By: Peter J. Munson Click through to a few SWJ articles on Chechnya and the separatist insurgency there. Read more »
The Growth of Islamism in the Pakistan Army
By: Jason Roach The growth of Islamism in the Pakistan Army is a distinct threat to US interests in the region. Read more »
New White Paper on Rhetoric of Domestic Extremist Groups
by Steven R. Corman The CSC has released a new white paper by Bennett Furlow entitled Extremism and Victimhood in the U.S. Context. The Executive Summary appears below, and the full white paper can be downloaded here. Political extremism is not a new phenomenon. From the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s to the Weather Underground of the 1960s, political extremism has been a present force on both the political right and left. This study looks [...] Read more »
Extremism and Victimhood in the U.S. Context
by R. Bennett Furlow Political extremism is not a new phenomenon. From the Know-Nothing Party of the 1850s to the Weather Underground of the 1960s, political extremism has been a present force on both the political right and left. This study looks at four modern day extremist groups, two from the right and two from the left, and examines their use of rhetoric and narrative. A comparison is also made between these groups and the [...] Read more »
ICG Report on Regrouping of Indonesian Extremists
by Chris Lundry The International Crisis Group has released another outstanding report on Indonesian extremism (available here) that reflects their in-depth approach, extensive connections, and long reaching background into the topic. This report focuses on extremist strategies for regrouping in the context of Indonesian law enforcement successes at breaking up cells and killing or arresting members. The successes are balanced, however, by the extremists’ ability to shift tactics and recruit new members. The report also [...] Read more »
New CSC White Paper: How Islamist Extremists Quote the Qur’an
by Steven R. Corman The CSC has released a new white paper, entitled How Islamist Extremists Quote the Qur’an. The study is based on of over 1500 verse citations from over 2000 items of extremist propaganda collected as part of our extremist narrative project. The quotes are overwhelmingly about enduring hardships and maintaining faith and hope in the face of attacks by enemies of Islam. The results are surprising considering conventional wisdom in many quarters [...] Read more »
Corman speaks at 5th NATO SHAPE Strategic Communication Conference in Izmir, Turkey
CSC Director Steve Corman addressed the 5th NATO SHAPE Strategic Communication conference on June 21st in Izmir, Turhey. The conference gathered over 140 practitioners from NATO member countries. The conference featured a keynote address by Gen. John Allen, commander of ISAF in Afghanistan. Narrative was a prominent theme at the conference, and Corman was invited to share insights from the CSC’s work on narrative applied both to NATO and extremist groups. He discussed narrative problems [...] Read more »
The Aftermath of Another Affront
by Chris Lundry (with R. Bennett Furlow) It did not take long for the images of the US Marines urinating on corpses of Taliban fighters to go viral. A moment of lapsed judgment will circulate as long as anyone is interested in seeing it, certainly long after short attention spans move on to other things and the fallout – including, presumably, disciplinary actions for the soldiers – settles. Predictably, extremist sites have been all over [...] Read more »
New Volume on Countering Violent Extremism
by Steven R. Corman NSI has just released a new edited volume (PDF here) that should be of interest to COMOPS Journal readers. Entitled Countering Violent Extremism: Scientific Methods and Strategies, it contains the latest thinking on the subject, including a chapter on narrative by yours truly. The contents are listed below. Foreword (Brig. Gen. John N.T. “Jack” Shanahan) Preface (Diane DiEuiliis) Executive Summary (Laurie Fenstermacher) Section 1: Current Insights into Violent Extremism Not All [...] Read more »
Implicit Master Narratives in Extremist Website Launch
by Jeffry R. Halverson If you’ve read our book Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism then you already have a solid understanding of the major master narratives employed by Islamist extremists in their communications. For example, you’re able to recognize the significance of a Pharaoh reference when an extremist is condemning a world leader. Or you’re able to see the apocalyptic scheme articulated in Ahmadinejad’s praise of the “Lord of the Age” (which is not a [...] Read more »