#50: David Gioe on Active Measures and Implications for the West

During this episode, Dr. David Gioe discusses active measures. Active measures is a term which gained increasing public attention following the 2016 US election meddling by Russia. Dr. Gioe defines active measures as nation state actions which are intended to remain non-attributable. Also known as the “dark arts,” active measures are not new. Dr. Gioe recounts some historical active measures examples, discusses implications for the West going forward, and suggests a strategy for citizens to navigate the growing fake news problem. Link to full show notes and resources

Guest Bio: Dr. David Gioe is Associate Professor of History at the US Military Academy at West Point, where he also serves as History Fellow for the Army Cyber Institute. David is also Director of Studies for the Cambridge Security Initiative and co-convener of its International Security and Intelligence program. He holds advanced degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Cambridge. His scholarship and analysis has appeared in numerous outlets. Before starting his academic career, David was an intelligence officer, beginning with appointment in 2001 as a Presidential Management Fellow in the FBI National Security Division with responsibility for economic espionage cases and later counterterrorism. In 2003 he transferred to CIA as a counterterrorism analyst in the DCI’s Counterterrorist Center (CTC) before earning field tradecraft certification. He served multiple overseas tours as an operations officer in the Middle East and Europe. He retains his commission as a Commander in the Navy Reserve and is assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Defense Attaché Service. In 2015 he deployed as the Director for Human Intelligence and Counterintelligence for the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. Other Navy assignments include service as a Division Officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence and as a Department Head in the Joint Analysis Center, RAF Molesworth, UK. He is currently Visiting Professor of Intelligence and International Security in the King's College London Department of War Studies.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

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