Counterinsurgency and Strategic Communication:A Study of Afghanistan War（2001-2012）

• Main Authors: August Chen, 陳中吉
• Other Authors: 洪陸訓 博士
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93anh8

博士 === 國防大學政治作戰學院 === 政治研究所 === 100 === On September 11, 2001, 19 militants of al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and committed suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks. While tens of millions of Americans and people around the world watched in horror the collapse of the twin towers from TV screens, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar–the leaders of al Qaeda and its ally the Taliban-watched with jubilation in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and his affiliates as Thomas Freidman described ―super-empowered individual and groups‖. The basic idea is quite simple: the individual and groups have much more power to create difference-negative or positive-than he or they did in the near past. Now Afghanistan is the quagmire in America’s longest war. The importance of war in Afghanistan as head of the British armed forces, General Sir David Richards, stated that a NATO ―failure (in Afghanistan) would have a catalytic effect on militant Islam around the world and in the region because the message would be that al-Qaeda and the Taliban have defeated the US and the British and NATO, the most power alliance in the world.‖ Al-Qaeda and Taliban not only utilize effectively videotapes, websites, CDs, smart phones and target their audiences with a resonance and empathy, but also use traditional methods of communications—radio, shabnamah, and taranas. The destination of these Islamic extremists seek the establishment of a global Caliphate uniting all Muslims into a single theocratic state, and force infidels apostates adoption of Islamic sharia law as the sole source of law. I focus my dissertation on the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan that is not a war in traditional sense, but a mixture of kinetic warfare and a war of and sometimes about ideas and ideals. strategic communication perhaps is simply a way to affect perceptions, attitudes and behavior of key audiences in support of objectives. Certainly communications means are very important in ultimately achieving those desired information effects. But how military operations are conducted is also a key component of strategic communication, since actions send very loud and clear messages. Because effective strategic communication requires an organizational culture attuned to the information environment and a recognition that strategic communication, as a way to achieve information effects, consists of many capabilities that are an integral process of the commander’s arsenal. But American strategic communication is too ethnocentric to be effective. Effective strategic communication needs legitimacy and credibility. All soldiers, airmen, and marines are best practitioners. They know and can say what they are doing in a given operation, and must narrow ―say-do‖ gap-such to prevent collateral damage, and to respect the culture, religious of Islam. That is just the way to win hearts and minds.