How to Win an Information War

Peter Pomerantsev — a British reporter born in Kyiv and a scholar of contemporary propaganda and disinformation — reaches in How to Win an Information War for the figure of Sefton Delmer. Born in Berlin in 1904, Delmer was a British correspondent who covered the Nazis’ rise to power and, during World War II, was enlisted by London to run black propaganda operations aimed at the Third Reich.

Although the title suggests a story about Nazi Germany alone, Pomerantsev writes about thoroughly present-day phenomena: information wars and the sophisticated manipulations of which we are the targets here and now. He weaves Delmer’s biography together with reflection on contemporary disinformation, searching for an answer to the question of how democracies can win the battle for truth — not through lies, but through a better understanding of human needs and fears.

In its verdict the jury wrote: “This reportage — translated into vivid Polish by Aleksandra Paszkowska — combines outstanding literary craft and factual precision with philosophical breadth, humour, and finesse. It is sincere but not cynical, wise but not overloaded with facts. It terrifies, but it also gives hope.”

The award for the Polish translation went to Aleksandra Paszkowska.