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Defense Horizons National Defense University October 2014 DEFENSE HORIZONS National Defense University About the Authors A Time to Tweet, as Well Heather Marie Vitale is an International Security graduate as a Time to Kill: ISIS’s student at George Mason University and a Research Intern at the National Projection of Power in Iraq Defense University (NDU). Dr. James M. Keagle is Deputy Director of the Center for Technology and National and Syria Security Policy, Institute for National Strategic Studies, at NDU. He is also a by Heather Marie Vitale and James M. Keagle Professor and former Provost at NDU. n June 29, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, also Key Points known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or the Islamic 1 ◆◆ The Islamic State of Iraq and al- State), a Sunni jihadist group with the capability of a paramilitary, Sham (ISIS) uses a combination established an Islamic caliphate. With 10,000 militants, the group took territory of intimidation, military might, O and digital propaganda to project and achieved a goal that rival terrorist group al Qaeda has pursued for decades. power militarily, economically, Yet how did a group with relatively few fighters accomplish so much? politically, and informationally. ISIS and its caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have learned lessons from past ◆◆ ISIS runs a sophisticated and mul- tidimensional social media cam- insurgents and leaders. In the implementation of its campaign, the group has paign, exploiting it as a weapon of used strategic tools to project military, economic, political, and informational war to intimidate, spread official power to the local, regional, and global community. From exploiting the sectar- messages, recruit, fundraise, network, and justify its gruesome ian divide to gain support, to manipulating political and social media to inflate acts. its appearance of strength, to recruiting disaffected Sunnis and Muslim youth of ◆◆ ISIS has been emboldened by the the world through social media, ISIS has proved to be a new class of insurgency. borderless nature of the region and the clash of religious and secu- ISIS, however, has projected the most power and shown the most innova- lar sub-identities in Iraq. tion with technology and media. It demonstrates a masterful understanding of ◆◆ The United States needs to effective propaganda and social media use, producing a multidimensional global develop a comprehensive digital campaign across multiple platforms. ISIS has used these platforms to exhibit strategy that is slicker, faster, and more nimble than ISIS’s to fight intimidation, networking, recruitment, justice, and justification. It continues to the insurgency. spread its anti-Western, pro-jihadi messages to vulnerable populations using vi- ral videos made to look like video games. Yet its skill is best displayed on Twitter where it has garnered tens of thousands of followers across dozens of accounts, eliciting feedback from average supporters. The deterioration of the Syrian and Iraqi states further enabled ISIS’s ex- CENTER SE FORCURITY TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND NATIONAL pansion of power. With the civil war in Syria and the inflamed sectarian tensions inss.dodlive.mil DH No. 77 1 in Iraq, ISIS had little to exploit in order to assert itself. some adequate check on Iranian power. Part of the di- Given the lack of strong state leadership, increases in sec- lemma has been reconstructing Iraq economically, mili- tarian violence, and the abundance of porous borders, an tarily, and politically. We must understand the Syria of insurgent uprising was inevitable. today in this context. ISIS currently threatens the United States. As the The current conflict is complex due to the intercon- group continues to focus on recruiting foreign fighters nected nature of the region. Iraq, Syria, and Iran all have from the West, the U.S. homeland, its assets abroad, and long and contentious histories with one another. Argu- those of its allies remain at risk. The United States thus ably, the current conflict in al-Sham can be traced back to must do what it can to counteract ISIS’s projections of the declining days of the Ottoman Empire. Toward the power and propaganda. By launching a slicker and pro- end of World War I, Great Britain and France secretly active digital campaign to draw attention and followers devised a plan to partition the empire. This produced the away from ISIS, the United States could help prevent infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement (officially known as more people from joining the fight. the Asia Minor Agreement), which divided the greater Chronology and Background Arab region (including modern day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon) into neocolonial spheres of influence. The In the 1970s, the United States pursued a policy United States initially opposed this agreement based on known as “dual containment” in an attempt to achieve its Allies’ furtive diplomacy, as well as a stated belief in stability in the Gulf region. The end chapter of that in- the right to national self-determination. Great Britain cluded the pursuit, capture, and subsequent execution of and France attempted to impose their views of political Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Since then, the United legitimacy on the region with Sykes-Picot.2 This was op- States has been wrestling with options that can restore a posed by President Woodrow Wilson, and ever since the balance of power in the region. This task includes finding United States has been reluctantly supporting borders that are increasingly maligned with ethnic, religious, and other factional forces. To many Arabs, the Sykes-Picot Figure 1. Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 Agreement represents a Western betrayal and the first in a series of intrusions. RUSSIA Many saw the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 as another Western intrusion, one that dramatically ANATOLIA Tabriz increased sectarian tensions. Iraq had been a Shia BLUE ZONE Direct French Control Adana majority country led by Saddam, a Sunni Ba’athist. Aleppo Mosul PERSIA The Sunnis were marginalized politically, socially, A ZONE French Influence and economically once Saddam was overthrown. Beirut Damascus This increased the insurgency as disaffected sheikhs Baghdad B ZONE British Influence and tribespeople resented the new political order and Amman RED ZONE Gaza Direct British Jerusalem Control foreign occupation of lands. This insurgency grew to Basra become al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), led by Abu Musab EGYPT Kuwait al-Zarqawi. Sectarian violence came to a head in 2006, ARABIA where 30 to 40 attacks occurred daily in the western Al Anbar Province.3 0 100 200 300 km In early 2007, the Bush administration deployed an additional 20,000 to 30,000 troops to Iraq—a decision 2 DH No. 77 inss.dodlive.mil commonly referred to as “the surge.” The troop surge of pan-national, national, and subnational. For example, managed the increase in sectarian violence. The Anbar an Iraqi may view himself or herself as simultaneously Awakening, the preexisting U.S. operation in Anbar, ran Arab, Iraqi, and Sunni. The complicated nature manifests in tandem with the surge. U.S. forces worked with the when questioning which sub-identity becomes the indi- Sunni tribes of the province to fight against AQI. These viduals’ primary identity and driving force. coalitions of local security forces, known as the Sahwa Relating to a primary identity at a higher level, pan- or the Sons of Iraq, stood more for the rejection of AQI national or national, could bring greater unity. Believ- than the reception of U.S. objectives. The Sahwa proved ing oneself to be Iraqi or Arab first highlights the gen- crucial to the sharp reduction in sectarian violence after eral similarities over the base differences that primary March 2007. Anbar Province was officially transferred subnational identities accentuate. However, in practice, back to the Iraqi government on September 1, 2008. connections to national identity, and its subsequent in- The region started to erupt again in December 2010 stitutions, tend to be flimsy at best.4 Whether privately as the Arab Spring movement spread from Tunisia to or publicly, many people in the region tend to primarily Egypt and beyond. Civil protests against the regime of identify with their subnational identity, be it Sunni, Shia, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad began in March 2011, Christian, or Kurd.5 This practice features predominantly but after violent government crackdowns, devolved in Syria and Iraq. Strong subnational identities tend to be divisive and lead to violence and conflict. These divisions cor- whether privately or publicly, respond with the crisis in Syria and Iraq, a crisis largely many people in the region tend fueled by sectarian tensions. ISIS, a Sunni jihadist orga- to primarily identify with their nization, actively targets Shia in its military campaign subnational identity, be it Sunni, to avenge its feelings of marginalization. The subna- Shia, Christian, or Kurd tional divide instills ISIS with more power, one of the group’s greatest tools. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham into civil war. The opposition was initially comprised of groups such as the al-Nusra Front and the Free Syrian Background. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham Army. However, members of the AQI regrouped and re- is a violent offshoot of al Qaeda known for its brutal gained strength in Syria and mounted an independent tactics and crimes against civilians. Ayman al-Zawahiri, offensive of both sides. AQI became the Islamic State head of al Qaeda Central, distanced himself from the or- of Iraq and al-Sham in 2012. ISIS grew more powerful ganization as early as 2007 because of these tactics. In- due to the porous border between Syria and Iraq and the stead of following Zawahiri’s prescribed slow strategies spillover from the civil war. of societal embeddedness to rally support, ISIS does the Identity opposite by pushing a harsher strategy of violence and risking the loss of public approval.
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