Digital Information Warfare in the Gulf: Transnational Networks and Regional Power Dynamics

This workshop intersects with core Gulf studies themes by positioning disinformation and influence operations as a tool of statecraft that complements traditional diplomatic and economic instruments. The workshop engages with geopolitical questions by examining how Gulf states use information warfare to support their emerging roles as middle powers and regional mediators, particularly in ongoing conflicts like Yemen, Syria, and Gaza. It also asks how Gulf states might be targeted by such operations. It connects to economic and innovation themes by exploring how the region’s wealth, high digital penetration rates, and technological capabilities enable sophisticated influence operations that can affect global business environments and investment flows. The workshop addresses defence and security dimension through questions about how information warfare constitutes a new domain of regional competition and threat alongside traditional military capabilities.

The broader Gulf region encompassing the GCC states, and Iraq, Iran, and Yemen have emerged as both a laboratory and launching pad for sophisticated transnational disinformation operations that reshape global information landscapes. The states occupy a unique position in global information warfare, shaped by several converging factors: their strategic location at the crossroads of major geopolitical conflicts, exceptionally high digital penetration rates, wealth, proximity to ongoing wars, and their emergence as ambitious middle powers mediating or having involvement in conflicts and wars across the MENA region. Similarly, the changing U.S. role in the region, big power competition, the shifting priorities of social media platforms, and the continuation of wars and/or political crises in Sudan, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen have also been generative of massive media and information campaigns.

This workshop examines how the Gulf features in global information warfare, as both an exporter and target of disinformation and deception. We are interested in the nexus and interaction of non-state actors, commercial firms, and proxy networks, and how they create transnational disinformation ecosystems, or ‘deception supply chains’ that transcend borders and linguistic barriers. We encourage application from those studying influence operations, propaganda, deception, and cyberwarfare, from historical, political, cultural, OSINT, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Ultimately, we seek to ask, how do Gulf states function as both architects and targets within transnational disinformation ecosystems, and what are the mechanisms, impacts, narratives and evolving dynamics of these information warfare operations across regional conflicts and global spheres of influence?

The focus on U.S.-Gulf relations appears in examinations of changing regulatory dynamics and great power competition in the information sphere, while society and culture themes surface through exploration of narratives and thematic propaganda. Rather than treating information warfare as separate from traditional Gulf studies concerns, this proposal demonstrates how disinformation operations intersect with the region’s established patterns of statecraft, economic development, and regional competition. Among the topics that this workshop encourages scholars to cover:

1. How do information warfare operations transcend Gulf state boundaries, examining techniques, tactics and procedures (TTPs) and cross-border coordination between state and non-state actors, diaspora targeting strategies, and the use of proxy networks to obscure attribution?
2. How are rising Gulf powers—particularly the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar—involved in global deception supply chains?
3. How is disinformation and deception being deployed across conflicts in the region?
4. How do the techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) differ in the region as opposed to other regions?
5. How are AI and other new technologies impacting deception and disinformation in the region?
6. To what extent are changing regulatory dynamics in the United States, Europe and elsewhere impacting how social media platforms police content outside the Global North?
7. To what extent do Gulf-originated disinformation campaigns influence international conflicts, business environments, and diplomatic relations worldwide, from Horn of Africa disputes to European energy markets?
8. What are emergent approaches and techniques of deception and disinformation, both technical and qualitative?
9. How are regional regulatory environments adapting to the challenges of information warfare?
10. What political factors influence the tendency to adopt techniques of digital authoritarianism, including cyberwarfare, digital repression and influence operations?
11. How have wars in Yemen, Syria, Sudan, and Palestine featured or impacted the nature of influence operations in respect to the role of Gulf states?

Workshop chairs aim to publish 10-12 papers as a special issue in a journal focusing either on Media and Communication or Middle East Politics.