You asked, I answered — below please find topics and assigned readings for each class. Classes are linked to the respective posts, and you can always find previous material at the Democracy in the (Dis)Information Age tab on the home page. Enjoy!
I. A Primer on the U.S. Information Landscape
Class 1: Case Study: Operation Infektion
Assignment: New York Times Video, Operation Infektion
Class 2: What is Propaganda, and What is the Problem With It?
Assignment: President Ronald Reagan’s Speech at Brandenberg Gate
December 8: Zoom Office Hours, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. EST
Class 3: What the U.S. Can (and Can’t) Do to Stop Propaganda
Assignment: Mike Flynn Op-Ed, WaPo article on DOD Covert Psyops
Class 4: Why Can’t the U.S. Get Its Act Together When It Comes to Information Warfare?
December 20, 1 p.m. EST: LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker Matt Armstrong (recording will be posted on Substack Wednesday morning)
Assignment: The Past, Present, and Future of the War for Public Opinion, Censoring the Voice of America
December 22, 2022: Zoom Office Hours, 12-1 p.m EST
II. Active Measures: What Are They and Why Are They a Threat?
Class 5: The Active Measures Long Game
Assignment: Yuri Bezmenov, Soviet Subversion Doctrine
January 10, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EST
Class 6: What We’re Up Against
January 17, 2023, 1 p.m.EST: LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker John Sipher (recording will be posted on Substack Wednesday morning)
Assignment: Convergence is Worse Than Collusion, It’s easier for Russia to recruit Americans today than it was during the Cold War
Class 7: This Isn’t Our First Rodeo
Assignment: Soviet Active Measures: Hearing Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session, July 13, 14, 1982, p. 47-50 (“VI. AN EVALUATION OF ACTIVE MEASURES”)
January 29, 2023: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Emily Brandwin, 8-9 p.m. EST
February 1, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. EST
Class 8: The CIA and the “Cultural Cold War”
Assignment: Was modern art a weapon of the CIA?, Unpopular Front: American art and the Cold War
Class 9: Case Study: Operation HELPFUL
February 15, 2023, 3 p.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker Tim Weiner, author of The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945-2020 (recording will be posted on Substack Thursday morning)
Assignment: Russians don’t hear the truth about Putin’s war. The CIA can help.
Class 10: Disinformation as an Asymmetrical Threat
Assignment: Weapons of the Weak: Russia and AI-driven asymmetric warfare
March 9, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 12 - 1 p.m. EST
Class 11: The Gerasimov Doctrine
March 14, 2023, 4 p.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker Seth Jones, author of Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare (recording will be posted on Substack Wednesday morning)
Assignment: The Gerasimov Doctrine, I’m Sorry for Creating the Gerasimov Doctrine
Class 12: Hybrid Warfare — What Is It?
