Assessing Information Ecosystems: How Governments Can Get Ahead of Hybrid Threats

Carnegie's report addresses a persistent gap in government counter-FIMI capacity: the absence of systematic, structured approaches to assessing national information ecosystems before threats materialise. Most government responses to information operations remain reactive — calibrated to incidents rather than to the underlying vulnerabilities that make populations and institutions susceptible. The report argues for a proactive assessment methodology that maps the key structural features of national information environments, identifies points of particular fragility, and provides governments with the analytical foundation for anticipatory rather than merely responsive action.

The hybrid threats framing is significant. By situating information ecosystem assessment within the broader hybrid threats literature, Carnegie's report connects the counter-FIMI community to a parallel set of analytical and policy traditions — particularly from Nordic and Baltic practitioners — that have been developing similar assessment frameworks from a security rather than a communications or media-literacy starting point. The synthesis is valuable: the two communities have more to offer each other than the disciplinary division between them has typically allowed, and this report represents a substantive step toward bridging that gap.