The AABS Board is pleased to announce that Palgrave Macmillan has been awarded the AABS Book Publication Subvention for publishing a Ukrainian Open Access translation of Information Wars in the Baltic States: Russia’s Long Shadow. The multi-author volume, edited by Janis Chakars and Indra Ekmanis, covers the breadth and depth of Russian information operations in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as the response of those three countries’ governments, populaces, and allies.
Janis Chakars, ©Rasmus Merivoo, 2023
Janis Chakars is an associate professor of communication and digital media at Neumann University. His research on media and Latvia have appeared in the International Journal of Communication, Journalism History, the Central European Journal of Communication, International Research on Children’s Literature and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in mass communication from Indiana University.
©Indra Ekmanis, 2023
Indra Ekmanis is a Baltic Sea Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and editor of the FPRI Baltic Initiative, as well as the host of the Baltic Ways podcast, a co-production of FPRI and AABS. She was previously a research fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and a Fulbright researcher in Latvia. Ekmanis covered migration, European issues, and US politics as a journalist for US public radio. Her academic work focuses on social integration, minority rights, nationalism, civil society, and democratic transition, with an area of specialization in the Baltic Sea region and post-Soviet Space. She earned her PhD in International Studies at the University of Washington.
This edited volume, featuring accomplished scholars and experts is about the information wars in the Baltic states, a battle that pits Russia against the West with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as sites of contention for great power politics. Chapters address responses from titular populations, local Russian speakers, national governments, activists, journalists, and NATO, as well as the impact of Russian foreign policy on media.
The book is divided into five parts, excluding introduction and epilogue. Part One, “The weight of history,” examines the history of information warfare in the Baltic states as well as the use of history in today’s information wars. Part Two, “The weight of ethnicity,” looks at Russian-speaking minorities and media in the information wars. Part Three, “The digital challenges,” examines the internet and social media. Part Four, “The responses,” focuses on citizen, national and international reactions to Russian disinformation. Part Five, “The complications,” examines how information wars overlap with culture wars sometimes producing strange bedfellows.
Russia is the shadow cast over the Baltic states referred to in the subtitle, but in another sense, so is Ukraine. Russian aggression in Ukraine contributed to the rapid escalation of information as a security issue with the most dire fear being that information war might precipitate real war.
– Janis Chakars, 2023
What is the AABS Book Publication Subvention?
The AABS awards its Book Publication Subvention of up to $5,000 for individually authored books, edited volumes, and multiple-authored books in English that make a substantial scholarly contribution to Baltic Studies. The applications must be submitted by publishers, not authors. Priority will be given to single author’s first monographs.
AABS awards two Book Publication Subventions each year. Applications may be submitted for review anytime, on a rolling basis.
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