How to Win an Information War

January 22, 2024
In this evocative if less-than-persuasive study, journalist Pomerantsev (Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible) mines the history of WWII-era British propagandist Sefton Delmer for methods to counter recent Russian misinformation campaigns. A Brit born and raised in Germany, Delmer emigrated in his youth but later returned in the 1930s as a reporter given exclusive access to Hitler. Eventually joining British intelligence with a mandate to create radio programming that would make Germans question Nazi propaganda, he invented the persona of Der Chef, a foul-mouthed German soldier who railed against Nazi excesses while sharing their vile prejudices. The goal, as described by Delmer, was to propagate “subversive rumour... under a cover of national patriotic cliches.” Der Chef’s rants were sprinkled with apparently leaked details about Nazi higher-ups, making him seem like a genuine mouthpiece of dissent and hinting at potential rebellion. Pomerantsev concludes by advocating for modern anti-Russia propagandists (including civilians posting online) to follow in Der Chef’s footsteps (“sometimes people just need a way to discover the best of their inner pigdog”), a clearly dicey proposition. Still, his prose sparkles and his delineation of Delmer’s theories of propaganda fascinates (“We’re always somehow parroting it we’re rarely completely hypnotized... People are slightly faking their fanaticism”). It’s a fleet-footed history of propaganda with an unconvincing takeaway.