"The Faking of Russian Democracy and the Fracturing of Democracy in the USA: Political Technology versus Disruptive Technology"

Organised by The Great Britain – Russian Society

A lecture co-sponsored by the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies

Wine at 6.30p.m in the Senior Common Room.

Talk starts at 7.00 p.m in Room 347

Professor Andrew Wilson (UCL SSEES)

In this lecture Professor Wilson will relate the dramatic effects of ‘disruptive technologies’ like social media and ‘alt-news’ in the 2016 US elections, to their roots in the ‘political technology’ long practised in Russia since the 1990s. Russia famously hacked the American election, but there are deeper problems of technology-sharing and technique-sharing that are an even bigger threat to Western democracy than already realised. Western institutions are already weakened by disruptive technology. The space is wide open for the unscrupulous, including Russia, to use technologies first patented in Russia twenty years ago to dramatically undermine democracy in the West.

From the transformation of politicians into virtual actors playing predefined roles, to the paramount importance of controlling the message whether in mainstream media or via bot armies on social media, Professor Wilson’s insights into political technology clarify some of the key current threats to Western democracy.

Andrew Wilson was recently appointed Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University College London School of Slavonic & East European Studies. He is the author of many books including Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West (Yale University Press 2014), The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (Yale University Press 2000 & 2002) Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post Soviet World (Yale U.P. 2005)  and Ukraine's Orange Revolution (Yale U.P. 2005).

We have a limited number of free tickets available for SSEES staff and student for that event. Please contact the Director’s Office for more information.