military Studies Office did much the same. Collectively we have a good understanding of how Russia deploys its IO – particularly post the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact as Eastern European nations, such as Poland and the Baltic States, brought their experience and knowledge to the West.
This is not however the case for China. China only opened up to the West in the late 1970s and the number of Western analysts who can speak Mandarin has remained low for years. In this sense, our collective ability to access Chinese documents, doctrine and academic journals is limited. So, I would argue that we are on the back foot, we don’t have the necessary depth and history of understanding about the nature of Chinese IO that we have with Russia.
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