Assignment: The Future of Competition: U.S. Adversaries and the Growth of Irregular Warfare, Hybrid Warfare — New Threats, Complexity, and “Trust” as the Antidote
March 26, 2023: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Peter Strzok, 8-9 p.m. EDT
Class 13: Reflexive Control
Assignment: Russian reflexive control is subverting the American political landscape
April 12, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 10-11 a.m. EDT
Class 14: The Firehose of Falsehood
April 26, 2023, 5 p.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker Julia Davis, Russian Media Monitor (recording will be posted on Substack Thursday morning)
Assignment: The Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” Propaganda Model: Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It
May 17, 2023, Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EDT
Class 15. Racism as a National Security Threat, Part I
Assignment: New York Times Video, The Seven Commandments of Fake News
May 21, 2023: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Elie Mystal, 8-9 p.m. EDT
III. Disinformation and Foreign Election Interference
Class 16. Foreign Election Interference: Past, Present, and Future
May 31, 2023, 1 p.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Director of the FBI
Class 17. Election Meddling 101
Assignment: C-Span Washington Journal: David Shimer on Russian Election Meddling Efforts
June 20, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EDT
June 25, 2023: Wine & Fries Introduction to the Enneagram Workshop, 6-8 p.m. EDT
Class 18. It’s the Statehouses, Stupid
Assignment: The April 2023 Indictment for Russian Election Interference and Threats to U.S. Democracy
June 28, 2023, 4 p.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with guest speaker David Pepper , former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party
Class 19: The Hack and Dump in 2016
Assignment: Indictment filed by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III against twelve GRU officers, July 13, 2018
August 9, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 12-1 p.m. EDT
August 27, 2023: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Michael Cohen, 8-9 p.m. EDT
Class 20: Inside the Troll Farm
Assignment: Indictment by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III against the Internet Research Agency et al., February 16, 2018
September 14, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 1-2 p.m. EDT
Class 21: Defending Against the Dark Arts (of Communication)
September 27, 2023, 11 a.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: the Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump
Class 22: Project Lakhta
Assignment: United States v. Khusyaynova, New York Times Video, How Disinformation Is Taking Over the World
October 27, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EDT
Class 23: Racism as a National Security Threat, Part II
Assignment: Senate Intelligence Committee Report on 2016 Russian Election Interference, Vol. 2, pp. 38-40, University of Oxford Computational Propaganda Research Project
Class 24: What’s Next for the Internet Research Agency?
November 14, 2023, 2 p.m. EDT: LIVE Zoom event with Colin Clarke, Director of Research for The Soufan Group
November 29, 2023: Zoom Office Hours, 12-1 p.m. EST
December 10, 2023: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Mary Trump, 8-9 p.m. EST
Class 25: Election Interference 201
Assignment: Intelligence Community Assessment of Foreign Threats to the 2020 U.S. Federal Elections
IV. What Makes America So Vulnerable to Active Measures?
Class 26: Why Trust Matters in a Democracy
Assignment: Exercise, Why do we trust each other?, Excerpt from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II, Ch. 8, “The Americans Combat Individualism by the Principle of Interest Rightly Understood”
Class 27: Social Trust: The Dark Side
Assignment: “What is Bonding Social Capital?” Tristan Claridge, Institute for Social Capital
January 30, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 3-4 p.m. EST
February 16, 2024: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest George Conway, 8-9 p.m. EST
Class 28: The Changing Landscape of Disinformation
February 22, 2024, 2 p.m. EST: LIVE Zoom event with Nina Jankowicz, Vice President for the Center of Information Resilience
February 29: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EST
Class 29: Social Media and Social Trust
Assignment: Exercise, How does social media impact our relationships?, “The Social Experiment Facebook Should Run”
March 20, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EDT
Class 30: Disinformation and the Rule of Law
March 28, 2024, 4 p.m. EDT: LIVE Zoom event with Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney for Michigan and author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America
April 26, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 4-5 p.m. EDT
V. Political Polarization and Group Identity
Class 31: The Social Dynamics of Group Identity
Assignment: Exercise, What Motivates Tribal Behavior?, Have Tribes Become More Important than Our Country?
May 15, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 3-4 p.m. EDT
Class 32: Why Turning Right Turned Out Wrong
Assignment: What Keeps America Divided?
May 19, 2024: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Juliette Kayyem, 8-9 p.m. EST
Class 33: Asymmetrical Polarization in America
May 28, 2024, 4 p.m. EDT: LIVE Zoom event with Yale Professor Jacob Hacker, author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
June 18, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 2-3 p.m. EDT
Class 34: Is God Really Republican?
Assignment: Identity Tethering in an Age of Symbolic Politics: How cultural behavior supplanted common action
July 24, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 10-11 a.m. EDT
August 11, 2024: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with special guest Wajahat Ali, 8-9 p.m. EST
VI. The Psychology of Disinformation
Class 35: How to Inoculate Your Mind Against Disinformation
August 28, 2024,11 a.m. EDT: LIVE Zoom event with philosopher Andy Norman, author of Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think
Class 36. Feelings Don’t Care About Your Facts
Assignment: This Article Won’t Change Your Mind
September 27, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EDT
Class 37. This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain on Moral Disengagement
Assignment: Exercise: How do we justify our beliefs?
