ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to analyse political warfare as statecraft in international affairs and propaganda as one of its main tools. Today’s refocus on political warfare and propaganda is grounded in the decades-long exposure of Western societies to Russian propaganda and disinformation, as well as on limited political deliverables in worlds affairs despite tactical military successes. Therefore, political warfare aims to expand national influence abroad, improve domestic approval ratings and support the realization of foreign policy and attainment of strategic objectives, with propaganda serving as a tool to shape the information space to those ends. Designed to persuade, not to communicate the truth, with ethics dependent on the purpose it serves, propaganda is boosted by technology and requires planning and coordination, thus being systematically implemented. Flexibility, adaptability and suitability to the targeted environment represent key characteristics for a successful propaganda, while its failure depends on the discrepancy between stated and attained goals and on the divergence between propaganda’s narrative and the actual shaped reality. By analysing Russia’s use of propaganda as political warfare in aggressions against Georgia in 2008 and against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, the chapter exposes its successes and failures and contributes to the understanding of those tools of statecraft.
