Lithuanian officer: “Our mission is to manage chaos”

Lithuanian Major Jurgis Norvaiša, serving at NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, has described the military’s role as “chaos managers,” emphasising the need for constant readiness to adapt to unpredictable threats, LRT radio programme Pažinimai reports.

Norvaiša stressed that military personnel must be prepared to respond even when plans abruptly change, citing his own experience of being deployed to Israel within hours during the October 2023 Hamas attacks. “We had plans that evening—maybe the theatre, maybe a film—but 2.5 hours after the news broke, I was in Šiauliai boarding a Spartan [military aircraft] to Israel,” he recalled.

At the NATO centre, Norvaiša analyses Russian disinformation tactics, which he said rely on sowing doubt rather than outright lies. “Imagine truth in one hand and falsehood in the other. Russia doesn’t just offer a single falsehood—it splits that hand into many fingers, each presenting a different version of untruth, leaving people paralysed by competing narratives,” he explained.

Drawing a parallel with the biblical story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent, he described how propaganda exploits uncertainty: “The serpent plants doubt—‘Why can’t you eat from that tree?’—then amplifies it: ‘God doesn’t want you to know something.’ The goal is to make us feel small, powerless, and divided.”

Norvaiša warned that Russian disinformation targets two core emotions: fear and anger. “They paint threats in different colours until people panic. Our enemy hates our successes, so they claim everything—even military exercises—is harmful, aiming to erode trust.”

Countering such tactics requires proactive engagement, he argued. “If Adam had acted—told Eve the serpent was lying—maybe the outcome would’ve been different. Silence lets doubt grow.” He reiterated the military’s dual role: “We create chaos for our adversaries, but we must also endure the chaos they create for us. That’s our element—operating in the worst-case scenario when the state needs us most.”