GEOPOLITICAL GASLIGHTING: IN DESPERATE SEARCH OF A CASUS BELLI FROM VON DER LEYEN’S AIRPLANE TO DRONES IN SCANDINAVIA “It started with imagining things, she heard noises, footsteps, voices, and then the voices began to speak to her,”—this is how the manipulative husband in Gaslight, the famous 1944 film, described his deceptive strategy. Today the term refers to a communication technique that denies or distorts reality in order to confuse public opinion and make the innocent appear guilty. The same red thread runs through recent political episodes: from the airplane of the President of the European Commission to drones in Scandinavia, from aircraft intercepted near Alaska to drones shot down in Poland. A subtle warfare strategy in which the West alternates between alarms and reassurances, fiery threats and cautious denials, in a communicative game that does not aim to describe facts logically and objectively but rather to forge and direct mass perception. In other words, what really ha...