Propaganda Warfare on the International Criminal Court
![handle is hein.journals/mjil42 and id is 599 raw text is: PROPAGANDA WARFARE ON THE
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
Sara L. Ochs*
I. INTRODUCTION
Propaganda warfare, while novel in nomenclature, is far from new in
practice. In an era dominated by constant news, battles for public opinion
complement physical attacks.' In fact, winning modern wars is as much
dependent on carrying domestic and international public opinion as it is on
defeating the enemy on the battlefield.2 The fight for public opinion has
become so valuable to military initiatives that the U.S. Department of De-
fense Law of War Manual specifically recognizes propaganda directed to-
wards civilian or neutral audiences as a permissible means of war.
While propaganda warfare on public opinion was once reserved for mil-
itary use against state enemies, governments have recently adapted this tac-
tic to target judicial entities seeking to prosecute violations of international
criminal laws. State leaders have begun using social media, press state-
ments, and televised conferences to spread disinformation in efforts to de-
monize entities, like international courts, for investigating and prosecuting
their state nationals. And while the precise means of disseminating this
propaganda varies by state, the motivation behind the attacks is the same: to
convert public opinion against the targeted court to prevent the prosecution
of state officials and military leaders. Within the context of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), this article defines propaganda warfare as states
* Sara L. Ochs is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Louisville, Louis
D. Brandeis School of Law. This article was greatly improved by the comments and feedback
provided by my colleagues at Brandeis Law, as well as the participants of the 2020 Chicago-
land Junior Scholars Conference, the American Society of International Law 2020 Midyear
Meeting Research Forum, and the 2021 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meet-
ing's New Voices in Human Rights Panel, especially Professors Stuart Ford, David Stewart,
Zachary Kaufman, Andrew Keane Woods, and Jeffrey Omari. I would also like to express my
sincere gratitude to my inimitable research assistant, Amber Cain.
1. Laurie R. Blank, Media Warfare, Propaganda, and the Law of War, in CYBER
WARFARE, MEDIA WARFARE, AND LAWFARE 88, 88 (Michael L. Gross & Tamar Meisels
eds., 2017) (recognizing that battle[s] of words pertaining to legality and legitimacy of mili-
tary action often seem to be as important as military capabilities).
2. Kenneth Payne, The Media as an Instrument of War, U.S. ARMY WAR COLL. Q.:
PARAMETERS, Spring 2005, at 81, 81.
3. OFF. OF GEN. COUNS., U.S. DEP'T OF DEF., DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LAW OF
WAR MANUAL, 331 art. 5.26.1-1.2 (2016), https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/l/Documents/pubs
/DoD%20Law%20of%20War%20Manual%20-%20June%202015%2OUpdated%20Dec%
202016.pdfver=2016-12-13-172036-190 [hereinafter DoD Law of War Manual].
581](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mjil42&div=22&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Propaganda Warfare on the International Criminal Court
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