Let the Revolution Begin, 140 Characters at a Time: Social Media and Unconventional Warfare

Abstract

The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham (DAIISH), has been attributed to the groups ability to exploit social media to spread propaganda, control beliefs, recruit, preach, and broadcast ambitions. As a means to influence and motivate others to act on their behalf, DAIISHs use of social media is similar to the principles enshrined in U.S. military unconventional warfare (UW) doctrine. Although DAIISH is not the focus of this thesis, for a variety of reasons, this thesis seeks to answer the research question: What are the common elements between, implications of, and recommendations for social media and UW? Answering this question involves two sets of analysis.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2015
Accession Number
AD1015770

Entities

People

  • Joshua W. Petry

Organizations

  • Air University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Employment
  • Geography
  • Governments
  • Hybrid Warfare
  • Military Organizations
  • Mobile Phones
  • Network Protocols
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Movements
  • Social Media
  • Social Networking Services
  • Societies
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Unconventional Warfare
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.