A NATO "strategic communications" conference called the Riga StratCom Dialogue, took place from June 3-4, 2026, in Riga, Latvia [1]. Like last year, the Riga StratCom (short for Strategic Communications) Dialogue was held in support of NATO's ongoing proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. But it also reflected NATO's complete support for and complicity with the US/Israel criminal war against Iran, Lebanon and the continuing of their genocide in Palestine. Likewise, NATO must be held complicit in the ongoing US threats to Venezuela, the DPRK and the threatened invasion of Cuba by the US.

The Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026 invited military and academic attendees as "policymakers, strategists, communicators, and thinkers" to "widen the frame of security thinking". This debate about strategy "helps reclaim authorship of the future," they say, "in a world where both conflict and communication are increasingly automated, ensuring that even in times of rupture, strategy remains an act of imagination, responsibility, and care for the world we share." As though their declaration would make it so! It is quite vacuous, as is the flowery language employed as a whole. It is like the "strategists" inhabited a different world.

The conference's published theme was "Life is a Miracle. Strategic Communications in an Age of Rupture". What could it mean by this! The StratCom website explains: "Life remains fragile, astonishing, and deeply beautiful, yet this truth is increasingly obscured by war, systemic violence, and the normalisation of human suffering." It is astonishing that a "rupture" of NATO's own making, its warmongering in Europe and on the world scene, is not identified as a source of such war, systemic violence and human suffering. This is certainly no "miracle". Equally astonishing is the lack of acknowledgement that the peoples of the world everywhere refuse to accept the warmongering actions and outlook of this Anglo/US NATO military alliance, and actively seek to oppose all it stands for.

Protests against NATO's "Parliamentary Assembly" at Dayton, Ohio, May 25 2025 - Photo: KaJeza Hawkins

While the main NATO summit is scheduled for July 7-8, 2026, in Ankara, Turkey, the organisers say that the Riga StratCom Dialogue served as a preparatory and thematic conference addressing "communication, information security, and strategic planning". Other NATO-related workshops and meetings took place in May.

The discussions at this conference indicated that NATO's "strategic communication" plans are to shift the emphasis to the "Indo-Pacific", "Taiwan", "Japan" and the "Pacific Islands" - all in the programme of the conference. However, the fraudulent presentations on communicating NATO as a "defence" organisation were most notably aimed at topics including "Rearming the West: How to Communicate Military Modernisation?", "The Cognitive Frontline: Offensive Influence Operations and Targeting", "AI-Driven War on Cognition: Closing the Governance Gap","Winning the Cognitive Battlefield" and "Shaping Reality: Whole Society Mobilisation During Crises".

These topics reveal that whilst NATO wants to shift the attention of its "strategic communications" to cover its interference, provocations and military confrontations in East Asia, it is in fact completely mired in trying to control its narrative with European member states and with its NATO-allied Ukrainian regime. It is faced with the problem of how to attempt to make acceptable to the people of these countries the militarisation of all their economies for this proxy war of the US, Britain, and the European powers in Ukraine against Russia, presenting this as "defence" and "security". It is further complicated by the fact that NATO in this conference also threatened Belarus by name, along with other countries in Europe, West and East Asia.

Even though the opening session of the conference discussed "Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks: Impact on Reassurance and Deterrence?", there have been no reports of proposals from this NATO conference of any communication in support of the Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks that was claimed to be being addressed. The main stage panel discussion in this connection featured Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže and Estonian Secretary General Jonatan Vseviov, alongside former NATO Assistant Secretary General David Cattler. The approach was summed up in the website blurb as: "How could the ongoing peace negotiations impact societal resilience, especially in terms of reassurance and the credibility of deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic region?" Revealing the tone, Roman Sheremeta, Fellow at Centre for Eastern European Democracy, who also spoke on the opening panel, said in a Facebook post that his "central argument" was against some of those who are "preaching a need for ceasefire".

In the main stage session "The Cognitive Frontline: Offensive Influence Operations and Targeting", it was claimed that "the main battlefield is increasingly in the mind. NATO and allies are moving from reactive messaging to offensive influence operations that shape adversary decisions, constrain choices, and force reactions". This was addressed by Colonel Brent Hamilton, Strategic Information Operations Planner, US European Command; Jay H Janzen, Allied Command Operations Communications Director, NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe; Kateryna Stepanenko, Deputy Director of the Cognitive Warfare Project; and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Donaghy who commands the UK's 5th Information Operations Task Force within the British Army's Land Special Operations Force (formerly 77th Brigade). Quite a line-up. Whilst the speeches and discussion have not been reported, and may not be, the programme states that the session addressed that "precision targeting of political, military, and societal audiences is synchronised with broader actions, turning perception into a tool of strategic effect. Success depends on controlling the narrative while managing credibility, escalation, and the risks of misperception."

