About

Understanding vulnerability and susceptibility to adversarial information warfare that aims to undermine institutions, social cohesion and trust is critical.

While research has illuminated many aspects of how hostile foreign entities target issues, platforms, and situations, much less is known about the impact of these efforts.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) IMITATE3 is a three-year project led by Cardiff University, with expert partners at Bath, and Coventry universities.

IMITATE3’s findings will update our understanding of the construction, communication and consequences of foreign-state information influence operations, and their capacity to induce political, cultural, and socio-economic uncertainties.

Research design

IMITATE3’s research design is multi-method, multi-sited, cross-platform, and draws together both primary and secondary data analysis. It will sample across several global events including elections and conflicts in 2024 and 2025, focusing upon three key research areas:

• analysing the contemporary organization and conduct of foreign-state information influence operations
• evaluating the efficacy of countermeasures to these efforts, and ‘what works’ in managing and mitigating the prevalence, distribution and impacts of adversarial information manipulation efforts
• measuring the ‘information effects’ and social, political, economic, and cultural impacts of such foreign-state linked operations

Results and findings from the project will be published as articles, made available through briefings, and used to establish new international partnerships.