The digital space is filled with “Strategic Digital Information Operations,” where state and non-state actors tactically deploy information to manipulate public sentiment. This term encompasses efforts to use digital technology to shape global perceptions and emotional responses for vested interests.

These operations, both nationally and internationally, employ tactics such as manipulation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news, and PR campaigns. On the international stage, these operations aim to polarize, divert, and garner support for policy objectives, potentially leading to the emergence of “sharp power.”

This workshop emerges from a research endeavour supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation through the Democracy funding scheme. The project, led by a consortium of scholars from Deakin University, seeks to investigate the methodologies employed by state and non-state actors in deploying strategic digital information operations.

In an era marked by the strategic manipulation of digital media by state and non-state actors, this workshop aims to shed light on the multifaceted tactics, implications, and consequences of these operations on democratic processes, social cohesion, and the complex interplay between digital technologies, information operations, sharp power, and democracy.

This workshop of will be held in hybrid format and will bring leading scholars in the field of digital technologies and politics in Australia and Europe in a two-day workshop (16-17 November 2023) to discuss the methodologies employed by state and non-state actors in deploying strategic digital information operations.

Some of the papers that will be presented at the workshop will be looking at:

• The Influence of the Kremlin in the Media Space of Western Balkan Countries;
• Dis/misinformation and Populism;
• Defining Conspiratorial Publics
• Transnationalisation of Strategic Digital Information Operations;
• Utilization of Digital Tools by State and Non-State Actors;
• Online Disinformation as a Tool of Control;
• State’s Use of Digital Tech In Spreading Conspiracy Theories About the Opposition;
• Digital Dissonance, The Alt-Right, and Masculinity;
• The Digital Information Revolution and Its Impact on Racism and Nationalism.
• Harnessing Civil Society to Combat Strategic Digital Information Operations.

Workshop Organisers

Professor Ihsan Yilmaz
Professor Ihsan Yilmaz is Research Chair at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Oxford University’s Regent College and the European Center for Populism Studies, Brussels. He co-leads the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Germany) project with Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh titled: “Smart Digital Technologies and the Future of Democracy in the Muslim World” (2022-2025). He also leads two ARC Discovery Projects: “Civilisationist Mobilisation, Digital Technologies, and Social Cohesion: The Case of Turkish & Indian Diasporas in Australia” (2023-2026) and “Religious Populism, Emotions, and Political Mobilisation: Civilisationism in Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan” (2022-2025).

Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh
Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh is Convenor of Middle East Studies Forum (MESF) and Deputy Director (International) of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University (Australia). He co-leads the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Germany) project “Smart Digital Technologies and the Future of Democracy in the Muslim World” (2022-2025) with the ADI’s Ihsan Yilmaz. He held a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship (2013-2016) on the Role of Islam in Iran’s Foreign Policy-making and recently completed a Qatar Foundation project on Sectarianism in the Middle East. Professor Akbarzadeh has an extensive publication record and has contributed to the public debate on the political processes in the Middle East, regional rivalry and Islamic militancy. In 2023 he joined Middle East Council on Global Affairs (Doha) as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow.

For any questions, please contact mesf@deakin.edu.au