We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Opposing DAESH in a Post-Syria/Iraq Conflict Environment: Stabilization and Creative Proactive Messaging.
- Authors
Tuman, Joseph S.
- Abstract
While it is now quite likely DAESH will also be driven out of the last tracts of land it controlled in Syria, as it was in Iraq, we should be careful about claiming victory and assuming this group no longer poses a threat. Indeed, DAESH's unique characteristics--e.g., opportunistic military strategies, taking advantage of instability and chaos in failed states, the embrace and skillful use of social media platforms to attract and direct fighters in the middle east and throughout the world, as well for attracting and influencing news media coverage--have helped elevate their status relative to other terror groups for the last three years. Losing ground in Syria and Iraq will no doubt hurt their messaging about being a "transnational" (i.e., ignoring boundaries created by colonialists) organization--but the transnational nature of their existence is still enabled by their use of boundary-less social media, and their ongoing recruiting and directing from afar of terror attacks. Because so much of their success owes to the low cost and efficient use of computer mediated communication, NATO members and other countries would do well to invest in developing strategies for technology and messaging that proactively challenge the terror organization and blunt its effect for reaching young Muslim males to join their cause, serve as fighters, and/or be directed by DAESH to lead foreign attacks. It is also clear that all countries must be more focused upon effective governance of their people and land. The easiest path for DAESH back into Syria, Iraq--or for that matter, a new path into Libya or Afghanistan, is the presence of instability and a government that cannot govern or provide basic services.
- Subjects
MILITARY strategy; COUNTERTERRORISM
- Publication
Defence Against Terrorism Review, 2018, Vol 10, p37
- ISSN
1307-9190
- Publication type
Article