Emergency Management and Information Integrity: A Framework for Crisis Response

Drawing on lessons from Ukraine's experience of information warfare during the 2022 Russian invasion, this Carnegie report develops a four-phase framework for maintaining information integrity during crisis conditions: preparedness, response, recovery, and learning. The Ukraine case is treated as the most advanced real-world laboratory for crisis information management under active hybrid attack, and the lessons are translated into actionable guidance for governments and institutions facing similar conditions.

The framework is operationally oriented in a way that much Carnegie output is not. It identifies specific institutional functions, decision points, and coordination mechanisms rather than remaining at the level of principle. For practitioners advising governments on crisis communication strategy or building whole-of-government information resilience frameworks, the four-phase structure provides a practical scaffold. The paper's treatment of the 'learning' phase — how to institutionalise lessons from crisis response before the next crisis arrives — is particularly valuable and underrepresented in other frameworks.