Alliance For Securing Democracy

The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) is a non-partisan transatlantic national security advocacy group formed in July 2017 with the stated aim of countering efforts by Russia to undermine democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. As of 2021, it had expanded to combating the malign influence of the Chinese and Iranian governments and their state-backed media outlets.

The organization is chaired and run primarily by former senior United States intelligence and State Department officials. Its daily operations are led by Zack Cooper, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Laura Thornton, formerly of International IDEA, joined the group as its new director in May of 2021. Laura Rosenberger, senior director for China on the Biden administration's National Security Council was previously involved. The ASD is housed at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and pursues its work in both the United States and Europe.

The ASD publishes an online dashboard called "Hamilton 2.0" showing the activity of Twitter accounts that the organization claims are linked to Russian propaganda.

History

In 2016, the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Russia had interfered in US elections of that year. This was subsequently confirmed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his report on his investigation and summarized in his 2019 testimony before Congress. The Alliance for Securing Democracy declared that it will develop strategies to "defend against, deter, and raise the costs" on any attempts by Russia or "other state actors" to undermine democracy. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who serves on ASD's advisory council, stated that the group will fulfill some of the role that ideally would have been handled by a national investigative commission.

Hamilton 2.0

The "Hamilton 2.0" Dashboard on the ASD website tracks in real-time 600 Twitter social media accounts that the ASD asserts are "linked to Russian influence," whether knowingly or unknowingly. In September 2017, and again in May of 2021, the group launched similar German-language dashboards focused on possible Russian influence in German politics ahead of the federal elections in those respective years. The ASD's tracking encompasses social media accounts it suspects are related to the Russian government or Russian state media, as well as accounts it believes to be unconnected to Russia, but which repeat what it sees as Russian government views. ASD does not disclose which accounts "Hamilton 2.0" tracks, citing its desire to "focus on the behavior of the overall network rather than get dragged into hundreds of individual debates over which troll fits which role."

The then newly formed ASD said in August 2017 that it was "exploring ways" to similarly analyze Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube.

Advisory council and staff

The ASD is governed by an Advisory Council and an operating staff who are drawn from the American Marshall Fund. ''The Washington Post'' called the membership of the advisory council "a who's who of former senior national security officials from both he Democratic and Republicanparties." Members of the advisory council include Michael Chertoff (a Republican who worked in the George W. Bush administration as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security) and Mike McFaul (a Democrat who worked in the Obama administration as U.S. Ambassador to Russia), former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, neoconservative political analyst and commentator William Kristol, and Hillary Clinton foreign-policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

Reception

The Hamilton 2.0 dashboard has been cited by many news outlets, including ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', ''NPR'', and ''Business Insider''. Previously, the dashboard had received criticism for its "secret methodology" and refusal to disclose the Twitter accounts it tracks. ASD founders Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly said that the accounts are not disclosed to prevent them from being shut down. James Carden wrote in ''The Nation'' that the dashboard seemed to characterize factual news items as Russian propaganda and questioned its impact on political discourse. The current lists of Twitter accounts has been released.

In a 2017 article in ''The Atlantic'', Peter Beinart argued that the group's efforts were important in understanding Russia's involvement in American politics. Glenn Greenwald wrote that the group represented a political alliance between neoconservatives and establishment Democrats.

See also

* PropOrNot

References

External links

Official website

Advisory Council Members

''Artikel 38''

{{Hacking in the 2010s

2017 establishments in the United States
Cyberwarfare
Political organizations established in 2017
Organizations associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections