International Studies Quarterly
Creating Status Loss: Delegitimation through Information Warfare
2025-08-29
How do states compete for status—i.e., an elevated position in the international order? Conventional wisdom suggests that states do so by enhancing their own status, such as by joining selective international institutions or winning wars. I theorize and test another strategy: reducing their competitor's status through delegitimation. By spreading information about the target's failure (i.e., character assassination), delegitimation can undermine the target's status in the eyes of third-party states and subvert the target's ability to form coalitions with said third-party states. I test my theory through a survey experiment in Canada, wherein select respondents were exposed to Chinese information campaigns about US failure in the Middle East. Exposure to delegitimation reduces the respondents’ assessment of US status, in turn reducing their (1) support for Canada to participate in joint military exercises with the United States and (2) assessment of US credibility in multilateral trade negotiations. I contextualize these results through a case study of Chinese delegitimation of US policy in Africa and its impact on African countries’ alignment with the United States. My analysis highlights the changing character of war: the mechanisms and effects of information warfare, including America's psychological operations, China's “three wars,” or Russia's active measures.