Courtesy of editor Nikolas Gvosdev, the contents of the spring issue of The National Interest. Somewhere between Anatol Lieven and Leon Feurth, you'll find "Al-Qaeda's Media Strategies," by yours truly. The opening paragraphs:
The centrality of Arab television stations such as al-Jazeera to Al-Qaeda’s political strategy has long been evident. From spectacular terror attacks designed for maximal media exposure, to carefully timed videos from Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to the burgeoning realm of jihadi Internet forums, Al-Qaeda the organization has increasingly become indistinguishable from Al-Qaeda the media phenomenon. But the nature of Al-Qaeda’s relationship with the Arab media has been poorly understood.
While the Arab media has indeed been vital to Al-Qaeda’s political strategy since 9/11, it has also unleashed powerful counter-forces and political competitors into a once vacant arena. The migration of the jihad from satellite television onto the Internet demonstrates the tension between two competing visions of Al-Qaeda: Zawahiri’s grand strategy of winning over the Arab "median voter" and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s strategy of mobilizing an already radicalized base. For the United States to have any hope of waging a serious “war of ideas” against jihadism, it must better understand the battlefield—which means grasping the realities of the Arab media environment and its complex relationship with the jihad.
For the rest, you'll just have to wait until the issue hits the stands!
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