The Strategic Communications Director at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Mr. Jay Janzen Delivered a Public Lecture at Our University

NATO's Response to the Information Confrontation was the topic of the public lecture that Mr. Jay Janzen, Strategic Communications Director at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, delivered to students and lecturers at the UNWE.

Mr. Jay Janzen and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nikolay Krushkov, Head of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Department

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nikolay Krushkov, Head of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Department, introduced the guest lecturer and expressed thankfulness to him on behalf of the Rector of the UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov for responding to the invitation to deliver a lecture to our students from the National and Regional Security Department and from the Business Faculty, who would soon graduate and represent our country around the world.

"I've had the opportunity to travel a lot around the world and interact with a lot of people, a lot of students and I can see that even though our cultures are quite different, meanwhile we, as people, are quite the same", began his lefture Mr. Jay Janzen.

"My work is entirely focused on the military aspects of communication, as I am part of the NATO headquarters responsible for instructing the armed forces when conducting an operation in case we should defend NATO. But today I'm going to focus on the impact of military communication on you, on your lives, on society, and what would be applicable if you were in a leadership position in this country or around the world and you had to protect society", said Mr. Jay Janzen, outlining: "I must point out that we are faced to growing threat and it is a threat that does not involve armies or weapons, but it attacks the hearts of our society from within. It is about the disinformation campaign that is being waged on the population of the entire planet. It is designed to divide us, to destabilize our nations, to weaken our societies and countries. As someone who works in this field, I can assure you that this threat is very real. Instead of attacking territory with an army, our minds are under attack, the truth is under attack, our institutions are under attack in order to be destabilized. The freedom of our democracies is being undermined, our freedoms are being used against us and the goal is simple - to make our senses and our nations weaker. So I will give you some examples of communication that circulate in our societies and you`ll see how they achieve their goal".

Chief Assist. Dr. Atanas Dimitrov, Scientific Secretary of the National and Regional Security Department and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Georgy Penchev from the National and Regional Security Department

In his presentation Mr. Jay Janzen examined the international military conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas in the context of fake news and disinformation. He gave illustrative examples from his practice of the impact of information, depending on the ways in which it is delivered, pointing out that in crises and conflicts there are effects at the physical, virtual and cognitive levels. Physical and virtual effects create cognitive effects, so the whole cognitive level must be considered and the different aspects must be matched to achieve the desired impact of the information provided.

The event ended with a fruitful discussion.