CARGC Colloquium: Juan Luis Manfredi Sánchez, Georgetown University

"EU Futures in the Disinformation Age"

register for Zoom webinar

About the Talk

The concatenation of European crises shows major transformations in the contemporary international arena and points to the reasons for a structural change in the modes and uses of European public diplomacy, both inside and outside of EU institutions. Since 2008, European institutions have learned to live in a state of crisis and response: the Eurozone crisis (2008), the Ukrainian issue (2014), the refugee movement (2015), the Brexit referendum (2016), the new transatlantic relationship (2017), and the COVID19 pandemic (2019). Each of these situations has caused a tremendous amount of stress and strain that has tested institutions and offered a lesson in international political communication as well.

But what’s new in the current Russian crisis? What’s the role of disinformation in the EU future? Why is disinformation recognized as the “biggest challenge and threat” to the EU power? In this context, the construction of the enlightened dream of the EU is fading in the biggest political and economic crisis of its history. The fight against disinformation will be decisive in the future of the EU based not only on rational arguments, but also on other attributes of public communication and political leadership. There is reason for hope.

About the Speaker

Juan Luis Manfredi Sánchez is Prince of Asturias Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is tenured Associate Professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, where he teaches Journalism and International Relations. He leads Political Leadership and Public Policies program at ESADE Business School. He writes on public diplomacy and propaganda, international relations and diplomacy, communication, and technology, as well as political risk and the liberal order. He is the author of 16 books and more than 80 articles on these subjects. As a professional journalist, he is op-ed contributor for Cinco Días, leading financial newspaper, and senior contributor to The Conversation, CMM Radio and Canal Sur Televisión. He has been a finalist for the El Ciervo-Enrique Ferrán Prize for Articles (2020) with the text “In Praise of Democratic Boredom” and the Citi Award for Journalistic Excellence (Spain, 2015) for the text “Hubs, axes of industry and knowledge in the XXI century”, published in the Foreign Economy Magazine (Summer, 69, 2015).

The talk will be chaired by Michael X. Delli Carpini, Ph.D., the Oscar H. Gandy Professor of Communication & Democracy at the Annenberg School for Communication.

This event is co-sponsored by Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania.