Jakob-Fugger-Zentrum
Olesia Zvezdova: Psychological War. Case Study: Russian Psychological Operations in Europe
Information about the event
The talk by Olesia Zvezdova will take place on 4 May 2023 at 18:30. The talk will be in English and you will be able to join via Zoom. Once you have registered, you will receive your Zoom invitation by email. More information about the content and our speaker can be found on this website below.
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Talk: Psychological War. Case Study: Russian Psychological Operations in Europe
The events currently taking place in the world indicate that the population of the European continent is on the verge of transformations in the field of international security, including psychological security. Only in the last decade we have witnessed a large-scale Russian information war against Ukraine, which has a destructive and destabilising effect on societies in general and on the psyche of each individual in particular. At the same time, the full-scale Russian invasion on the Ukrainian territory on 24 February 2022 demonstrated Russia's disregard for civilised approaches to the conduct of modern international politics and marked the beginning of a deep crisis in the system of collective security, at least on the European continent. Long-term Russian psychological warfare against the Ukrainian population is one of many means of aggression on a par with guns and rockets.
In general, changes in the geopolitical map of Europe and the world over the past decades dictate the need to study certain mechanisms of influence in the international arena, for example: Russian information and psychological operation against Ukraine did not start on 24.02.2022, but was actively conducted at least since 2004. Therefore, the relevance of the study lies in the need for in-depth research and comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms of psychological influence on the population of Ukraine used by the Russian Federation in order to prevent them in the future in European countries.
During the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war (since 2014), the Russian Federation actively continues to use various psychological mechanisms of influence on the population of Ukraine, the European Union and even its own population. The lecturer proposes to focus on five main mechanisms of psychological influence, divided according to the means of information dissemination. The audience will be invited to discuss the main methods of countering psychological influence in international relations.
Dr. Olesia Zvezdova
Olesia Zvezdova is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Augsburg and Senior Lecturer at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Ukraine). She holds two Master's degrees, one in International Relations (2010) and one in Psychology (2023). She obtained her PhD in Political Science (specification - political problems of international systems and global development). Her dissertation was on "De-facto States in the Post-Soviet Space" focusing on separatism and non-recognition in international relations. She was working on the implementation and popularisation of European values in Ukrainian society. Fort the past six years, Zvezdova has been a lecturer at the Black Sea National University (Ukraine). Her courses were "Geopolitics", "Russian Foreign Policy". Due to the war she was forced to move to Germany in 2022. The Russian-Ukrainian war actualized the problem of psychological influences in international relations and psychological warfare. It is now the main sphere of her scientific interests. Due to its interdisciplinary approach (international relations and psychology), her research offers numerous links for researchers from other disciplines.