by Steven R. Corman Here is a quiz: In what South Asian war did a country invade to pursue its own interests, overthrow an existing government and establish a client regime, encounter effective resistance by local insurgents despite the superiority of its army, fight to a stalemate, and withdraw when resources and interest waned back home? If your answer did not include the British East India Company (EIC) invasion of Afghanistan in the 19th century, [...] Read more »
COMOPS Journal
Analysis, Commentary and News Blog by CSC Staff. Send inquiries or submissions to: comops.editor@asu.edu
Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan E-book
by Steven R. Corman Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan is now available in a Kindle version. A description of the book is available here. There is also a brief review by Tom Wein, here. Read more »
Boston Bombings: Rumor, Conspiracy, Denial
By Chris Lundry It has been over a week since the grisly bombing at the Boston Marathon, and with one perpetrator killed and another captured, analysts are now searching for the “why” and “how” answers. How did a seemingly well-adjusted young man fall under the influence of his brother and deign to commit such an act? Are others involved? Are there ties to a larger group in the US or abroad? Although some of these [...] Read more »
Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #64
by Bruce Gregory* Christina Archetti, Understanding Terrorism in the Age of Global Media: A Communication Approach, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). In a book that challenges conventional approaches to understanding the role of the media in terrorism studies, Archetti (University of Salford, UK) offers a new framework to explain ways “in which terrorism is socially constructed through communication.” Her book includes four areas of inquiry: (1) the role of communication, “more or less mediated by technologies,” in [...] Read more »
Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan
by Steven R. Corman With the United States and NATO set to withdraw all or most forces from Afghanistan in 2014, a key question is: How do we want to be remembered for our efforts there? The current narrative of the Afghanistan war is a mess. Yet the narrative of the war, as history tells it, will affect future domestic support for counterinsurgency operations and our credibility with local populations where conflicts take place. If [...] Read more »
Narrative Landmines in Syria
by Steven R. Corman On Thursday, March 20, Small Wars Journal published Narrative Landmines: The Explosive Effects of Rumors in Syria and Around the World by Scott W. Ruston, Chris Lundry, Pauline Hope Cheong and Daniel Bernardi. Ruston and Lundry are Assistant Research Professors at the CSC, and Cheong and Bernardi are former CSC affiliates. The essay addresses rumors in Syria, based on the narrative approach to rumors that the authors present in their book Narrative Landmines: Rumors, Islamist Extremism [...] Read more »
The Difference between Story and Narrative
by Steven R. Corman A presentation by John Hagel, Chairman of Deloitte, at the recent SXSW conference has been getting a lot of play in the blogosphere. In it, Hagel advocates differentiating story from narrative. While he is right to draw the distinction and gets some of the differences right, he misses some key features of narratives that explain why they can be so persuasive. In his presentation, Hagel notes the power of stories for [...] Read more »
African Development Surge Could Play into AQIM Narrative
by Nathaniel Greenberg The Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute recently released a report entitled “Terrorism in North Africa and the Sahel in 2012: Global Reach and Implications.” It contains important proposals for addressing some of the humanitarian crises inflicting the region (including in the Western Sahara, which continues to divide our largest allies in the region). But it also recommends moving forward aggressive deregulation and privatization initiatives that could amplify the predominant grievance—and [...] Read more »
Toppling Assad in Syria: A Western Plot?
By Chris Lundry Indonesian Islamist site syabab.com featured a story on Syria’s embattled leader Bashar al-Assad which states that his looming demise is the culmination of a “Western Plot.” This “news” is fascinating for those who have paid even just a little attention to events as they unfold in Syria. Didn’t the US and the West equivocate for months as Assad murdered his own people? Was that part of the plan? Was part of the [...] Read more »
CSC’s Steve Corman Receives ASU Founder’s Day Award
Professor Steven R. Corman, the Director of the Center for Strategic Communication and the Herberger Professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, received the ASU Alumni Association Founder’s Day Faculty Achievement Service Award yesterday (Thursday, February 21). From the award announcement on the Alumni page: Steven Corman is being honored for his service to the United States military and its allies related to his research on verbal and written [...] Read more »