RESEARCH PAPER

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Research Paper Proposal: The Role the Russian Federation Played in the United States Presidential Election of 2016

Princess K. Nyarko

PSCI 3650

Professor Brian Fila

March 24, 2019

The Russian Federation played a significant role in the United States Presidential Election of 2016. In the aftermath of the election, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order authorizing U.S. sanctions on any foreign individual or country that tries to interfere in U.S. elections. This effort is intended to prevent foreign manipulation of the political process. The executive order would impose harsher and more direct penalties on Russia or any country for future election meddling. The order will help ensure the administration is doing every possible thing to prevent and assess election meddling. The order is necessary to ensure a formal process is upheld and provide authorization for sanctions against countries who are found to be in violation.

The new executive order is a response to Russia's actions in the 2016 election and to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The order will not only apply to Russia but to other possible bad actors, China, North Korea, and Iran. The order sets up a high-level process for the U.S. intelligence community and other law enforcement officials to investigate and evaluate possible election meddling. President Trump is determined to eliminate any foreign interference in future elections.

This new change will require the Director of National Intelligence to conduct regular assessments of possible election interference. Following each election, the intelligence community will have 45 days to investigate whether there was an attempt at interference, followed by a Justice Department review. If there is a consensus that a foreign country or other entity tried to meddle in the election, automatic sanctions would be triggered. The sanctions would be imposed not just for direct actions, such as hacking into election systems, but also for distribution of propaganda and disinformation. Russia spent millions of dollars trying to sow division and discord in the 2016 presidential race, using Facebook and other social media platforms. Information regarding possible interference will be provided to the Justice and Homeland Security departments, and then based on their assessment of the validity and impact, trigger automatic sanctions. Sanctions could include freezing assets, restricting foreign exchange transactions, limiting access to U.S. financial institutions, and prohibiting U.S. citizens from investing in companies involved.

Trump made the statement that “the United States will not tolerate any form of foreign meddling in our elections.” There is no question that protecting our elections from foreign interference is one of the most pressing issues facing our country today, but we must make sure Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or any other foreign actor, understands that the U.S. will respond decisively and impose punishing consequences against those who interfere in its democracy.

As we look ahead, the U.S. government has made it clear that any actions by a foreign government to influence our elections is unacceptable. If a person or organization inside the state interferes in an election by illegal means, the citizens, and government have lawful ways of dealing with that through the courts or election councils. A foreign state can't be stopped so easily, as we've seen in Russia's case. The only way to fight this is sanctions by the state government itself. This establishes the interference as a done deal and undermines the confidence of voters in the democratic process, endangering the legitimacy and stability of the government overall.

The US uses a variety of methods to meddle in foreign elections, from hacking, to disseminating propaganda, to buying off politicians, buying off journalists, to using counterfeit online puppet accounts pretending to be citizens of a country, to using sanctions and or military power to impose the US’ selfish wants. This a moral equivalency argument. One can say we Americans do it too, so that makes it acceptable. The morality of Russia under Putin is that, Putin is an ex-KGB Colonel whose goal is to recreate the USSR in Eastern Europe. Putin used missiles against civilian airliners, murders journalists, kills and jails political enemies, sponsored genocide, and recently killed people using nerve agents on English soil. He has invaded sovereign nations and attempting coup de tats on others. In this case, it was wrong for a foreign country such as Russia to meddle in the U.S. electoral process, because of Vladimir Putin’s intentions. His goals are Russian goals, and this is to incite chaos in the US. What happened in 2016 was not “meddling” it was a cyber-warfare. Personal information of approximately 500,000 Americans were stolen, as was information in several forms that was then weaponized. Voting apparatus was hacked. It will be acceptable for foreign countries to intervene in the U.S. Presidential electoral process if only there was a positive and helpful intention to that process, instead of causing chaos.

The 2020 presidential campaign has already begun, with several Democratic candidates declaring their intention to challenge Donald Trump for the Oval Office and more on the way. Unlike 2016, we now know what kind of chaos America’s adversaries can create, especially during campaign season. That means it’s time to contend with the threat of foreign intervention in our elections and in our democracy more broadly, before it’s too late.

Works Cited How To Prevent the Next Election Disaster Joshua Geltzer-Jake Sullivan-Blake Hounshell-John Farrell - https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/22/prevent-election-disaster-224032 Trump Signs New Order To Sanction Countries That Meddle in U.S. Elections Deirdre Shesgreen - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/09/12/trump-signs-executive-order-punish-foreign-meddling-u-s-elections/1279596002/