Security studies in the age of ‘post-truth’ politics: in defence of poststructuralism

Abstract

Much has recently been written about how we now live in a global 'post-truth' era (Ball, 2017; d'Ancona, 2017; Davis, 2017) where 'lying is regarded as the norm, even in democracies' (d'Ancona, 2017: 26). Commentators have been quick to point the finger of blame for this era of 'post-truth' politics at postmodernism/poststructuralism. Philosopher Daniel Dennett charged that 'what the postmodernists did was truly evil. They are responsible for the intellectual fad that made it respectable to be cynical about truth and facts' (Dennett quoted in Cadwalladr, 2017). Postmodernism also apparently represents a 'threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity itself' (Pluckrose, 2017), and academics and journalists alike have suggested that postmodernism laid the groundwork for 'post-truth' politics (Calcutt, 2016; Scruton, 2017). The LSE has even organised a roundtable discussion asking 'Is Post-Modernism to Blame for our Post-Truth World?' (LSE, 2017).

The impact of post-truth politics as a hybrid information influence on the status of international and national security: the attributes of interpretation and the search for counteraction mechanisms

“…The dissemination of post-truth phenomena and the successful use of hybrid tactics by some states in the information sphere have been confirmed by the emergence of numerous studies on the subject. Among them are Al-Rodhan, 2017;Alibašić & Rose, 2019;Garland, 2018;Harsin, 2018;Hopkin & Rosamond, 2017;Kalpokas, 2019;Landon-Murray et al, 2019;Lilleker, 2018;O'Dwyer, 2018;Poulakidakos et al, 2018;Rose, 2017. In the studies, the issues under scrutiny are the nature of the phenomenon and its manifestations, its forms, its multiple effects and responses (rumours, conspiracies, hoax, fake news, fact-checking, and filter bubbles) in the information policy at the global, regional and national levels in the context of its historical emergence, the preconditions for its dominance in the political discourse of developed democracies, discourse of panic over it (such panics are a fundamental symptom of post-truth itself [Harsin, 2018]), as well as at developing the recommendations for reducing the risks that such a political course may cause (Crilley & Chaterje-Doody, 2018).…”

“…W. Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks. In 2004, Colin Crouch (Crouch, 2004 used the phrase 'post-democracy' to refer to a model of politics in which 'elections certainly exist and can change the government', but 'public electoral debate is a tightly controlled event managed by the competing teams of professional experts by using the persuasion methods, taking into consideration the small range of issues selected by these teams'. Colin Crouch puts forward the view that the 'advertising model' implemented in political communications has led to a trust crisis of the masses to the elites and accusation of the elites of dishonesty, what a few years later several political analysts have called post-truth politics (Crouch, 2004).…”

Populism and Post-Truth in International Politics: Climate Change, Migration, and Covid-19

“…There are six articles in this volume evaluating postmodernism and alternative facts (Wight, 2018), democracy (Hyvönen, 2018), securitisation (Rychnovská & Kohú, 2018), international justice (Lohne, 2018), publicist and pluralism (Michelsen, 2018), and Brexit (Marshall & Drieschova, 2018). There are some studies highlighting television productions (Sirman & Akınerdem, 2019;Çelik, 2020), sustainable energy transformations (Fraune & Knodt, 2018), security studies (Crilley & Chatterje-Doody, 2018), neoliberalism (Mavelli, 2019), consensus theory (Bufacchi, 2020), diversity in unity (Dege, 2019), critical theory (Schindler, 2020), ecology (Hoyng & Es, 2020), disinformation (Romanova, Sokolov & Kolotaev, 2020), and the European Union (Kolotaev, 2020). There are also studies extensively focussing on Turkey and Turkish politics.…”

Post-Truth as a Governmental Practice – Applying post-truth as an alternative epistemology in Hungary

“…14) . others blame poststructuralism and/or postmodernism for the current situation of undermining the notion of truth within society (pluckrose, quoted by Crilley & Chatterje-doody, 2018) . in contrast to this, Crilley and Chatterje-doody call for more post-structuralism to reveal how our social power structures and dominant discourses have led to the emergence of the post-truth era (2018, p .…”