Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on September 21, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at the Harriman Institute for a book talk by Thomas Kent. Moderated by Elise Giuliano.
The Russia-Ukraine war has been fought as fiercely in the information sphere as in on-the-ground combat. Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine has worked to sustain Russian domestic support for his invasion despite staggering military losses. Ukraine has used persuasion tactics to strengthen its people’s resolve and persuade Western democracies to continue sending arms and money. Western nations have tried to build support for Ukraine in the Global South. The Propaganda Manual of the Ukraine War describes overt and covert persuasion tactics by governments, intelligence services, media organizations, and private actors on all sides of the war, such as forged websites, hacked broadcasts, attempts to manipulate social networks and AI, and arson and bombing of civilian targets in West Europe and Russia. The book describes which tactics have had the most effect and makes recommendations for Western information operations in future conflicts. It also assesses Western media coverage of the war, including a tendency to exaggerate both victories and defeats and an insufficient focus on events inside Russia.
Thomas Kent is a specialist on influence operations, Russian affairs, and ethics. He teaches at Columbia University about the world information war and consults for governments, militaries, NGOs, corporations, and media in the United States and internationally. He is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) in Washington, an associate fellow of the GLOBSEC think tank in Slovakia, and an advisor to the Brussels-based Ethical Journalism Network. He is the author of two previous books, Striking Back: Overt and Covert Options to Combat Russian Disinformation (Jamestown Foundation, 2020) and How Russia Loses: Hubris and Miscalculation in Putin’s Kremlin (Jamestown Foundation, 2023). From June 2016 until September 2018, Kent was president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Prior to that, he was a reporter and news executive at The Associated Press. Among other assignments, he was a reporter and bureau chief in Moscow, chief of AP operations in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution, European Union correspondent in Brussels, head of AP’s international news coverage, and standards editor, responsible for the credibility and ethics of AP content. Kent has spoken at professional forums in 26 countries, lectured to students of 36 universities from 12 countries, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic Council, The Hill, the Center for European Policy Analysis, The National Interest, and other publications and organizations. He has served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in international reporting and has held board or other positions for the Online News Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Organization of News Ombudsmen and Standards Editors. He was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, holds a degree in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University, and speaks French, Russian, and Spanish.
