Traditionally, the strategy for the US when it comes to exerting influence internationally has been to facilitate regime changes by force, either through the mi

Traditionally, the strategy for the US when it comes to exerting influence internationally has been to facilitate regime changes by force, either through the military apparatus or by funding and training opposition groups. This has left the US as a "pointilist empire" with military bases strewn throughout the world. China's strategy has been to use its massive workforce and economy, buying US debt, investing (and thus buying out) infrastructure in developing nations and becoming an integral part of the supply chain for most of Western industry. Russia's strategy has primarily been to create a neverending stream of disinformation, misinformation and half-truths. Instead of creating a false narrative, it creates tens or hundreds of them without fully committing to any of them so the "objective truth" just becomes one of many possible truths and any minor factual mistake leads people to "question the narrative". Opposition groups in foreign countries are funded, but only to an extent that provides a cover of plausible deniability for them. Individuals are assinated in the most blatantly obvious way but with full denial of any involvement. Internal opposition is jailed with selectively enforced laws that seem relevant enough to be plausible but seem to be based on bogus evidence the deeper you dig. Russia's goal is not to get you to believe a lie, Russia's goal is to get you to question reality itself. Basically, for the US and China disinformation is just another weapon in the arsenal. For Russia it's just what Russia does. PS: The invasion of Ukraine is a bit of a counterexample to this but given how much it is dragging out, that just demonstrates how bad they are at solving conflicts "the American way". Of course you could make the argument that all countries use all of these techniques to exert influence. The annexation of Crimea was as much a military operation as it was a disinformation campaign. The US is a vital part of the supply chain for many of its allies. China infamously engages in information warfare even against its own population. But what I'm arguing is what each country's primary weapon of choice is. And for Russia it's to attack the concept of reality itself.