Russophobia Propaganda in International Politics Glenn Diesen Russophobia “This courageous piece of work proposes a deep and comprehensive approach of an upmost problem of contemporary international politics at a pivotal moment of our history. It shows, in a fresh and invigorating analysis based on facts, how the anti-Russian propaganda has shaped the mind of the Western countries during decades until to heat up the military clash in Ukraine. An indispensable book for understanding the present state of the world.” —Guy Mettan, journalist and author of Creating Russophobia “Thesedaysoneneedsalotofintellectualandevenpersonalcouragetoaddressthe notionofRussophobia,whichhasbecomesocommonintheongoinginformation war between Russia and the West. To Professor Diesen’s credit, his book presents an academically rigorous and well documented attempt to analyze the origins, evolution and modern manifestations of this complex phenomenon. The book is a valuable source for those trying to comprehend the nature of Russia’s uneasy relations with the outside world.” —Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council “Glenn Diesen continues the tradition of studying Western presentations of Russia astheinferiorandaggressiveOther.Heshedsimportantlighton‘Us’versus‘Them’ strategies exploited by Western political and media circles in cases of RussiaGate, Ukraine, and Syria.” —Andrei P. Tsygankov, San Francisco State University “An incisive takedown of the neo-McCarthyite chauvinism that has consumed Western political culture, to the great detriment of honest journalism and global peace.” —Aaron Maté, journalist at the Grayzone and former producer of Democracy Now Glenn Diesen Russophobia Propaganda in International Politics Glenn Diesen University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) Vestfold, Norway ISBN 978-981-19-1467-6 ISBN 978-981-19-1468-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1468-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such namesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreefor general use. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinforma- tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeen made.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Grant Faint/Getty images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#21-01/04GatewayEast,Singapore 189721, Singapore For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy: it is an alibi for the absence of one —Henry Kissinger Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Theorising Propaganda and Obscuring Its Meaning 15 3 The Foundational Stereotypes of Anti-Russian Propaganda 45 4 Source Credibility: Creating Experts to Herd the Masses 83 5 Language and Strategic Narratives: Imparting Legitimacy 115 6 Legitimising Hierarchies: An International System of Sovereign Inequality 145 7 Russiagate: Russophobia Against the Political Opposition 175 8 Ukraine and the Civilizational Choice of the Shared Neighbourhood 201 9 Humanitarian Interventionism: The Road Towards Regime Change in Syria 229 10 Conclusion: Anti-Russian Propaganda of a West in Relative Decline 255 vii viii CONTENTS References 259 Index 287 CHAPTER 1 Introduction Propaganda entails convincing an audience without appealing to reason. Propaganda has its scientific origin in sociology and psychology to explore how human beings intuitively organise in groups for security and meaning,andthenrationalisewhatareinherentlyirrationalinstincts.The individual engages in rational reflection, although much of the beliefs and opinions of human beings are formed by the irrationality of group psychology. Propaganda acquired a more prominent role in society as the world became more complex, which increases the reliance on stereotypes and mental shortcuts to interpret and filter information. Propaganda exploits the human desire for simplicity by manipulating the heuristics to hand peopleeasyanswersandrelyingongrouppsychologyratherthanwinning them over with rational arguments. Unconsciously, the human brain divides people into the in-group of “Us” or the out-group of the “Other”. A threat from the out-group instigates an impulsive need for in-group loyalty and solidarity to enhance security. Political propaganda exploits this proclivity in human nature by developing stereotypes that contrastthein-groupandout-grouptoframeallpoliticalquestionswithin a demagogic division of “Us” versus the “Other”. Stereotypes present a predictable, familiar and comfortable view of our place in the world. Any facts that disturb these comfortable stereo- types are experienced as cognitive dissonance and instinctively rejected © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1 Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 G. Diesen, Russophobia, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1468-3_1 2 G. DIESEN by the masses as an