About ISPRII

ISPRII, or the Initiative for the Study of Politico-Religious Ideation and Influence is an organization under the University of Texas at Austin's CREEES that focuses on analyzing the digital footprint, media activity, and actions (direct and/or indirect) of those seeking to influence political, economic, and social narratives in Europe, Eurasian, and Russia within their respective common-interest social network(s).

In the information age, state actors, NGOs, foreign actors, private individuals and organizations, and any permutation thereof have sought to influence domestic and foreign policy through the weaponization of information, culture, values, and money. By exploiting pre-existing conditions, cultural heritage, history, social diversity and other divisive features of a populace, these weaponized principles offer a more "cost-effective" approach to actors striving towards political, social, or economic goals. The "cost-effectiveness" of these weaponized principles comes from their ability to level the asymmetric kinetic and/or non-kinetic battleground in their favor. The asymmetric battleground is domestic/foreign kinetic and non-kinetic action, and by weaponizing core principles, actors can take advantage of the Pareto principle in attribution while also fighting for the hearts and minds of the populace. In all parts of Europe and Russia the effects of such actors may not be directly observable, but their impact is apparent. 

ISPRII is dedicated to understanding and mapping the inception of such ideation and ideology of politico-religious values. ISPRII's goals are to further research on ideation and influence on both the regional and global levels, to bring attention to such cases of politico-religious ideologies that expand from weaponized principles, and to better recommend domestic and foreign policy given such analyses.