The United States and Poland, represented by Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Countering International Disinformation Tomasz Chłoń and U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for the Global Engagement Center James P. Rubin, on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)  in an attempt to counter foreign state information manipulation. This MOU was created to strengthen governmental and societal resilience as they work to address foreign disinformation and propaganda.

Foreign information manipulation has been labeled as a national security threat to the US, as well as several of its allies. Foreign disinformation is spread in an attempt to “shred the fabric of free and democratic societies.” The MOU will enable countries to enhance information sharing on the threat posed by foreign information manipulation, expand capacity for counter-disinformation programming, and align government policies along the five key action areas in the Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation.

The framework was created in January of this year to help develop a common understanding of the national security threat and set forth action areas.  There are five Key Action Areas currently:

(1) national strategies and policies which addresses freedom of expression;

(2) governance structures and institutions which organizes dedicated institutions to lead this charge;

(3) human and technical capacity which tackles building and investing in security tools;

(4) civil society, independent media, and academia which ensures governments are protecting and supporting media, digital literacy, and advocacy; and

(5) multilateral engagement which promotes international cooperation.

When the Framework was created, there was an intention to call upon partner countries to commit to addressing this issue stating the way forward was “a broad coalition of like-minded partners.”

In addition to the United States and Poland, 17 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America have expressed their commitment to work together to endorse the MOU and combat foreign information manipulation.