TY - THES A1 - Poliakoff, Serge T1 - From Faking Online Content to Orchestrating Its Creation by Public Workers: Examining Russian Disinformation Production Organisations through Curriculum Vitae Analysis (2013-2024) N2 - This dissertation examines the evolution of Russian digital authoritarianism, focusing on its organisations that produce disinformation, the transition from the Internet Research Agency to the Patriot Media Group and the emergence of ANO Dialog. It shows how the Internet Research Agency operated as a sophisticated "troll farm" during the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war, with activities similar to those of a PR firm. The Patriot Media Group absorbed these activities, blurring the lines between media and disinformation and prioritising metrics-driven propaganda over journalistic professionalism. This dissertation identifies the organisation ANO Dialog as a new model, heavily integrated with state structures, combining digital surveillance, repression, and Soviet-style agitation adapted to the digital age. Using a novel methodology of career profile collection and analysis, my research illustrates the institutionalisation and regional expansion of disinformation tactics in Russian digital authoritarianism, highlighting its operational adaptability and evolving infrastructure. KW - disinformation KW - disinformation-for-hire KW - troll farm KW - troll factory KW - propaganda KW - propaganda organisations KW - disinfromation production organisations KW - CV analysis Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-16100 ER - TY - THES A1 - Kravets-Meinke, Daria T1 - Search Engines and Foreign Influence: How Google and Yandex Mediate Russia’s Propaganda Abroad N2 - This cumulative dissertation examined how the US-based Google and Russia-based Yandex mediate the propaganda efforts of Russia’s ruling elites abroad on a case study of Belarus. The findings presented here contribute to a nuanced understanding of how algorithmic gatekeepers, particularly search engines, can be strategically appropriated or manipulated to reinforce and export state narratives beyond national borders. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that both Yandex and Google, albeit through different mechanisms and to varying extents, can serve as mediators of Russia’s propaganda efforts abroad. KW - search engines KW - Russia KW - propaganda Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-15953 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hidalgo, Oliver Fernando T1 - The antinomian framework of Western and non-Western democracies — from theory to application JF - Frontiers in Political Science N2 - This article argues in favour of broadening the classical paradigm of democracy that historically emerged in the West. Without disregarding the undiminished significance of the idea of liberal democracy and its deep commitment to universal human rights, the necessity of a new accentuation of the concept of democracy is accepted in view of the observable democratic processes in non-Western societies. This should help to avoid both the blind spots of Eurocentrism and the misperception of countries as democracies that are merely masking their authoritarian or despotic character. The result is a theory of popular sovereignty that seeks to grasp and combine Western and non-Western conceptions of democracy in a balanced way and is based on a genealogical and comparative perspective of the history of political ideas in the global North and South. In a second step, the theory is then tested using a few selected examples (Confucian democracy, Islamic democracy, African democracy). KW - democracy KW - non-western history of political thought KW - confucianism KW - Muslim world KW - Africa Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-15821 VL - 2024 IS - 6 PB - Frontiers CY - Lausanne ER - TY - THES A1 - Hering, Robin T1 - Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: Safe Areas and the Silencing of Mass Atrocities N2 - This publication-based thesis approaches the topic of the protection of civilians in armed conflict by ‘zooming in‘ on two specific sub-topics: safe areas as well as the silencing of mass atrocities. The thesis consists of five publications (four of them published in double-blind peer reviewed journals) and of an introductory chapter that presents the overall argument and contextualises the publications. Two publications argue that mass atrocities are silenced, or at least not politicised, in the discourses and debates of Germany as an exemplary UN member state. It is argued that ‘silencing’ is a structural feature of an ‘identity-mismatch’ with the domestic ideational structure that inhibits debates and freezes the possibility space for foreign policy. Empirically, the first publication assesses the rhetoric of the German chancellor, foreign ministers and parliamentary group leaders vis-à-vis the mass atrocities committed in Yemen, Myanmar and South Sudan. The second publication widens the scope and looks at German political, media and societal debates in twelve cases of mass atrocities between 1992 and 2019. The remaining three publications focus on the topic of safe areas. The first publication systematically collects and assesses the existing conceptual literature on safe areas. The second publication presents a comprehensive definition, a four-fold typology based on a distinction by size and the logic of protection as well as an extensive empirical dataset of safe areas. By analysing case studies from Iraq and South Sudan, the third publication argues that safe areas have a very limited potential to provide an alternative to flight, especially from the perspective of the protection-seeking civilians themselves. KW - Protection of Civilians KW - Mass Atrocities KW - Foreign Policy Analysis KW - Safe Areas KW - Silencing KW - Zivilbevölkerung KW - Schutzzone KW - Außenpolitik KW - Schweigen KW - Völkermord Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-15765 ER -