Misperception indeed. In other words, whilst NATO continues to escalate its proxy war against Russia it has "societal audiences" to be "synchronised" with this war "escalation". That is the point. For NATO's "strategic communications", Britain's imperialist interests need to be justified alongside those of the US, Germany and France. Especially, these NATO stalwarts and apologists aim to justify using Ukrainian forces as the cannon fodder in their war against Russia and occupying other East European countries with their armies and intelligence forces. There is not a shred of an attempt to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia or to give support for peaceful resolution to the conflict that goes against their interests.

This is a conflict that over four years has led to hundreds of thousands being killed, a conflict which NATO played the major role in provoking from before the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine. This is the reality of Britain's involvement with its armed forces involved in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and supplying and guiding the use of missiles and weapons in their proxy war with the killing of tens of thousands of people both in Ukraine and Russia.

At the end of the NATO Riga StratCom Dialogue on June 4, Janis Sarts, the Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, made the closing remarks solidifying this aim. In a short post on Facebook he said: "It is going to get worse, there will be more adversarial campaigns and we will have to face them in the best possible way... Russia stops when it gets hit in the face." [2].

So much for the fragility of life. The NATO Riga StratCom Dialogue justified NATO's ongoing proxy war against Russia and its dangerous escalation. If this desperate stuff continues to be adopted in these military and academic circles this will continue their future rooted in hankering after the colonial past of the US, Britain and the other old powers of Europe. NATO and these old powers will continue their attempt to wreck the modern world with their proxy and genocidal wars. But it is going to get worse for them with the heroic resistance of the people, as has been shown in Palestine, Iran and Lebanon. In fact, the leading NATO countries will continue to come up against the fierce resistance of the vast majority of peoples and countries of the world, including resistance in their own countries from the masses of the people who desire genuine peace and not war.

The anti-war movement must continue to oppose and expose NATO's lies about being an alliance for peace and democracy. The necessity is for peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the world, as well as resolving the many problems faced by society and humanity on all fronts.

Britain Must Withdraw from the Aggressive NATO Alliance!
No to NATO! Yes to Peace!

Notes
1. Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026
https://rigastratcomdialogue.org/
2. NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
https://www.facebook.com/StratComCOE/

Reproduced from the website of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

From June 3-8, 1984, on Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's orders, the Indian army launched a devastating assault and massacre of innocent Sikhs at the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab. Other Gurdwaras were also attacked.

Since the forced partition of India by the British and Indian collaborators in 1947, during which an estimated 1-2 million people were killed and millions were displaced, Punjabis have been fighting against the colonial policies of the central government of Delhi. Farmers have been fighting against ruination, devastation and destruction of the land as they are doing now.

They wanted to take control of their resources, so they could make decisions about them which favoured the farmers, rather than falling victim to decisions taken by the Delhi government which favoured agribusiness. But the colonial state in Delhi attacked them with all its might.

The attack on the Golden Temple was a great provocation against the people of Punjab by which the Indian state wanted to incite communal violence. But it failed miserably. It is a testament to the wisdom of the Punjabi people that they did not allow that.

The Golden Temple is the holiest site of Sikhs. The stated aim of the assault, code-named Operation Blue Star, was to "flush out" so-called "religious terrorists" led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It was carried out in the context of the concerted action of the Indian and Canadian states to criminalise the political demands of Sikhs who wanted statehood for Punjab - the creation of Khalistan. The ruling class labelled the proponents of this demand "religious fundamentalists." By associating Sikhism with extremism and terrorism they managed to criminalise all Punjabis linked in any way with being Sikhs, even those who were not religious in any way. This served as the model for later targeting all people of the Muslim faith. Equating religious fundamentalism with terrorism, all Muslims and their communities and Imams were treated as criminals subject to a demand to prove their innocence by swearing loyalty to the state and declaring themselves to be "moderates." Meanwhile, as in the case of the Sikhs, Muslims were made and continue to be made targets of attack and everything possible is done to sow divisions amongst the people.

The Indian army operation against the Golden Temple violated the sanctity of a place of worship and established the precedent that holy places would henceforth not be considered safe haven from persecution or a refuge from actions of the state. Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered at the Golden Temple to commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of the 6th Guru of the Sikhs, Arjan Dev. The army attacked with tanks, armoured cars, rockets and other heavy weapons killing thousands of people and injuring many more. The magnificent Sikh reference library was burnt, a curfew was imposed on all of Punjab and all media suppressed. No news was allowed to come out of Punjab. All the political parties of the rich supported this attack on the people revealing their anti-people nature. Many of those who are today shouting about "fascism in India" were in the front ranks of the attacks against the people of Punjab, acting as cheerleaders of this attack on the people.

The storming of the centre of Sikh spiritual authority by order of Indira Gandhi led immediately to a mutiny in Sikh units of the Indian Army. Four months later on October 31, Indira Gandhi was herself assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Ruthless anti-Sikh pogroms were unleashed by the Indian state to wreak revenge. Thousands of innocent Sikhs were beaten and burned alive during the anti-Sikh pogroms from November 1 to 3. State-organised anti-Sikh gangs of thugs massacred over 8,000 innocent Sikhs, 3,000 in Delhi alone. Government operations Woodrose, Blackthunder, Night Dominance, Rakshak I & II, and Final Assault led to the deaths of 25,000 to 80,000 Sikhs.

