Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Map
- 1 Just Guerrilla Warfare
- Part I The Right to Fight
- Part II Hard War
- Part III Soft War
- 7 Terrorism and Cyberterrorism
- 8 Economic Warfare and the Economy of War
- 9 Public Diplomacy, Propaganda, and Media Warfare
- 10 Civil Disobedience and Nonviolent Resistance
- Part IV Concluding Remarks
- References
- Index
9 - Public Diplomacy, Propaganda, and Media Warfare
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Map
- 1 Just Guerrilla Warfare
- Part I The Right to Fight
- Part II Hard War
- Part III Soft War
- 7 Terrorism and Cyberterrorism
- 8 Economic Warfare and the Economy of War
- 9 Public Diplomacy, Propaganda, and Media Warfare
- 10 Civil Disobedience and Nonviolent Resistance
- Part IV Concluding Remarks
- References
- Index
Summary
In language not far from that used to express their exasperation over guerrilla’s use of human shields, sympathetic supporters of Western armies bemoan their enemy’s uncanny ability to manipulate the media. Turning to the media fiasco accompanying Israel’s foray into Lebanon in 2006, Kalb and Saivetz (2007:43) lament “how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.” No more successful than the Israelis, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan complains how Western forces are “constrained by legal, political and ethical considerations in getting its messages across which often means that it is unable to effectively rebut or counter Taliban propaganda” (Nissen 2007:11).
Such impressions leave us to wonder how state armies will ever prevail against their media savvy, manipulative, and underhanded opponents. This question aside (for it is not the subject of this book), I want to ask instead about the ethics of media warfare. Are their clear moral guidelines for media warfare that should bind all sides to a conflict? And, if so, are guerrillas acting without care for law and ethics when they wage media warfare against their enemies?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Ethics of InsurgencyA Critical Guide to Just Guerrilla Warfare, pp. 213 - 239Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015