Study Group with Ann Simmons: Propaganda In Overdrive

To hear the Kremlin propagandists say it, the government in Kyiv is a band of neo-Nazis, Ukraine is to blame for the war that Moscow unleashed on it, and the West — in particular Europe — seeks to destroy Russia. Polls show that the majority of Russians surveyed believe the narrative as the country becomes more and more isolated and people are exposed only to information that the Kremlin wants them to hear. 

Dr. Markos Kounalakis, a scholar, journalist, publisher and author of "Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton, Spin Wars & Spy Games: Global Media and Intelligence Gathering," joins us to discuss Russia's use of political propaganda and disinformation through conventional and cyber methods, how state-sponsored news outlets are eclipsing independent journalism, and how foreign media resources have a profound effect on intelligence gathering and their diplomatic role in both willingly and unwillingly performing an intermediary function.

About Dr. Markos Kounalakis

Markos Kounalakis, Ph.D. is an author, publisher, journalist, and scholar. During the 1980s and 1990s, Kounalakis worked as a foreign correspondent, covering wars and revolutions for Newsweek based in Rome and Vienna. He later ran the magazine’s Prague bureau before working in the USSR as the NBC-Mutual News Moscow correspondent. Kounalakis later became president and publisher of the Washington Monthly magazine.

Dr. Kounalakis is a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an award-winning foreign affairs columnist. He currently teaches Stanford University’s political science capstone class, “Superpower California”. President Barack Obama appointed him to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

He is California’s “Second Gentleman”, married to Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis.

His authored books include Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton, Spin Wars & Spy Games: Global Media and Intelligence Gathering, and the recently released Freedom isn’t Free: The Price of World Order.

AUDIENCE: These conversations are open to members of the Harvard community. Please RSVP with a valid Harvard email address. 

OFF-THE-RECORD: In keeping with our long tradition at the IOP to ensure honest and candid discussions of politics, all IOP study groups are off-the-record.