October 27, 2024: Wine & Fries Workshop, INTEL BRIEF: Who Wants Your Data and Why? 8-9 p.m. EDT
Class 38. Know it When You Hear It
October 30, 2024, 12 p.m. EDT, LIVE Zoom event with professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: the Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump
November 8, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EST
VII. Social Media the Media Ecosystem
Class 39. The Distorted “Marketplace of Ideas” in the Digital Age
Assignment: Exercise: What, exactly, is a “marketplace of ideas”?
Class 40. Social Media’s Invisible Hand
November 21, 2024, 1:30 p.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with Renee DiResta, author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality
December 3, 2024: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EST
Class 41. The Black Market for Ideas
Assignment: Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda
December 29, 2024: Holiday Happy Hour, 5-6 p.m. EST
Class 42. Why Social Media Makes You M.A.D.
Assignment: What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest?
VIII. Building Resilience Against Disinformation
Class 43. What the Road to Autocracy Looks Like
January 12, 2025, 8 p.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present
January 26, 2025: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with Special Guest Elliot Williams, 8-9 p.m. EDT
February 11, 2025: Zoom Office Hours, 6-7 p.m. EST
April 1, 2025: Zoom Office Hours, 9-10 a.m. EDT
April 30, 2025: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EDT
May 28, 2025: Zoom Office Hours, 12-1 p.m. EDT
Class 44. Soup or Salad: The Challenge of the American “We”
Assignment: We Need Another Moonshot
June 29, 2025: Wine & Fries Happy Hour with Special Guest Katie Phang, 8-9 p.m. EDT
July 28, 2025: Zoom Office Hours, 5-6 p.m. EDT
August 31, 2025: Zoom Office Hours with Special Guest Joyce Vance, 5-6 p.m. EDT
Class 45. How One Small Town in Massachusetts Fought Back Against Fascism
Assignment: “One Communities Total War Against Prejudice: The Springfield Plan Revisited”, What Does it Mean for Empathy to be “The Fuel of Democracy”?
September 16, 2025: Zoom Office Hours with Special Guest Mimi Rocah, 7-8 p.m. EDT
Class 46. Authoritarian Kryptonite: Coalition Politics
Assignment: Watch NO (2012); How Victor Orban Wins
September 24, 2025, 5 p.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with Professor Dan Nexon, Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Class 47. Cultural Touchstones: Can Arts, Entertainment, and Sports Bring Us Together?
Assignment: U.S.A. for Africa — We Are the World, Schoolhouse Rock — No More Kings, Hamilton the Musical
Class 48. Using A Common Social Identity to Promote Democracy
Assignment: “A New Americanism: Why a Nation Needs a National Story”
October 7, 2025, 11 a.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with Professor Jay Van Basel, co-author of The Power of Us
October 23, 2025: Zoom Office Hours with Special Guest Molly Jong-Fast, 5-6 p.m. EDT
Class 49. What We Can Learn from the Progressive Era
November 11, 2025, 7:30 p.m. EST, LIVE Zoom event with Professor John Witt, author of The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Class 50. Designing a Media Diet for the Information Age
Assignment: How Big Tech Mined Our Attention and Broke Our Politics
November 25, 2025: Zoom Office Hours with Special Guest Ruth Ben-Ghiat, 12-1 p.m. EST
Class 51. Local Affairs and the Habits of Democracy
Assignment: Watch Join or Die (2023)
December 21, 2025: Wine & Fries Holiday Happy Hour, 8-9 p.m. EST
Class 52. Why Civics Education is the Key to Defending Democracy
Assignment: Want to Rebuild Public Trust? Focus on Civic Education, A Conversation with FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Security Lawyers on Civic Education as a National Security Imperative
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