attack on the fundament of their worldview. Simpli- fying the world along a binary divide between good and evil results in facts and reason having little if any bearing on the conclusion. In a great binary struggle, the influence and actions of the “Other” are inherently a threat, while any atrocious actions “We” may undertake are in the service of a higher good. Propaganda can thus fuel ideological fundamentalism in which adversaries are assessed by an assigned negative political identity rather than their actual international behaviour, while one’s own assigned political identity is held to be irrefutably positive and thus non-threatening irrespective of actions. Source credibility is also linked directly with the stereotypes of “Us” versus “Them”, to heighten the legitimacy of “Our” communicators and delegitimise the communicator of the “Other”. The ability to shape the group depends to a great extent on credible sources—trustworthy and likeable experts. Propagandists therefore work towards manipulating or constructing sources to disseminate their information. Complex ideas are reduced into simple and familiar language and symbols that are continuously repeated since the human mind conflates familiarity with reality. Dichotomous stereotypes are used to change the language and diminish the ability to make comparisons. Manipulation of the language aims to make the white whiter, the black blacker, and elim- inate the grey. The words to describe “Us” versus “Them” is decoupled as,forexample,governmentversusregime,determinedversusaggressive, toughversusbullying,interventionversusinvasion,democraticrevolution versus regime change, a ring of friendly states versus spheres of influence, liquidation versus assassination, principled versus inflexible, enlargement versus expansion, etc. If human beings can be taught to speak in slogans, then they are likely to collectively think in slogans. While language conveys meaning, propaganda distorts meaning. Russophobia Russophobia is largely a result of propaganda. There are ample rational reasonstofearRussia,althoughRussophobiareferssolelytotheirrational fear of Russia and Russians. Fyodor Tyutchev coined the term Russo- phobia in 1867 as a reference to an irrational fear or aversion to Russia’s Otherness. 1 INTRODUCTION 3 Russophobia should be a key theme in the study of propaganda. The development of propaganda in the West as a discipline of sociology, psychology and political science in the twentieth century was to a great extent directed towards Russia. On an even longer time scale, Russia has for centuries been depicted as the civilisational “Other” of Western Europe and then the wider West. Russia is the West’s perfect out-group as an eastern or even Asian power in Europe. Russophobiahasbothapurposeandconsequencesthatgowellbeyond Russia. The identity assigned to Russia as the “Other” is instrumental to constructing an opposing identity of the West. One only identify as WesternifthereisEastern,ascivilisediftherearebarbarians,andasliberal if there is authoritarian. Changing the identity of the “Other” inevitably alters the identity of “Us”. The West’s shared liberal identity and consolidation of internal cohe- sion have largely originated with and been maintained in contrast to Russia as the “Other”. The civilising mission or socialising role of the West towards a barbaric Russia infers benign and charitable policies that actualisetheWest’spositiveself-identification.Allcompetingpowerinter- ests are concealed in the benign language of liberalism, democracy and human rights. The implied morality and righteousness imply that criti- cism can easily be dismissed as irrelevant and merely reflect the inability of the barbarian “Other” to embrace universal principles. Over the past 500 years, Russia has had a central role in juxtaposing the West and East, European and Asian, civilized and barbaric, modern and backward, freedom and slavery, democracy and authoritarianism, and even good and evil. Initially, the dichotomisation was largely about ethnicity and customs, although the divisions were incrementally recast through ideology. During the Cold War, ideological dividing lines fell naturally by contrasting capitalism versus communism, democracy versus authoritarianism, and Christianity versus atheism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new divide was created along a more artificial liberal-authoritarian divide that provides little heuristic value. While the Soviet Union promoted communism to replace capi- talism, the Russian Federation is not on a crusade against democracy to advanceauthoritarianismasanideology.ThenewEast–Westbinarydivide was further extended as post-modern versus modern, advanced versus backward, free trade versus autarchy, sovereign versus post-sovereign, values-basedversusrealpolitik,decentralisedversuscentralised,softpower