Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age (ETHICS NATIONAL SECURITY RULE LAW SERIES)

Election interference is one of the most widely discussed international phenomena of the last five years. Russian covert interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election elevated the topic into a national priority, but that experience was far from an isolated one. Evidence of election interference by foreign states or their proxies has become a regular feature of national elections and is likely to get worse in the near future. Information and communication technologies afford those who would interfere with new tools that can operate in ways previously unimaginable: Twitter bots, Facebook advertisements, closed social media platforms, algorithms that prioritize extreme views, disinformation, misinformation, and malware that steals secret campaign communications. Defending Democracies examines the problem through an interdisciplinary lens and focuses on: (i) defining the problem of foreign election interference, (ii) exploring the solutions that international law might bring to bear, and (iii) considering alternative regulatory frameworks for understanding and addressing the problem. The result is a deeply urgent examination of an old problem on social media steroids, one that implicates the most central institution of liberal democracy: elections. The volume seeks to bring domestic and international perspectives on elections and election law into conversation with other disciplinary frameworks, escaping the typical biases of lawyers who prefer international legal solutions for issues of international relations. Taken together, the chapters in this volume represent a more faithful representation of the broad array of solutions that might be deployed, including international and domestic, legal and extra-legal, ambitious and cautious. Contents List of Contributors Introduction • Duncan B. Hollis and Jens David Ohlin I. ELECTION INTERFERENCE BY FOREIGN POWERS: UNDERSTANDING ITS HISTORY AND ITS HARM(S) 1. Should We Worry about Partisan Electoral Interventions? The Nature, History, and Known Effects of Foreign Interference in Elections • Dov H. Levin 2. Understanding Disinformation Operations in the Twenty-First Century • Steven J. Barela and Jérôme Duberry 3. Weaponizing Information Systems for Political Disruption • Valeria Marcia and Kevin C. Desouza 4. Protecting Democracy by Commingling Polities: The Case for Accepting Foreign Influence and Interference in Democratic Processes • Duncan MacIntosh II. UNDERSTANDING ELECTION INTERFERENCE VIA A COMPARATIVE LENS 5. The Specter of Chinese Interference: Examining Beijing’s Inroads into India’s Digital Spaces and Political Activity • Arun Mohan Sukumar and Akhil Deo 6. A Swedish Perspective on Foreign Election Interference • Alicia Fjällhed, James Pamment, and Sebastian Bay 7. When Does Election Interference via Cyberspace Violate Sovereignty? Violations of Sovereignty, “Armed Attack,” Acts of War, and Activities “Below the Threshold of Armed Conflict” via Cyberspace • James Van de Velde III. COMBATING FOREIGN ELECTION INTERFERENCE UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW 8. Foreign Election Interference and International Law • Chimène I. Keitner 9. Cybersecurity Abroad: Election Interference and the Extraterritoriality of Human Rights Treaty Obligations • Ido Kilovaty 10. The Dangers of Forceful Countermeasures as a Response to Cyber Election Interference • Jacqueline Van De Velde 11. Election Interference: A Unique Harm Requiring Unique Solutions • Jens David Ohlin IV. COMBATING FOREIGN ELECTION INTERFERENCE THROUGH OTHER MEANS 12. The Free Speech Blind Spot: Foreign Election Interference on Social Media • Evelyn Douek 13. Foreign Election Interference and Open-Source Anarchy • David P. Fidler 14. Defending Democracies via Cybernorms • Duncan B. Hollis and Jan Neutze 15. Using Campaign Finance Reform to Protect U.S. Elections from “Dark Money ” and Foreign Influence • Ian Vandewalker and Lawrence Norden 16. Conclusion: An Outsider Looks In • Herbert Lin Index "Election interference is one of the most widely discussed international phenomena of the last five years. Russian covert interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election elevated the topic into a national priority, but that experience was far from an isolated one. Evidence of election interference by foreign States or their proxies has become a regular feature of national elections and is likely to get worse in the near future. Information and communication technologies afford those who would interfere with new tools that can operate in ways previously unimaginable: Twitter bots, Facebook advertisements, closed social media platforms, algorithms that prioritize extreme views, disinformation, misinformation, and malware that steals secret campaign communications. Defending Democracies: Combatting Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age tackles the problem through an interdisciplinary lens and focuses on: (i) defining the problem of foreign election interference, (ii) exploring the solutions that international law might bring to bear, and (iii) considering alternative regulatory frameworks for understanding and addressing the problem. The result is a deeply urgent examination of an old problem on social media steroids, one that implicates the most central institution of liberal democracy-elections. The volume seeks to bring domestic and international perspectives on elections and election law into conversation with other disciplinary frameworks, escaping the typical biases of lawyers-preferring international legal solutions for issues of international relations. Taken together, the chapters in this volume represent a more faithful representation of the broad array of solutions that might be deployed, including international and domestic, legal and extra-legal, ambitious and cautious"-- Provided by publisher