Introduction

Abstract

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are uniquely in the way of Russian ambition and consistent targets of the information war waged on old media, as well as new. This position makes these societies extra worthy of our attention, and Russia’s increasingly assertive foreign policy puts the Baltic states at the center of world drama. But dismantling the destructive refrains of disinformation while balancing access to free speech and fair press is a process that is neither linear, nor prescriptive—the path towards information order is far from plain. This volume is reflective of a variety of challenges, responses, successes, and failures in the fight against untruth and its consequences for society. The authors hail from across the spectrum of practitioners involved in understanding and countering dis- and misinformation, including media experts, journalists, military officers, historians, and political and social scientists. The current information wars are an example of age-old phenomena. Across time and space, information has always been contested. In today’s world of information deluge, the battles grow ever greater, no more so than on the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea, ground zero for the vicissitudes and vacillations of the information war with Russia.