Work
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT · 2018
LikeWar
The Weaponization of Social Media
How social media changed war and politics — and how war and politics changed social media. LikeWar follows the weaponization of online attention from ISIS’s viral conquest of Mosul through Russia’s operation against the 2016 election, and sets out the rules of a battlefield where virality beats veracity.
“Extremely timely and fascinating — reading it in bed with my husband, I kept pulling him away from his book to show him passages.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“The issue can’t be summed up in a tweet, but a good reference for the troubled relationship between politics and social media is P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking’s book… Entertaining read too.” — SETH MACFARLANE
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“Not a warning about tomorrow's war — it's a map for those who don't understand how the battlefield has already changed.” — THE WASHINGTON POST
“The writing barrels along and uses imaginative images, like comparing the Islamic State’s metastasization to ‘a demonic McDonald’s’ opening franchises.” — WAR ON THE ROCKS
“…humanitarians should read the book because it sheds light on how the weaponization of social media and information is shaping conflicts today.” — INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF THE RED CROSS
HONORS
- AMAZON AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS BEST BOOK OF 2018
- CYBERSECURITY CANON HALL OF FAME, 2021
- USMC COMMANDANT’S READING LIST 2020
- US ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF’S READING LIST
- RAF CHIEF OF THE AIR STAFF’S READING LIST 2019–20
Exploitable by Design: Social Media and the AdTech Threat
Argues unregulated ad-targeting, not the platforms, let Russia’s 2015-2017 Facebook campaign reach 126 million Americans for about $100,000, and that Congress banning TikTok while letting the Honest Ads Act die every session since 2017 is a double standard, not a security policy.
READ AT AMERICAN AFFAIRS ↗
Experts react: Hungary just voted out Viktor Orbán. Here’s what to expect in Europe and beyond.
Brooking’s section, “Europe has dodged a bullet,” argued Russian intelligence had interfered extensively for Orbán through astroturfing and social-media manipulation
Fast Thinking: Orbán’s out in Hungary. Now what?
Under “The losers,” Brooking reported that Russian intelligence had interfered extensively for Orbán via astroturfing and social-media manipulation.
Pravda in the Pipeline: Early Evidence of State-Adjacent Propaganda in AI Training Data
Eight ways AI will shape geopolitics in 2026
Three experts on how the defense enterprise should weigh speed against security in its communications, in War on the Rocks’ members-only In Brief exchange.
REACTION · WAR ON THE ROCKS
