Published 14 November 2022 A study has recently been published on how the Kremlin circumvented EU sanctions on Russian state media in the first weeks of the illegal invasion of Ukraine. In a recently published journal article, James Pamment discusses some of the tactics the Kremlin used to circumvent the EU’s 2022 state media sanctions. The study finds that while the initial “fog of information wa

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/impact-eu-sanctions-russia-state-media - 2025-02-05

Published 9 January 2023 A capability definition and assessment framework for countering disinformation, information influence, and foreign interference The NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence recently published a report titled A capability definition and assessment framework for countering disinformation, information influence, and foreign interference. In the report, the author Ja

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/capability-report-1 - 2025-02-05

Published 8 February 2023 Microsoft uses framework for attribution developed by Pamment and Smith Microsoft’s Digital Threat Analysis Center (DTAC) is attributing a recent influence operation targeting the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attribution made builds upon a framework for attribution developed by James Pamment at the PDRI and Victoria Smith, presented in the report “Attribut

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/attribution-framework-used-microsoft - 2025-02-05

By psychologicaldefence [at] isk [dot] lu [dot] se (Psychological Defence Research Institute) - published 17 October 2023 Research Conference in Lund, 10-11 October 2023 A research conference was held in Lund in October 2023. The conference, organized jointly by the Psychological Defence Research Institute and the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency, gathered researchers representing institutions

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/research-conference-lund - 2025-02-05

Published 17 October 2023 Photo: Fredrick Tendong/Unsplash Video games have captured the spotlight for decades, sparking debates about their impact on players since the early 1990s. Played by over 3 billion people worldwide, this report acknowledges video games' political and ideological dimensions and their potential for being used for strategic communication and propaganda purposes. It attempts

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/video-games-tool-malign-foreign-interference-and-info-influence - 2025-02-05

Published 6 December 2023 A new report on Russian influence tactics has been published by the Psychological Defence Research Institute. This report analyses Russian information influence tactics on social media platforms following the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha, Ukraine, in March 2022. The analysis focuses on the Bucha massacre as a significant news event to demonstrate how th

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/new-report-russian-influence-tactics - 2025-02-05

Published 19 February 2024 Members of the ADAC.io consortium at meeting in Lund ADAC.io - Attribution – Data – Analysis – Countermeasures. InterOperability, a Horizon project started on 1 February. A week later, the partners of the ADAC.io-consortium met at the Old Bishop's House at Lund University to elaborate on the details of the project that is planned for three years. The seven partners of AD

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/consortium-meeting-adacio - 2025-02-05

Published 23 March 2024 The latest report from the Psychological Defence Research Institute is now available: Building Resilience and Psychological Defence. It outlines an analytical framework, guidebook, and template addressing six dimensions of hybrid threats and foreign influence and interference from a nation-state perspective. Acknowledging that these types of threats are complex and multifac

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/new-research-report-building-resilience-and-psychological-defence - 2025-02-05

Published 13 June 2024 Picture by the EU Commission Hedvig Ördén, Security Studies Researcher at the Psychological Defence Research Institute, discusses the European disinformation landscape and its developments over time on “Konflikt”, broadcasted by Radio SwedenAbout the podcast episode “The fight for the truth ahead of the EU elections” (link to podcast in Swedish: Kampen om sanningen inför EU-

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/podcast-fight-truth-ahead-eu-elections - 2025-02-05

Published 13 June 2024 At the 10th annual Riga StratCom Dialogue conference, organized by the NATO Strategic Communications COE, over 700 participants attended. Two members of the Psychological Defence Research Institute participated in panels, presenting the following topics:In the panel "Attribution of Information Influence Activity," James Pamment presented a framework developed for NATO by him

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/interventions-pdri-members-natos-conference-strategic-communication - 2025-02-05

Published 20 September 2024 At EU Days in Lund on 17 September, members of the Psychological Defence Research Institute, together with a representative of the Swedish Defence University, debated disinformation and its impact on European security. A panel at the EU Days in Lund reflected on the current security situation in Europe and its challenging communicative environment. The debate was held u

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/eu-days-lund-debate-disinformation - 2025-02-05

Published 27 September 2024 Conference held at the Old Bishops House in Lund Focusing on the intersection of research and practice, the second annual research conference on psychological defence was held in Lund on 24-25 September 2024. The conference gathered 60 participants from the Nordic countries, with the majority of attendees from the Swedish public and private sectors as well as academia.

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/research-conference-psychological-defence - 2025-02-05

Published 27 September 2024 "Japan Close Up," a platform managed and operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan, recently published an article by James Pamment, Director of the Psychological Defence Research Institute at Lund University, on disinformation in the Japanese context: Strengthening Digital Integrity: How Japan can Tackle Disinformation. 

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/disinformation-japanese-context - 2025-02-05

Published 17 October 2024 EU Commissioner Vera Jourová Vice-President of the EU Commission, Vera Jourová, recently published an assessment of online information interference in the June 2024 elections for the European Parliament, to which the Psychological Defence Research Institute contributed. The announcement and the full memo to be found at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/p

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/online-information-interference-2024-elections-european-parliament - 2025-02-05

Published 29 October 2024 Foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) is not a new phenomenon. Since the end of the Second World War, when Sweden seriously began to work with psychological defence to respond to various forms of hybrid threats, the issue has been prevalent and developing. The report Psychological Defence: Concepts and Principles for the 2020s not only portrays the evol

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/new-report-concepts-and-principles-psychological-defence - 2025-02-05

Published 8 November 2024 Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay The Psychological Defence Research Institute has published a new report in the working paper series titled  "Psychological Defence and Strategic Resilience: North Macedonia’s response to hybrid threats and malign foreign influence and interference". It is authored by Professor Zhidas Daskalovski and Sasho Damjanovski of the Faculty

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/north-macedonias-response-hybrid-threats-and-malign-foreign-influence-and-interference - 2025-02-05

Published 13 November 2024 During the fall of 2024, Hilkka Grahn is a visiting researcher at the Psychological Defence Research Institute (PDRI) at Lund University. Hilkka is a postdoctoral researcher (KILPI project) and senior lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. With an academic background in cognitive science, Hilkka Grahn's doctoral research focused on driver distraction and ina

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/researcher-profile-hilkka-grahn - 2025-02-05

Published 19 November 2024 Disinformation takes various forms, posing harmful and far-reaching effects that can erode trust in public institutions, influence elections, and jeopardise public health. The report Eduation as a countermeasure against disinformation, written by Professor Thomas Nygren, Department of Education, Uppsala University, and Professor Ullrich K H Ecker, School of Psychological

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/education-countermeasure-against-disinformation - 2025-02-05

Published 6 December 2024 Phenomena such as disinformation and propaganda have been widely studied across various academic disciplines, each offering unique perspectives on their causes, mechanisms, and effects. These disciplines include, for instance, political science, media & communication studies, philosophy, computer science, and military science. Despite the breadth of research, cognitive sc

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/exploitation-psychological-processes-information-influence-operations-insights-cognitive-science - 2025-02-05

Published 24 January 2025 Elsa Hedling is an affiliated researcher at the Psychological Defence Research Institute at Lund University, where she contributes to advance research on disinformation and hybrid threats. Elsa Hedling is an Associate Professor (Docent) in Political Science and an Associate Senior Lecturer in European Studies at the Centre for Languages and Literature. Her research focuse

https://www.psychologicaldefence.lu.se/article/researcher-profile-elsa-hedling - 2025-02-05