The police stood by and watched and in some cases actively participated in the attacks. Government officials who are known to have instigated, authorised and organised the violence subsequently enjoyed promotions, including to cabinet positions. They were permitted to act with impunity despite repeated demands for justice.

In the following decade more than 150,000 young men were killed by the security forces in assassinations carried out through fake encounters and black ops. Many people were disappeared and falsely imprisoned as a result of black laws. Still, the people never succumbed. The years of state terrorism by the Indian ruling elite did not succeed in crushing the spirit and determination of the people of Punjab, as can be seen in the farmers' protests at the encampments surrounding Delhi. Time after time they have proclaimed that they will keep on fighting the rulers until they achieve their goals.

Since that time, the use of violence has come to characterise Indian political life. Some five and a half years after Indira Gandhi was assassinated, her son Rajiv Gandhi was also assassinated on May 21, 1991, along with 15 other people and many more injured during his election campaign in Sripenumpundur, 40 km from Madras. More violence was unleashed by the state against the people in the wake of his assassination.

Hardial Bains, founder and then-leader of CPC(ML), wrote a great deal about the anarchy and violence in Punjab and India and called on the peoples to oppose the criminalisation of Indian politics. He pointed out that this criminalisation of Indian politics underwent dramatic development during the five years Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister, from November 1984 to November 1989. Besides the broad scale killing of Sikhs all over India, especially in Delhi on October 31 and November 1, 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, thousands of politicians and political opponents from Kashmir to Assam, from Delhi to Tamil Nadu were assassinated.

"Throughout this period, military and special police forces have been deployed all over India but not a single problem of a political, economic or social character has been solved," Hardial Bains pointed out in 1991. He wrote:

"Such dastardly acts have been going on since the national emergency period of 1975-77. The killing of political opponents, especially those who are branded as 'terrorists' and 'anti-social elements,' has been going on in India for a long period of time, even before the 1975-77 period. Such, for instance, is the well-known case of the killings of Naxalites and Marxist-Leninists. Killings through fake encounters organised by the police and special forces throughout the country have become notorious."

"The criminalisation of Indian politics is the symptom of an economic and political system which rebels against the peaceful solution of problems. Whether within one country or on the world scale, there has not been a single problem which has been solved in a peaceful manner during the present period. On the contrary, several big powers and powerful financial interests regularly sponsor agents who do their bidding in different countries. The financing of armed groups which operate in different countries and commit political assassinations and other crimes has become an accepted norm. The CIA-instigated coups d'état in Iran, Greece and Guatemala in 1953-54, the assassination of Allende in Chile in 1973, the financing of the Contras in Nicaragua, the invasion of Grenada and Panama, the financing of cut-throats in El Salvador, to give just a few examples, all show that it is the Americans who introduced this politics of assassination in the first place. Not only do the big powers finance clandestine terrorist groups but the reactionary ruling cliques themselves. The case of Saddam Hussein is one example. The British, Americans, French, Germans, Soviets and others provided him with billions of dollars worth of arms so long as this served their interests. They then branded him an enemy just as readily, while other reactionary Arab cliques are the recipients of their arms and favours. Just as within India 'fighting terrorism' and 'anti-social elements' has been used as a justification for state terrorism, so too internationally, the activities of the same terrorist groups which have been financed by the CIA and other intelligence services of the big powers, have been used as a justification for the international terrorism of the big powers. In this way, the US bombed Libya in the dead of night. President Assad of Syria was considered by the US, Britain, Canada and other countries to be an international pariah before the Persian Gulf War, while Saddam Hussein was an ally. Today Saddam Hussein is branded as a Hitler and dictator, while Assad of Syria is an ally. The same ruling cliques and big powers which finance the terrorist groups in the first place use their activities to justify the acts of state terrorism, within both the national and international domains.

"This is because different cliques which have come to power in various countries have self-serving aims. Such cliques openly espouse a pragmatic, thoroughly unprincipled, policy which is set against the interests of the people. Along with it, political assassination becomes the method of ironing out political and ideological differences.

"The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi is the direct result of the sharpening contradictions within the ruling circles which are completely divorced from the interests of the people. It shows their desperation to sort these contradictions out. It is also the consequence of his own policy to criminalise Indian politics which has been supported by all the political parties in the Lok Sabha and has never been condemned by any government of other countries. All the political parties have been making promises that they will assist the people, but none of them pursue policies which are counter to the general line of serving their own narrow interests."

"When such things take place in one country and are not condemned by the big powers, it not only assists them to establish a new modus vivendi in which such things are to be considered 'acceptable' but diverts the attention from the real problems which exist and from involving the people in finding solutions to these problems."

Hardial Bains called on people to condemn all those responsible for the criminalisation of Indian politics, including Rajiv Gandhi himself who was one of the main proponents of such a policy, and the big powers which support such a policy in India and other countries.