Comprehensive security, disinformation, and COVID-19: An analysis of the impacts of mis- and disinformation and populist narratives during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated many fundamental and challenging implications regarding security, for both states and people. This article addresses the pandemic as a security threat, whereby societal and human dimensions of security are intertwined with the narrower (so-called traditional) state dimensions, culminating in comprehensive security. This article uses mixed methods, combining desk research and a selection of narratives or stories from several parts of the world that signify how the intersection of disinformation and populist discourses exacerbated the COVID-19 security challenges. These are analysed through an innovative comprehensive security analytical approach. Drawing on both security theory and policy, the article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardised security on multiple levels. First, the state's capacity to effectively act and deliver in the domestic sphere waned. Second, the social contract between the state and its citizens eroded as public trust dissipated. This article argues, however, that the most pervasive threat to security during the pandemic pertained to the exploitation of the information domain in relation to the state, society, and people. The article interrogates how mis- and disinformation about the pandemic compounded and exacerbated the security challenges it posed, often relying on existing narratives within right-wing populism movements to increase mistrust and discontent. These largely right-wing populist narratives contributed to broadening the gap between states and people, besides weakening public compliance with state health security measures. The nature of populism and the narratives of particularly right-wing populism contributed to increases in fragmentation, polarisation, and discrimination impacting societal trust. The article concludes with recommendations to mitigate the adverse impacts of mis- and disinformation, including reinvigorating the relationship between state institutions and the people to strengthen comprehensive security.