COVID Information Warfare and the Future of Great Power Competition

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a golden age of information warfare. Russia and China—the two most prominent authoritarian regimes contraposing the liberal, rule-based international order the West has strived to build and promote—have prospered most during the current COVID crisis. We look at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) and Kremlin’s key COVID information warfare characteristics and explore how they are reshaping Great Power competition. We conclude with some suggestions regarding resilience and a joint counterstrategy.

Keywords: International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Security, Cyber Warfare, Political Warfare, International Affairs, Great Power Competition, Grey Zone, Hybrid Warfare, Information-Warfare