POLI 354 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Al Jazeera, Cyberwarfare, Disinformation
13 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POLI 360 April 16, 2018
Lecture 25: Last Class
Trump and the element of strategic surprise
• On 29 Aug, 2013, Trump tweeted he "would not go in to Syria, but if I did it would be by
surprise and not blurted all over the media like fools"
• In March 2017, the Trump administration refused to disclose the quantities of troops it
was deploying to Syria, declaring that ISIS "would be the first to know about any
additional (US) capabilities."
• April 2018: Trump announces imminent withdrawal from Syria in unscripted speech;
Pentagon expresses alarm, insists on keeping US troops presence
• Superpower unpredictability and volatility worsens security dilemma; heightens dangers
of escalation and war
• Syria, Korea, South China Sea are flashpoints where rash action could provoke an
adversary (Russia, North Korea, or China), triggering war
• Right before chemical attacks by Assad regime, Trump had just announced that he was
going to withdraw troops from Syria
Trump as leaker of secret intelligence
• In a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador to the US Kislyak in
March 2017, Trump shared top-secret Israeli intelligence about ISIS operations in Syria
(might have been Jordanian: Al-Jazeera)
• The Russians would surely pass this on to Israel's archrival, Iran
• Before Trump's 20 Jan 2017 inauguration, outgoing Obama officials warned the Israelis
not to share intelligence with the Trump White House, out of concern over its ties with
Russia
North Korean missile and nuclear tests
• Achieved nuclear power, testing its weapons
• In the year that Trump's been in power, North Korea has faded into the back while Syria,
Russia and Iran have come to the forefront
Leaks, Hacking, and Cyberwarfare
Unprecedented Interference: Russian hacking and the 2016 US election
• Summer 2016 - US intelligence and law-enforcement services detected Russian hacking
of Democratic National Committee
• Russian military intelligence units had hacked into email servers, private accounts
• Russian "fake news" sites spread disinformation calibrated to polarize US politics
