West, Levi J. (2022) Violent Propaganda: Violence, Communication and Technology—The Strategic Logic of Terrorism. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Despite decades of efforts aimed at understanding and countering it, terrorism remains capable of achieving grossly disproportionate strategic effects against its targets. The ongoing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and the broader Global War on Terror reflect the enduring legacy and impact of a highly calibrated, choreographed, and innovative act of terrorism. This dissertation develops and applies a novel conceptual framework that aims to provide explanatory insights in response to the question of how terrorism achieves strategic effect. It provides an overview of the extant terrorism studies literature, which, in conjunction with primary source terrorist ideology and doctrine, is drawn on to develop the framework. The framework consists of three elements: innovative forms of violence; communicative and narrative dynamics; and the exploitation of emergent information and communications technology. This dissertation proposes that the effective integration of these elements enables terrorism to cause strategic effects. To the greatest extent possible, this research draws on primary source material, including ideological, doctrinal, and propagandistic outputs, as well as secondary sources from the academic literature. The framework is applied to three paradigmatic case studies, namely Russian anarchist terrorism, Palestinian terrorism, and Salafi-Jihadist terrorism. In doing so, this dissertation seeks to provide an explanatory framework for how terrorism achieves strategic effect, while also emphasising the enduring nature of the phenomena, while recognising its character. The dissertation evidences an enduring nature regarding the underlying strategic calculus of terrorist entities over time, while noting the changing character of their specific praxis.

Search Google Scholar

Repository staff login