Taliban information strategy: how are the Taliban directing their information strategy towards the population of Afghanistan?

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the core components of the Afghan Taliban information strategy, which they treat as their main effort in their struggle to regain power. The Taliban use cultural metaphors from multiple sources such as Islam, pushtunwali, and Afghanistan's history to frame their right of religious and political authority. Taliban information strategy interweaves these metaphors with threats to sow fear in the minds of the Afghan population. Such methods employed by the Taliban to send their messages consist of leaving shabnamehs (night letters) to demonstrate that the Taliban can appear at anytime. More modern methods such as creating DVDs have recently been incorporated into their toolbox for the purpose of sustaining their fighter's moral and recruiting new followers inspired by their battle victories. This thesis determines that the Taliban are focusing their information strategy on short-term goals and thus, is relatively ineffective. This is derived from polling data that demonstrates the majority of Afghan people do not support the Taliban or desire to see their return to power. The Taliban are viewed as the reason for poor security despite their efforts to convince the population that the government cannot provide security. The Taliban information strategy has relied primarily on fear and coercion rather than persuasion. The Taliban's problematic IO strategy affords multiple opportunities for the United States and its allies to reach out to those parts of the Afghan population for whom the Taliban provide a disproportionate amount of all their information. This thesis makes specific recommendations on how best to achieve this goal.