Look to Cold War History to Confront Russian Meddling

By Congressman Will Hurd

Will Hurd is the U.S. Representative for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas. He serves as Vice Chair of the Maritime and Border Security Subcommittee on the Committee for Homeland Security, and as the Chairman of the Information Technology Subcommittee on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.  Hurd is a former undercover CIA officer, entrepreneur, and cybersecurity expert.

Members of Congress have expressed deep concern over the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign in the 2016 election. They have even taken some action, most notably voting in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 to dramatically broaden the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) mandate to include countering propaganda and disinformation from state actors like Russia.

“First and foremost, Russia is our adversary, not our ally. Period. End of story,” Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) says. The United States needs a counter-covert influence strategy to take on Russian disinformation efforts, the former undercover CIA officer told The Cipher Brief.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+


Related Articles

How Safe Would We Be Without Section 702?

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has generated controversy around fears of the potential for abuse has proven to be crucial […] More

Search

Close