Glasnost and deception: The media, diplomacy and intelligence in the Gorbachev reformation in the USSR, 1985-1991

All governments seek to manage the news, to trumpet the good, suppress the bad and to polish the image of the power elite. Governmental manipulation of the media for the purposes of influencing foreign events and shaping the content of domestic reporting is often seen as a legitimate policy to serve and ensure the state interests. States conduct their relations through written and oral communication using elaborate symbols or sets of signals available for politicians. This brings communication to the core of world politics. Both diplomacy and intelligence provide information for the decision-makers who interpret it in the light of established geopolitical aspirations, ideologies, dominant theories and stereotypes.; The present research explores the interconnection between the media, diplomacy and intelligence during the Gorbachev years of reformation in the former Soviet Union from 1985-1991. Its focus is on the power realm, including the KGB and Soviet Foreign Ministry, where the ideas, themes and methods for active measures originated, and their reliance on the mainstream Soviet media in deception operations during the years of Glasnost and Perestroika.; The central argument made in the present research is that the media have become one of the major participants in the realm of foreign policy decision-making. The media are constantly used for an exchange of messages and signals between politicians, and as a means to influence decision-makers and broad public abroad. At the same time, the research demonstrates that the media are used as one of the major sources of information necessary for decision-making. The above said allows a conclusion that the media have started to perform a new role defined in the research as media diplomacy.