TERRORISM AND COMMUNICATION CDR F. AZNAR, PHD NOV 2012
Terrorism or war?
CHARACTERISTICS Tactical actions for political purposes. Particular, indirect limited strategy Expressive violence Denial. Don t destroy, discredit. Violence=pedagogy. Propaganda by deed Protracted warfare Persistence and Repetition.
ASYMMETRY Faces different strategic models. No military strategies isomorphism. Population is object and objective. Terrorism = bloody narrative. Violence is not useless Terrorist s own ethics Strategy aims provocation to change roles
"The word supports the war and the war is contained in the word, that is, it is enclosed in the word" "Communication is done by deeds rather than by words or by acts which are added to the words and action becomes a form of communication"
THE MAGIC OF WORDS Activity is not neutral. Decisive. Appropriation. Leads imagination. Command, peace process, socialization of pain Words allow abandon concepts. Orwellian language. War / conflict / terrorism / crime. The utility of polysemy. Warfare and dialogue.
"Obviously communication in war in this century is one of the most powerful methods of combat, in fact, its ratio may reach 90% of the total preparation for battle" Ben Laden 'Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers'.
WAR IS MORE THAN VIOLENCE "By its reality, war is a test of strength, by its need is proof of sense. Opposed physically.. Forces that are never purely physical and material. " Glucksman The order comes out from chaos and chaos is necessary before founding a new order war is a clash of speeches, which is not won by the best... but by that one covering the whole battlefield. The most warrior like speech triumphs... War not only set the conditions of all communication: it is in itself, communication "
The world stops at a man who knows where he is going LA PAZ Y EL FIN DE LAS NARRATIVAS Inaccuracy. Rationality / legitimacy. Freedom to build. Explain everything. Internal and external use. Definición Narrating is knowing, seducing, thinking, researching to understand life. If we have, we have identity. The paradox is that war is, above all, a duel of narratives. Thus violence, their actors and their understandings are made of stories. Natalia Franco
The narratives do not describe reality, they create it It generates an ethical space which makes possible violence
The parties can make concessions, ideologies never A. Hitler A narrative is an emotional way to interpret the world. Submitted in a rationally way, it gives meaning and streamlines, using select facts. Uses past to explain future. Religious principles and proposals. Millennialism. Secular religions. Runway. Give meaning and direction. Spine. Spiritual dimension of violence. Action, msg. and causes are interrelated. Without narration violence has no sense.
Narratives. Parciality. A tool for political persuasion more powerful than arguments and data. Political don t faces facts but to perceptions. Not immutable. They change shape without modifying background. Ability to reinterpret themselves. Domain of silence. Victimization. Losing to win. It is story, not History. Ignore History. They do not argue, dismiss. Excludes did not provide for. Importance of what it excludes. Refractory. Fed. Autonomous
Narratives Narratives are looking for mind control. Media blitz to eliminate reflective thought. Victory: involve population, social movement Answer and speech. Conflict between narratives. Pedagogy: modify milestones, references. Terrorism bloody narrative.
A battle is way to undermine and probe the moral and physical forces by means of the latter " Clausewitz "Action precedes hope" Terrorism is violence or, what is the same, the threat of violence, used and managed in function or in service of a political goal. Bruce Hoffmann
DIRTY WARFARE FAILURE Not resolute. Politics subordinate to tactics Equalization of the parties. Loss of legitimacy. Center of gravity is not people, but Narratives.
NEW WARS, NEW PEACES End of war is peace, contradiction. Peace pact. Commitment precarious levels. Empty concept. Peace conquers reason. Winning the peace. Victoria, justice and peace. Not only physical violence order. Structural violence. Pedagogy. Public space. Replace violent narrative.
War is an act of will, and also peace. Building peace has always much greater entity than preparing the war, because peace has (or should have anyway) more substance than war. Alonso Baquer A conqueror is a friend of peace
PEACE AND NARRATIVES Narratives are the consumables of war. The narratives concur on the facts and occupy everything. Narratives amplify differences and prevent compromise. Difficult to combat because it is difficult to distinguish facts from narratives. The narrative should be more inclusive and less bellicose. Breaking the melancholy loop.
NEW WARS, NEW PEACES. Keep the speech itself. Making peace. Undo levels of engagement. Strengthen civil society. Strengthen and adapt the state. Subsidiarity. Respect minorities. Democracy. "Nike doesn t fly above the bowed necks of a humiliated people.
CONCLUSION It is an emotional battle. To win peace: to win narratives battle. To tell own story: to coalesce own group and affect international background. To assign value to key elements excluded by terrrorist. To reinforce share values. To create an inclusive narrative
JUSTICIA Y REEQUILIBRIO ERRORISM AND COMMUNICATION
Terrorism and Communications CF. Federico Aznar October 2012