Terrorists and Terrorism
The Cost of a Redundant State Media Strategy
by Adam Hammond
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Former British PM Margaret Thatcher once said Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.
Her choice of terminology reflects the traditional use of State media strategy to maintain popular support by de-legitimizing the causes of insurgent groups. This very strategy was employed by France during the unsuccessful Battle of Algiers, and continues today in the Coalition “War on Terror” despite radical changes in the nature of what many continue to refer to as “terrorism”.
The world is in fact in the midst of a global insurgency, a worldwide revolutionary war the likes of which it has never before seen. The results of outdated strategy and its inherent terminology are of no small consequence. They range from operational planning problems at the tactical level, to a fundamental misalignment at the strategic level between the “Three Pillars of Counter-Insurgency”: Governments, Security Agencies, and Economic actors. Until this misalignment is addressed, it will be impossible to effectively counter global insurgent activity in a sustainable fashion.
What is required with respect to both international and domestic matters is therefore nothing short of a wholesale re-think of government media strategy and the very terminology used to describe “terrorists” and “terrorism”.
