I'm John Batchel with my colleagues David Shett, former acting director of the U.S. DIA, now author of a new book next year on The Great Heist, China Stealing Electoral Property over many years from all parts of the U.S. and its allies.

Yvonneur Research Fellow at the FDD.

David, you recommend not only good defense, excellent defense, better defense, but going

on the offensive.

What does that look like, David?

Well, today, I think it starts with a recognition that our adversaries are at war against us

in the information warfare space, as has already been described in the earlier part of our comments.

Going on the offense for the United States is to take thematics important to this access that you

described in terms of Pyongyang, Tehran, ultimately Moscow and Beijing, and turning it against them.

There are issues inside those countries, and there are ways to access those audiences with

thematics that are important to those populations and taking a truth campaign is what I would

argue and do it on a very aggressive, offensive type of thing. Radio Free Europe has been an example now decades old

of being able to do that using different means, of course, of that era, and taking and modernizing

that through the social media platforms. Everyone in the world is using social media.

The question is, how do you leverage it for your advantage?

That's going on the offensive.

Secondly, it's lifting some of the regulatory slash policy constraints on moving forward with an aggressive campaign or series of campaigns that give this much more of a patina that's focused on law enforcement to the Defense

Department, the intelligence agencies, and a collective effort of a whole of government of responding

to this with a very aggressive offensive plan in terms of attacking the opportunities that exist out there where there is disenchantment,

disenfranchisement in these countries where there is a way to reach them.

Ivana, you're in the nation's capital.

Is there a recognition that an information war is a war?

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