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Strategic Communication as a Counter-terrorism Tool Nic Labuschagne 17 th February 2011. What is…?.
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Strategic Communication as a Counter-terrorism ToolNic Labuschagne17th February 2011
What is…? Strategic communication is a planned series of sustained and coherent activities that develop and promote ideas and opinions with the objective of changing or sustaining particular types of behaviour Terrorism is the calculated use, or threat of use, of violence for political purposes against civilians Strategic communication is NOT simple media interaction, Information Operations, advertising, marketing, propaganda or spin Counterterrorism is the collective term for measures intended to combat or reduce terrorism, and is primarily pre-emptive in nature
How can Strategic Communication contribute to Counterterrorism? Intervention Violence Radicalisation
Key Questions What influences this behaviour? How do we measure any changes? Do we understand the behaviour? Where are the trigger points and barriers? ? How does communication support these interventions? Can we design interventions that can change this behaviour? Can we model the behaviour?
The Belief-Behaviour Gap Adapted from: Leuprecht et al, 2010
Intervention Process Adapted from: A. Darnton, 2008
Intercultural Intelligence Gap It’s not hard to see why the West has difficulty communicating Source: S.A. Tatham, Dec 2008
Audience Segmentation Outsiders Troublemakers, Apostates, Jews, Unbelievers Insiders Existing Backers and Supporters Muslims who could support
“How-to” Guide for web-Jihadists Source: J. Brachman, 2010
Conclusion • Strategic communication can be utilised to counter terrorist narratives and to support interventions aimed at preventing or reducing the incidence of violent radicalisation • A far more sophisticated understanding of the complex systems nature of the communication space is required • Western governments’ credibility is too compromised and their ability to control the delivery of a common counternarrative is too fragmented to consider investment in such an initiative at this stage