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This book focuses on the propaganda war between the Syrian
government and the opposition movement, which excludes the Islamic
State and the Kurdish-led SDF. Drawing on international relations,
psychology, and media studies, the book encourages readers to
question the dominant discourse on the war. The core of the book
outlines the propaganda battles over the main paradigms and
narratives that framed the war, exploring the shortcomings of those
paradigms and narratives, identifying who won the propaganda war
and why, and assessing what impact it had on the military side of
the war. In particular, it focuses on the role of cognitive bias
amongst primary and secondary sources in determining the outcome of
the propaganda war, and whether the influence of this propaganda is
best explained by effects or limited effects theory. Through
explaining the dynamics of the propaganda war, the book encourages
readers to critically question the dominant discourse on the war,
assists them in understanding primary and secondary reporting on
the war, and shows that the impact of the propaganda war is best
understood in terms of limited effects theory. The book's main
findings are that: i) the opposition won the international
propaganda war but failed to win the propaganda war inside Syria;
ii) propaganda had relatively little effect on shaping attitudes
either inside Syria or internationally (instead, its main effect
was to reinforce attitudes that had already been shaped by other
factors); and iii) the reality of the war lies between the
conflicting paradigms and narratives being promoted by each side.
Concerns about CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear)
weapons have featured prominently in both political debates and
media reporting about the ongoing threat from al Qaeda since 9/11.
This book provides a chronological account of al Qaeda's efforts to
acquire a CBRN weapon capability, and the evolution of the al Qaeda
leadership's approach to actually using CBRN weapons, set against
the context of the politicisation of the threat of CBRN terrorism
in US security debates. Ben Cole explores how the inherently
political nature of terrorist CBRN threats has helped to shape al
Qaeda's approach to CBRN weapons, and shows how the heightened
political sensitivities surrounding the threat have enabled some
governments to manipulate it in order to generate domestic and
international support for controversial policies, particularly the
2003 invasion of Iraq. He assesses the relative success of the al
Qaeda leadership's political approach to CBRN weapons, together
with the relative success of efforts by the US, UK and Russian
governments to exploit the al Qaeda CBRN threat for their wider
political purposes. Shedding new light on al Qaeda's tactics and
strategy, this book will be essential reading for scholars of
terrorism and extremism studies.
Concerns about CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear)
weapons have featured prominently in both political debates and
media reporting about the ongoing threat from al Qaeda since 9/11.
This book provides a chronological account of al Qaeda's efforts to
acquire a CBRN weapon capability, and the evolution of the al Qaeda
leadership's approach to actually using CBRN weapons, set against
the context of the politicisation of the threat of CBRN terrorism
in US security debates. Ben Cole explores how the inherently
political nature of terrorist CBRN threats has helped to shape al
Qaeda's approach to CBRN weapons, and shows how the heightened
political sensitivities surrounding the threat have enabled some
governments to manipulate it in order to generate domestic and
international support for controversial policies, particularly the
2003 invasion of Iraq. He assesses the relative success of the al
Qaeda leadership's political approach to CBRN weapons, together
with the relative success of efforts by the US, UK and Russian
governments to exploit the al Qaeda CBRN threat for their wider
political purposes. Shedding new light on al Qaeda's tactics and
strategy, this book will be essential reading for scholars of
terrorism and extremism studies.
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