countering wmd disinformation

There are a total of four pillars that contribute to the mission and purpose of the project:

Detect
Analyze and Anticipate
Understand Impact and Policy Approaches
Raise Awareness and Build Capacity

Under Detect, the project team will use real-time detection to swiftly recognize and isolate disinformation narratives and networks. In Analyze and Anticipate, research teams will analyze disinformation campaigns and narratives to facilitate pattern recognition and strengthen proactive strategies against future CBRN disinformation efforts. Through Understand Impact and Policy Approaches, tools will be developed to address disinformation narratives pre-emptively and gather data on direct and indirect impacts and harms of disinformation attacks. And during Raise Awareness and Build Capacity, data from the prior pillars will be translated into training initiatives, briefings, educational material and more to improve government ability to combat CBRN disinformation attacks.

These functional areas encompass the thinking and approach this global coordination effort plans to take to further understand, track, mitigate and strengthen GP country capacity to combat CBRN disinformation campaigns.

For more information and to stay up to date on this initiative, check out the project's website and follow the X account.

Foreign state actors engage in multi-layered disinformation campaigns that aim to undermine Non-proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Conventions, along with mandates of many key multilateral institutions, and have a significant negative impact on GP cooperative threat reduction efforts.

While many GP Members and Partners have engaged in successful counter-disinformation efforts, to date these efforts have been siloed within the individual areas of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats and have been performed in relative isolation. In 2023, under Japan’s presidency, Global Partnership members expressed their desire to see counter-disinformation efforts occur in a more collaborative and comprehensive approach to tackle this complex body of work.

Pioneered and funded by Global Affairs Canada, this 18-month pilot project aims to provide a comprehensive, coordinated, multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and countering state-sponsored or state-adjacent disinformation regarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) across CBRN threats. Under the agreement of the GP, Global Affairs Canada has brought together four partners to lead this work: The Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS), King’s College London (KCL), and One Earth Future’s Open Nuclear Network (ONN).

For the pilot period, research will initially focus on CBRN disinformation in the context of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine but will remain adaptable to adjust focus to new and emerging high-priority threats in the CBRN disinformation space. The project aims to provide a more solid evidence-base for GP members and partners from which to identify, understand, and develop mitigation strategies; raise awareness among LMICs; and, ultimately, reduce the impact of hostile CBRN disinformation.

Foreign state actors engage in multi-layered disinformation campaigns that aim to undermine Non-proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Conventions, along with mandates of many key multilateral institutions, and have a significant negative impact on GP cooperative threat reduction efforts.

While many GP Members and Partners have engaged in successful counter-disinformation efforts, to date these efforts have been siloed within the individual areas of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats and have been performed in relative isolation. In 2023, under Japan’s presidency, Global Partnership members expressed their desire to see counter-disinformation efforts occur in a more collaborative and comprehensive approach to tackle this complex body of work.

Pioneered and funded by Global Affairs Canada, this 18-month pilot project aims to provide a comprehensive, coordinated, multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and countering state-sponsored or state-adjacent disinformation regarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) across CBRN threats. Under the agreement of the GP, Global Affairs Canada has brought together four partners to lead this work: The Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS), King’s College London (KCL), and One Earth Future’s Open Nuclear Network (ONN).

For the pilot period, research will initially focus on CBRN disinformation in the context of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine but will remain adaptable to adjust focus to new and emerging high-priority threats in the CBRN disinformation space. The project aims to provide a more solid evidence-base for GP members and partners from which to identify, understand, and develop mitigation strategies; raise awareness among LMICs; and, ultimately, reduce the impact of hostile CBRN disinformation.

Counter Disinformation Updates

Countering WMD CBRN Disinformation Initiative

Russia's July 2024 Note Verbale Debunked, an analysis by GP WMD Counter Disinfo (September 2024)
Open Nuclear Network delivers statement on nuclear and radiological disinformation on behalf of the GP Countering WMD Disinformation Initiative at the 2024 NPT Preparatory Committee Meeting (July 2024)
Video on previous Russian links to chemical weapons and their related disinformation efforts and impacts (July 2024)
The next big threat to animal health emergencies: misinformation and disinformation, feature article by WOAH and INTERPOL (July 2024)
Project launch video on X (June 2024)
Feature article on Countering WMD Disinformation: A Global Partnership Initiative (April 2024)

Countering

WMD CBRN Disinformation Initiative