Obama’s Strategy for Defeating ISIS is the only Viable Option. It Can Work By Joseph Becker
Joseph Becker writes an article explaining that minimal troop involvement rather than a surge of troops used in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) would create the greatest path to success. Many critiques claim that the USG is fighting with one arm behind their back but Becker claims that because of the adversary this is a much better approach. Due to this articles recent publishing and counter argument it will provide great examples for my research topic.
What ISIS Really Wants By Graeme Wood
Graeme Wood illustrates an incredible piece about the relevance to al-Baghdadi claiming himself to be the caliph. Wood’s article discusses why a caliphate is so important and the need for land as well as some differences between ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The article also has interviews with supporters of the caliph and there take on al-Baghdadi. Overall this article is a very detailed and informative piece on how ISIS is using the declaration of a caliphate to promote support for their terrorist group.
The Genesis of ISIS by Erinn McQuagge
Erinn McQuagge writes a detailed article covering ISIS creation long before Iraq and gives details as to why there methodology is so extreme. Before the article begins to discuss the current ISIS conflict it goes into deep details of how and why Zarqawi built up and established ISIS. This article will provide specific details to the reader of my research paper as to how and why ISIS was formed.
Scholarly Journal Articles:
Crossing the Red Line: Social Media and Social Networking Analysis for Unconventional Campaign Planning by MAJ Seth Lucente and COL Greg Wilson
Crossing the Red Line discusses how social media can be used to recognize patterns and connections with terrorist groups. It outlines how social media has become an invaluable tool for organizations to spread information and build support for their group. Crossing the Red Line talks about a new theory of social-network analysis and how it is able to identify key individuals that have access to high level terrorist leaders as well as key personnel to target to exploit for information.
Unmasking the Executioner: What This Gesture Means and How It Can Help in the Fight against ISIS by Holly Hughson
Holly Hughson discusses the relevance as to why executioners de mask in some of ISIS’ videos and explains it isn’t just to show strength. She explains that when an executioner de-masks it is used to deter foreign fighters from leaving ISIS. Also, the article explains how foreign fighters are drawn to ISIS to be a part of a global jihad but quickly realize that there is a clear hierarchy that limits there impact on operations. This article will be beneficial in providing insight on the recruitment of foreign fighters through social media.
A social movement approach to Unconventional Warfare by Doowan Lee
Doowan Lee makes the correlation that social movements along with UW operations can lead to social revolutions. In this article many of the practices that are mentioned are backed up with recent examples such as Egypt and Poland, as well as why al-Qaeda failed in Iraq. This article will benefit my paper in understanding how ISIS’ framework led to such a fast uprising playing off of Sunni and Shia differences.
Scholarly Books:
The Rise of the Islamic State: ISIS and the new Sunni Revolution by Patrick Cockburn
As the title states The Rise of the Islamic State offers an informative explanation of the terrorist group uses tensions between Shia and Sunni’s in Iraq to build its army. Cockburn clearly draws connections of Shia politicians showing favoritism and forcing the Sunni population into a choice between ISIS and being oppressed by the legitimate government. The Rise of the Islamic State is full of relevant information and will allow my paper to gain depth through specific analysis on the groups IO campaigns.
Ideas as Weapons: Influence and Perception in Modern Warfare by G.J. David Jr. and T.R. McKeldin III
Ideas as weapon attacks the complicated world of Information Operations (IO) through a variety of different essays that are all inter related to the core theme of IO. The essays included in Ideas as Weapons were written by over 40 officers explaining the role of information and how it pertains to four different spectrums: geopolitical, strategic, operational, and tactical.
Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore by Jay Sekulow
Jay Sekulow wrote an extremely informative book about ISIS and the group’s connection with other terror groups. He specifically explains links from ISIS to Hamas and how each group assists with the growth of the other. Rise of ISIS will assist my paper with showing how terrorist groups use unique information sharing capabilities to assist the growth with other extremist groups.
Information Operations: warfare and The Hard Reality of Soft Power By Leigh Armistead
Armistead tackles the vast topic of IO by breaking down the history of IO, agencies involved, doctrine, and examples from recent operations. Information Operations clearly defines many confusing topics such as the role of defensive and offensive IO as well as Information Warfare (IW). This book will be an asset to my paper because it is the very basis of my IO education and will be referenced to verify tactics and methods that ISIS is using compared to USG doctrine.
Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win by Jeffrey Record
Jeffrey Record breaks down victories of smaller adversaries over much more powerful enemies and shows the similarities in different conflicts. As he explains insurgencies seemingly always need outside sources of support in order to overtake a larger opponent. Beating Goliath lays out why insurgencies such as ISIS win and what should be done differently to affect this adversary, that’s why this book will assist my paper.
Thesis: While conventional war capabilities, such as drones and precision missiles, favor western states during the current Iraq campaign they do little to slow the IS’ progress through media dominance.
Outline:
I. ISIS has mastered the use of social media.
A. ISIS created an App that has the ability to take control of a user’s smart phone to re tweet topics.
1. App is called “The Dawn of Glad Tidings” and works on the Android series of phones or regular internet (Berger, 2014).
