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.

February 1, 2024
Disinformation expert Pomerantsev tells the remarkable story of daring British journalist and WWII counterpropagandist Sefton Delmer. Delmer began on the receiving end of propaganda as a British ""enemy schoolboy"" attending school in Germany. Fast forward to Hitler as his forces dominated Europe, using propaganda to whip his followers into a frenzy, especially with radio broadcasts. Delmer got close to the Nazis during the 1930s and witnessed the power of their propaganda, inspiring him, once back in England, to fight fire with fire, setting up covert radio stations with programming designed to undermine the Nazi message, most effectively with the defiant Der Chef, seemingly an insider's anti-Nazi rants. As head of Special Operations for the Political Warfare Executive, Delmer ran complex and audacious projects, working with German refugees, artists, and writers, including Ian Fleming and Muriel Spark. As Pomerantsev details Delmer's efforts, he also considers the transmission of lies then and now and how propaganda reinforces fear, fuels resentment, and casts blame. This profile of the ""nearly forgotten genius of propaganda"" deepens our perception of disinformation as a vile and dangerous weapon.

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Starred review from February 1, 2024
A striking account of a German-speaking Australian working for the British secret service during the era of Nazi aggression. Pomerantsev, a disinformation expert, is the author of Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible and This Is Not Propaganda. In his latest book, he introduces us to Sefton Delmer (1904-1979), an Australian born in Berlin whose anti-Nazi radio programs in dozens of languages across Europe helped undermine the Nazi war effort. Growing up in Germany's Weimar Republic (his father was a professor of English literature in Berlin) and often mocked for his British ways, young Delmer desperately wanted to fit in. After a stint in Britain, he returned to Berlin--now on the cusp of Nazi control--as a journalist for the Daily Express, where he witnessed and understood viscerally the power of political propaganda to promote belonging. Hence, in advising the British--who at first did not trust him, as he had interviewed Goebbels, Hitler, and others--Delmer could convey the psychological power of the Nazi message. It wasn't enough, he argued, to simply "defend democracy," a slogan that failed to resonate strongly; you had to "appeal to the groups vulnerable to the propaganda that plays into the desire to submit to strongmen." Delmer became the head of Special Operations for the Political Warfare Executive, returned to journalism, and published his memoirs in the 1960s, but they have been largely forgotten or discounted. Historians continue to debate the extent to which anti-Nazi propaganda helped win the war. Delmer believed that it aided in the "corrosion" of German will, and the author demonstrates how crucial Delmer's work was then--and still is, as Pomerantsev has advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his efforts to counter Russian propaganda and aggression. A brilliantly inspired study of the power of propaganda to influence geopolitical narratives.

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