THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 27 Karl Stoltz is co-president of the Public Diplomacy Council of America (PDCA) and a guest lecturer at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Previously, he was a U.S. Foreign Service officer for 38 years, serving in Russia, Poland, Denmark, South Africa, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand, in addition to five tours in Washington, D.C. In his last assignment before retirement, he was an acting deputy coordinator and senior adviser at the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. A veteran FSO spotlights information monitoring and why it should be a 24/7 priority to defend democracy at home and abroad. BY KARL STOLTZ F ree and fair elections are the cornerstones of democracy. Without them, national security foundations crumble quickly. For decades, we have invested time and resources to safeguard electoral integrity around the world. Today one of the chief threats to free and fair elections is the online manipulation of information (and voters) by external actors seeking to undermine public trust in democratic institutions, exacerbate political divisions, and exploit the resulting chaos. Now foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) is a problem, moreover, that challenges the United COVER STORY BEWARE THE TROLLS: HOW BAD ACTORS ON THE INTERNET INFLUENCE ELECTIONS States—despite our 250 years of experience with democracy— just as much as the rest of the world. In 2011 the State Department office later called the Global Engagement Center (GEC) was created to help counter terrorism and other external threats exploiting the internet. As the growth of social media exploded over the next few years, so did the reach and impact of malign influences through FIMI. The GEC was expanded to address this problem in 2016 but was then shuttered in December 2024. By looking at how the GEC evolved and what it did, we can learn from its work for the future. Online Terrorist Menace In 2011 the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC, later the GEC) was created in recognition of the unprecedented online menace that nonstate actors like al-Qaida and ISIS/Daesh posed. Using the internet, terrorist groups were able to spread propaganda, raise funds, and recruit members across borders, and at the time we lacked the capacity to monitor, analyze, and counter them. Housed in the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (R), CSCC was tasked with supporting government-wide public communications activities targeted against violent extremism and terrorist organizations. Initially, CSCC’s work focused on regions
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