Institute for Statecraft

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The Institute for Statecraft ("Institute for Statecraft") is a think tank and non-governmental organization in the UK founded in 2009 , which claims to be "dedicated to renewing public administration practices and strengthening national security".

Establishment, seat and status

The institute was founded in 2009, is based in Fife , Scotland and has the status of a non-profit organization. The head office is located in Two Temple Place , London, according to LobbyFacts .

management

The Institute for Statecraft is headed by Christopher Donnelly and his deputy Daniel Lafayeedney, both founding members. Donnelly is special advisor to the House of Commons Defense Committee , was a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst from 1969 to 1972, and a member of the TA Intelligence Service, for which he served until 1990. From 1989 to 2003 he was Special Advisor to the NATO Secretaries General for Eastern and Central Europe. Dan Lafayeedney was a SAS soldier in 1978 , the director Stephen Dalziel worked in the military intelligence service.

aims

One of its main objectives is to improve the methodology of public administration and to try to prevent the creation of a “national strategic deficit”.

While the organization's ethical charter emphasizes the impartiality and independence of government organizations, it is also pointed out that the institute also promotes specific policy solutions to some problems.

Integrity Initiative

The Integrity Initiative was launched in 2015 by the Institute for Statecraft to combat propaganda, disinformation and fake news , with a focus on combating Russian influence.

To this end, groups of experts have been set up to analyze and discuss the problem of Russian disinformation.

In early 2019, after a cyber attack on the initiative's website, its content was temporarily taken offline.

Western officials suspect a connection between the hacker group and the Russian state. The British Foreign Ministry accused Russian state media of having published the Integrity Initiative documents captured during the hack in order to discredit the Institute for Statecraft. The purpose of state funding for the institute is to counteract disinformation abroad and not in the UK.

The Institute for Statecraft came under fire because, according to Constanze Kurz, it used the same means of disinformation that it wanted to combat. The Integrity Initiative distributed articles on British domestic politics through the news service Twitter . In December 2018 , Foreign Secretary Alan Duncan announced an investigation into the British House of Commons to discredit the Labor Party and its party leader Jeremy Corbyn . Labor MP Chris Williamson called for a parliamentary inquiry because he believed “blackening the Labor Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn” was on the agenda of the Integrity Initiative. The communication scientist Thorsten Quandt recognizes a "wagon-castle mentality" that arose in the EU out of fear of Russian attempts at influence. He criticizes the fact that the Institute for Statecraft is silent about the events, sees the danger of betrayal of the democratic guiding principles and calls for openness and a debate.

In Spain, the institute is said to have successfully steered a social media campaign against Pedro Baños in June 2018 so that the new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez does not appoint him as the national secret service overseer.

In a press release from the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel , its director Joachim Krause denied that his institute was involved in the initiative, but confirmed that the freelance institute employee Hannes Adomeit was "obviously" involved there. Krause called reports in left alternative media and Russian state media, in which the initiative is presented as an anti-Russian intelligence campaign, a conspiracy theory . The Institute for Statecraft links international research institutions and people here in order to carry out independent analyzes on Russian disinformation policy, to improve the exchange among scientists and to present the results. This is a completely legitimate scientific procedure practiced worldwide.

The Scottish Foundation Regulator (OSCR) found in 2019 that the Institute for Statecraft failed to meet its stated foundation goals, as Scottish foundations have to be politically neutral. After the investigation, the institute severed ties with the Integrity Initiative, ended paying its trustees, and accepted increased oversight.

financing

In the 2017/2018 financial year, the institute received government funding of £ 296,500. For 2018/2019 the state budgeted an amount of almost two million pounds. These amounts are provided from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, a fund set up in 2015 within Official Development Assistance .

From 2016 to 2018, the UK Department of Defense funded two of the Institute's projects with a total of £ 177,000. The institute receives further financial support from NATO , the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense , the US State Department and Facebook .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About Us. (No longer available online.) Institute for Statecraft, March 6, 2013, archived from the original on January 3, 2019 ; accessed on January 31, 2019 (English).
  2. ↑ a b James Landale: Russia-linked hack 'bid to discredit' UK anti-disinformation campaign - Foreign Office. In: bbc.com. December 10, 2018, accessed February 1, 2019 (updated February 27, 2019).
  3. ↑ OSCR | Charity details. The Institute for Statecraft, SC040870. Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), accessed February 1, 2019 .
  4. ^ The Institute for Statecraft (IfS). In: Lobbyfacts.eu (English).
  5. ↑ self-declaration on the homepage
  6. ^ Christopher Donnelly, War in Peactime and Ambiguous warfare and the resurgence of the Russian Military , COMEC OCCASIONAL PAPER. No 9., November 2017, p. 30 available online
  7. ↑ John Ferguson, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/secret-infowars-unit-who-attacked-13912553 , In: Daily Record of January 27, 2019, available online
  8. ^ Ethical Charter. (No longer available online.) Institute for Statecraft, September 30, 2012, archived from the original on January 3, 2019 ; accessed on February 1, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.statecraft.org.uk
  9. ↑ swissinfo.ch: Anonymous svela 'rete anti Russia'. Retrieved January 27, 2019 (Italian).
  10. ^ Question by MEP Emily Thornberry and subsequent discussion in the British Parliament: Institute for Statecraft: Integrity Initiative . In: Hansard of December 12, 2018, volume 651
  11. ↑ Mark McLaughlin: Anti-propaganda website forced offline by hacking . In: The Times . January 25, 2019, ISSN  0140-0460 ( thetimes.co.uk [accessed January 27, 2019]).
  12. ↑ a b Constanze Kurz: The biggest cleavers sit in the front rows . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 24, 2018, No. 299, p. 15.
  13. ↑ a b Damien Gayle: Foreign Office denies state funds went to Twitter account criticizing Labor . In: The Guardian . December 13, 2018 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 27, 2019]).
  14. ↑ James Ball: When free societies copy Russian media tactics, there's only one winner . In: The Guardian . January 9, 2019 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 27, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Caroline Schmidt: Political Propaganda: The Cold War on the Net. In: ndr.de. March 27, 2019, accessed April 6, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Jesús Ossorio and Gonzalo Araluce, Acusan a una ONG de dinamitar la elección de Pedro Baños como director de Seguridad Nacional por "prorruso" digital newspaper El Español of November 27, 2018
  17. ^ Joachim Krause: Russian disinformation campaign against scientific project to analyze Russian disinformation politics . Press release of the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel on January 9, 2019, accessed on January 28, 2019
  18. ↑ OSCR: Report of the foundation regulatory authority OSCR , accessed on November 9, 2019
  19. ^ Alan Duncan: Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Integrity Initiative: Written question - 198811 . UK Parliament. December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  20. ^ Tory minister's U-turn on infowars attack on Jeremy Corbyn smacks of Cold War dirty tricks , Daily Record. December 16, 2018. Accessed January 18, 2019. 

Web links

Coordinates: 56 ° 16 ′ 5.8 "  N , 3 ° 18 ′ 41.2"  W.