Fighting for a Narrative

Fighting for a Narrative:

A Campaign Assessment of the US-led Coalition’s Psychological and Information Operations in Afghanistan

by Oleg Svet

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Despite increases in military and civilian personnel to Afghanistan, the United States is losing in a field crucial to the counterinsurgency’s long-run success: the battle of perceptions. Information and psychological operations have failed to substantially gain support for US-led efforts or gain credible legitimacy for the host nation’s government. Two reasons have contributed to this failure, both unrelated to political or military realities on the ground. The first is that communication methods used by the Coalition often do not reach a majority of Afghan citizens. The second is that the specific messages and general themes that actually make it to Afghan audiences frequently fail to resonate.

This paper analyzes Coalition and Taliban efforts to shape the battle of the narratives through information operations (IO) and psychological campaigns (PSYOP). Geographically, the scope of this paper is Afghanistan and to a lesser degree Pakistan; temporally, attention is paid to more recent efforts, although early operations are referenced as well. The paper first provides an analysis of Coalition and Taliban efforts aimed at influencing the information environment. Next, it offers a general background on the role of information operations in counterinsurgency and insights on Afghan society drawn from anthropology. Finally, drawing on the analysis presented in the first two sections, the paper proposes ways in which the Coalition’s psychological and information operations in Afghanistan can be improved. The three main recommendations are that the US-led Coalition (1) use more traditional and accessible methods of communication; (2) incorporate ethnographic data into its messages; and (3) focus the overall narrative on the country’s tribal and socio-cultural legacies rather than religious aspects.

Download the Full Article: Fighting for a Narrative

Oleg Svet is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where his studies focused on the intersection of behavioral and national security studies. He is now working for Strategic Social, where he provides analysis of Arabic-language Iraqi and pan-Arab media for the U.S. military in Iraq.