Send us a text

In this episode of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight, we speak with Jakub Kalenský, one of Europe’s leading experts on disinformation, hybrid threats, and information warfare.

Jakub is Deputy Director at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki and a former senior figure behind the EU’s flagship EUvsDisinfo initiative. For over a decade, he has worked at the sharp end of efforts to expose and counter authoritarian influence operations, particularly those originating from the Kremlin.

We explore how modern disinformation campaigns actually work, why repetition and scale matter more than persuasive narratives, and why democracies remain structurally vulnerable in the information space. Jakub lays out his “four lines of defence” for countering disinformation, from detection and data collection to deterrence and punishment, and explains why Western governments consistently underinvest in this fight.

The conversation also examines how artificial intelligence is accelerating information warfare, enabling mass content production, micro-targeting, and more sophisticated language use — while also offering potential defensive tools for democracies. We discuss the role of social media platforms, the limits of free speech arguments, and whether the information space should be treated as critical national infrastructure.

Finally, we turn to values: democracy, freedom, and why Ukraine has become the defining frontline in the global struggle against authoritarianism — not just militarily, but informationally.

This is a wide-ranging, unsparing look at one of the most consequential and least understood battlefields of our time.

Support the show