2. When an individual signs up the app automatically sends out tweets concerning ISIS information and news (Berger, 2014).
3. The app created 40,000 tweets in one day during the height of offensive attacks of 2014 (Berger, 2014).
B. ISIS coordinates the use of specific hash tags in order to trend certain topics.
1. By organizing certain times of the day to tweet topics. If enough tweets and re-tweets occur the topic will trend and cast an even bigger spotlight on the group (Berger, 2014).
2. Coordinated tweets mixed with official statements and less official ‘playful’ tweets allow the group to appeal to a wide group of individuals such as the misguided foreigner to the full on radical Islam Sunni’s (Berger, 2014).
C. ISIS has reaped an unimaginable amount of success from social media even after some of the groups larger accounts were banned.
1. Twitter suspended the Al I’tisam, the main information outlet of ISIS, as well as other top pages the group owns (Speri, 2014).
2. Decentralization makes it easy to dance around suspended accounts on twitter as well as Islam ‘fan boys’ have continued to keep the group growing (Speri, 2014).
3. Because of ISIS’ successful twitter campaign they can outperform Jabhat al- Nusra, the group’s main competitor in Syria (Berger, 2014). ISIS averages 10,000 mentions of its groups name as opposed to 2,500-5,000 for al-Nusra (Berger, 2014).
4. In an attempt to limit the group’s effectiveness in Iraq the Government has restricted access to some of the groups sites, but it has little affect (Speri, 2014).
II. ISIS has an elaborate news/video production crew.
- Al Hayet is a media group that is controlled by ISIS and puts out well developed recruiting videos.
1. The videos are shot in high definition and have high levels of production behind them. By using high resolution and production behind the videos it lends credibility to the group through organization of information spreading products (Becker O. , 2014).
2. Al Hayat is multilingual to engage a wide variety of supporters (Becker O. , 2014).
- The Dabiq magazine produces ISIS messages for distribution
- The Dabiq is printed on high quality paper and has high levels of editing that assists with legitimizing the magazine (The Clarion Project, 2014).
- The Dabiq name refers to a city in Syria that the prophet Mohammed claimed that the armies of Islam and Rome would meet to fight (Bergen, 2015).
- The Dabiq is a massive propaganda machine that has steadily put out seven issues with no end in sight. Each issue put out reaffirms the strength of the group to individuals on the fence about joining.
III. The declaration of the Caliph
- Helps with Legitimatizing the group
1. Claiming al-Baghdadi as the Caliph requires all Muslims to travel and fight with ISIS (Wood, 2015).
- Recruitment tool for old school Islam promoters
- Cerantonio, radio host in Cairo who attempted to travel through the Philippines to reach Syria (Wood, 2015).
- Islam states that as long as ISIS controls land they have a claim to being a Caliph.
- ISIS uses a strong IO campaign to minimize the appearance of losing land in order to maintain the impression that the group is still strong.
References
Armistead, L. (2004). Information Operations Warefare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power. Dulles: Brassey’s Inc.
Becker, J. (2014). Obama’s Strategy for Defeating ISIS is the Only Viable Option. It Can Work. . Small Wars Journal , 8.
Becker, O. (2014, July 12). ISIS has a Really Slick and Sophisticated Media department. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from Vice News: https://news.vice.com/article/isis-has-a-really-slick-and-sophisticated-media-department
Bergen, P. (2015, February 18). Why does ISIS keep making enemies. Retrieved February 20, 2015, from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/16/opinion/bergen-isis-enemies/
Berger, J. M. (2014, June 16). How ISIS Games Twitter. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social-media-strategy/372856/
Cockburn, P. (2014). The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution. New York and London: OR Books.
David Jr., G. J., & McKeldin III, T. R. (2009). Ideas as Weapons: Influence and Perception in Modern Warfare. Dulles: Potomac Books, Inc.
Hughson, H. (2015). Unmasking the Executioner: What this Gesture Means and How It Can Help in the Fight Against ISIS. Small Wars Journal , 6.
Lawton, J. (2014). How the Military Intelligence Community Has Failed to Incorporate Sociocultural Understanding of their Operational Environment. Small Wars Journal , 9.
Lee, D. (2013). A Social Movement Approach to Unconventional Warfare. Small Wars Journal , 6.
Lucente, S., & Wilson, G. (2013). Crossing the Red Line: Social Media and Social Network Analysis for Unconventional Campaign Planning. Special Warfare Magazine , 7.
Record, J. (2007). Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win. Dulles: Potomac Books.
Sekulow, J. (2014). Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore. New York: Howard Books.
Speri, A. (2014, June 17). ISIS Fighters and Their Friends Are Total Social Media Pros. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from Vice News: https://news.vice.com/article/isis-fighters-and-their-friends-are-total-social-media-pros
The Clarion Project. (2014, September 10). The Islamic State’s (ISIS, ISIL) Magazine. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from The Clarion Project: http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-isis-isil-propaganda-magazine-dabiq
Wood, G. (2015, March). What ISIS Really Wants. Retrieved January 20 2015, 2015, from The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
