The virtual dimension of contemporary insurgency and counterinsurgency

@article{Betz2008TheVD,
  title={The virtual dimension of contemporary insurgency and counterinsurgency},
  author={David J. Betz},
  journal={Small Wars \& Insurgencies},
  year={2008},
  volume={19},
  pages={510 - 540}
}
  • David J. Betz
  • Published 1 December 2008
  • Philosophy
  • Small Wars & Insurgencies
This paper looks at the virtual dimension of contemporary insurgency and counterinsurgency. It argues that the West is faltering in the ‘War of Ideas’ with global Jihad for the main reason that the messages that we wish to convey lack narrative coherence. This is a result of the fact that we misapprehend the nature of the virtual operational environment whereas our opponents possess an intuitive grasp of it as a result of which their structure and method of operations are better adapted and… 
View on Taylor & Francis
kclpure.kcl.ac.uk
70 Citations
Background Citations
16
Methods Citations
1

70 Citations

Seeing Red: Baghdad and the event-ful city
Cyberpower in Strategic Affairs: Neither Unthinkable nor Blessed
Abstract This article explores the effect of connectivity on strategic affairs. It argues that the effect on war's character is potentially, although not yet shown in practice, considerably large.…
Productive War: A Re-Conceptualisation of War
Abstract Conventional wisdom on the phenomenon of war is criticised for providing little relevant guidance to deal with the security challenges of our era. One reason is that this attitude…
Strategic communications in international relations: Practical traps and ethical puzzles
This article poses an unsettling question. Was Hitler’s regime not so much a historical accident as a prototype—a creation of modernity and a response to the conditions precipitated by modernity? It…
Containing the Narrative: Strategy and Tactics in Countering the Storyline of Global Jihad
ABSTRACT It has long been recognised that telling a better story is an important part of countering the appeal of Global Jihad. The ‘War on Terror’ will be difficult to win if the ‘War on Ideas’ is…
Addressing the schizophrenia of global Jihad
This paper deploys Deleuze and Guattari's AntiOedipus to critique discourses on radicalisation that call for a ‘public diplomacy’ to challenge a Jihadi meta-narrative or core identity. It argues that…
Winning the story war: Strategic communication and the conflict in Afghanistan
Defence Strategic Communications
  • Political Science
  • 2017
During the last decade, ‘information warfare’ has become a much-politicised term in Russian domestic and foreign affairs. This article sheds light on the conceptual roots that have been shaping this…
The trouble with radicalization
Though widely used by academics and policy-makers in the context of the ‘war on terror’, the concept of radicalization lacks clarity. This article shows that while radicalization is not a myth, its…
Utopia, war, and justice
Between 2014 and 2017, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) morphed from a terrorist organization into a proto-state that held a large swathe of territory, within which its strict interpretation…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 100 REFERENCES
COUNTERING GLOBAL INSURGENCY
The paper argues that the War is best understood as a global insurgency, initiated by a diffuse grouping of Islamist movements that seek to re-make Islam’s role in the world order. They use terrorism…
Cyber-Mobilization: The New "Levée en Masse"
  • A. K. Cronin
  • History
    The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters
  • 2006
The means and ends of mass mobilization are changing, bypassing the traditional state-centered approach that was the hallmark of the French Revolution and leaving advanced Western democracies merely…
Waging the inchoate war: Defining, fighting, and second-guessing the ‘Long War’
Abstract This article answers three questions: What is the nature of the Long War? How is progress (or lack thereof) to be assessed? Where is it likely to go next? An appreciation of Clausewitz shows…
Politics and Propaganda: Weapons of Mass Seduction
The twentieth century has been called "the century of propaganda". This book explores the concept of propaganda in a genuinely multi-disciplinary way. It begins by defining what propaganda is and how…
The Paradox of American Power
Thank you both for your kind introductions. Today the United States is seen as the undisputed world hegemon. But think back a decade, and the U.S. image was one of decline. Democratic presidential…
The Taliban Insurgency and an Analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters)
The Taliban has recently re-emerged on the Afghan scene with vengeance. Five years after being defeated in Afghanistan by a US coalition, the resurgent Taliban, backed by al-Qaeda, are mounting an…
The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict
Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this paper describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in…
The Salafi-Jihad as a Religious Ideology
  • Political Science
  • 2008
in recent years, a growing number of analysts and policymakers have referred to the doctrines guiding al-Qa`ida and its associates as an ideology, and they appear to have influenced the Bush…
War and Peace in the Global Village
From the Publisher: War and Peace in The Global Village is a collage of images and text that sharply illustrates the effects of electronic media and new technology on man. Marshall McLuhan wrote…
America's Quagmire Mentality
Since the end of the American Civil War, the United States has engaged in cycles of nation-building followed by disillusionment. In 1865 federal troops occupied much of the South and attempted to…
...
...