Propaganda, public relations campaigns, and outright disinformation are not new phenomena in international politics. Countries have deployed these tactics against one another in various ways throughout history, both to keep strategic rivals and adversaries off balance and to paint themselves in the best possible light for domestic and international audiences. The United States and the Soviet Union spent decades in the disinformation trenches during the Cold War. As they say, information is power.

Yet today, falsehoods and fake news are spreading as quickly as the coronavirus. Frequently, the two are mutually reinforcing.