Kampen om den mest uimotståelige historien: Hva kjennetegner Talibans propaganda og med hvilke kontrapropagandatiltak kan ISAF bekjempe den?

摘要

This analysis is split into two where the first half is dedicated to what characterizes Talibanpropaganda, and the other half to an analysis of which counterpropaganda measures ISAF canutilize in order to counter it.The Taliban’s propaganda apparatus has grown in size, skill and emphasis since it was removedfrom power in late 2001. It has shown ability to adapt to modern media and technology, and cannow communicate with a global reach and impact. Their messages are mostly based on realincidents, but often strongly exaggerated. They use strong religious connotations to harvestauthority and legitimacy. The civilian population is deliberately used as human shields, whichhas lead to incidents where ISAF operations cause civilian casualties, giving Taliban propagandaopportunities. They utilize their knowledge of the people’s culture, history, traditions andlanguage. They have also learned weaknesses within their enemy and the paramount role of thenews media. The Taliban is an actor that efficiently exploits the physical battle domain tosupport the decisive cognitive domain.Three cases of Taliban propaganda are being discussed in this thesis; Mullah MohammadOmar’s Eid Messages, how the Taliban utilizes spectacular incidents, and exploiting incidentswhere ISAF causes Civilian Casualties.The main ISAF counterpropaganda contributions identified here are supporting the legitimacy ofthe Afghan Government, supporting the security situation on the ground, improving the legalframework for treatment of prisoners, condemning the Taliban’s use of young men as suicidebombers, offering preventive measures against suicide bombers, turning the Taliban’s violence(documented by the UN) against them, sustain media readiness in order to being first with thetruth and other relevant information, and communicating objectives and intentions to thepopulation to give them a feeling of comprehensibility.The analysis, the interviews and the theoretical framework all pave the way for a focus on thepopulation. Efforts must be prioritized on the cognitive domain in order to have effect incountering the Taliban propaganda. The non-kinetic efforts must be supported by kinetic effortson the ground in order for the population to be receptive of an anti-Taliban posture. This clearlyidentifies the close links between kinetic and non-kinetic military operations, and the need for anoverarching narrative – the most compelling story.