Summary
There used to be a romantic notion of globalisation that all countries would simply have to get along as we were all so interconnected. Why fight when your interests are aligned? It’s an idea that has made direct military engagement less likely. But something very different has emerged in its place.
We live in a new era of conflict, where states try to achieve their aims through aggressive measures that stay below the threshold of war. This is a strategy of statecraft with a long history, but which has a new inflection in our technologically charged, globalised world.
Now a mix of cyber, corruption and disinformation is employed to mess with adversaries. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has referred to political influence activities as being one of the Chinese Communist Party's 'magic weapons'.
In this edition of Analysis, Peter Pomerantsev looks at how political warfare works in a world where we’re all economically entangled - and what Britain could and should do to adapt.
Producer: Ant Adeane Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hello, I'm Matthew sighed and and before your podcast of choice kicks off, I wanted to tell you about |
| 0:47.0 | my new podcast. It's called Sideways. Each week I'll be telling you stories that I hope will make you see the world differently. |
| 0:57.0 | We've got a story about a rebellious pilot who changed the way we fight wars. |
| 1:07.0 | We'll hear how a misunderstanding about probability led to a group of mothers being wrongfully convicted of killing their children. |
| 1:16.0 | Womied a tribe described as the most selfish people on the planet. |
| 1:21.0 | I'll be revealing the true story of Stockholm Syndrome. And we'll also hear how a change |
| 1:27.0 | in our sexual behavior 2,000 years ago revolutionized the way we innovate. |
| 1:34.0 | So if you want to hear about the big ideas that are shaping our lives, |
| 1:38.0 | please come and join me by listening to Sideways on BBC sounds. |
| 1:43.5 | Hello, in this edition of analysis, |
| 1:51.5 | Peter Pomerancev looks at political warfare. |
| 1:54.7 | What is it? How does it work? And what can we do about it? |
| 1:58.4 | Our world is haunted by a new type of threat. |
| 2:03.0 | one that is both immediate and yet spectral and slippery to define. |
| 2:11.0 | The character of warfare and for that matter politics has changed. |
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