Overview

The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 redrew the map of the Middle East, yet the region has since endured constant conflict.  Military and economic wars have been fought openly, whilst the West and Arab states have quietly controlled public opinion by managing the narratives that validate their actions.  Here we meet the hidden information war, from the propaganda coup of the entry of British forces into Jerusalem in 1917 to the campaign that sold the case for regime change in Saddam’s Iraq in 2003.  As the West has embraced public diplomacy and soft power, the propagandists of Islamic State have developed global reach to greater effect by using a simple message via cutting edge digital output and thriving social media to generate publicity and harvest recruits.  In the Trump era of fake news, media manipulation and cyber warfare, the battle to control public opinion in the modern Middle East is one the whole world is watching.

Full Product Details

Author:   Vyvyan Kinross
Publisher:   Nomad Publishing
Imprint:   Nomad Publishing
Edition:   Hmf
Dimensions:   Width: 14.80cm , Height: 0.30cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.600kg
ISBN:  

9781908531650

ISBN 10:   1908531657
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   21 April 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Preface Glossary – the language of persuasion The asymmetric front: information and conflict in the Arab world -The power of public opinion; the rising cost of war; strategic information warfare; social architects and war; theatre of the grotesque; three phases of propaganda; fragmentation of specialist propaganda; public diplomacy and soft power The machinery of public opinion, propaganda and persuasion -Cracking the Orientalist code; manipulation of public opinion; the quality of prestige; from caricature to character assassination; the father of public relations; news, images and the truth; information culture and the Middle East  Military jihad: images and themes of the Great War -Advent of systematic propaganda; protector of Islam; the German jihad; a case of mythopoeia: Lowell Thomas & PR gold; the Lawrence of Arabia industry; an orchestra pit filled with palms; entry into the Holy City; the role of atrocity propaganda; Versailles and the post war settlement; national perspectives on WW1 propaganda Long live the Arabs! The nationalist message in the age of dictatorships -From black shirts to green shirts; Ahmad & Johnny; ‘at all cost avoid being boring’; Crystallising Public Opinion; Palestine and ‘the Jewish war’; From Palestine to Suez: crisis management, disaster recovery and reputational deficit -Managing the information front; a downgrade in information; paying the price for past mistakes; Suez: Empire in crisis; Nasser, revolution and star quality; Eden and the glittering prizes; Eden as media manager; a tale of two movies; bitter and painful lessons;   PsyOps, Information Operations and Saddam the PsyWarrior -‘Islam is our way, freedom is our aim’; avoiding information fratricide; drawing up the PsyOp masterplan; Saddam the PsyWarrior; PsyOp and Desert Storm; Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003; Metallica and Barney the dinosaur; Alternative realities: perception management, outsourcing and Iraq -Information and the role of the state; declining UK information capacity; the twin gods of outsourcing and consulting; Citizens for a free Kuwait; the age of the information warrior; the whistle blower and the PR industrial complex; the dynamics driving outsourcing; reforming the Smith-Mundt Act;     ‘Companions of the pen’: media strategy in the Salafi jihadist utopia -Raqqa: impossible to live, impossible to leave; prioritising the information war; atrocity propaganda, ritual and power; social architects and Salafi jihadist doctrine; media jihad goes digital; the counter strategic communications effort;  Public diplomacy, soft power and the rethinking of relationships -Public diplomacy and soft power; ‘the world is a geospatial pinball machine’; the new power of the Arab Street;  aid, development and peace inequality; constructing an alternative narrative; a new paradigm for relationships; ending the age of intervention   Bibliography   About the author   Acknowledgements

Reviews

""A substantial part of his highly readable text examines the successes and failures in the information war of both Western -- especially American -- powers in their fight against dictators like Saddam Hussein as well as the jihadi Islamists, the most significant being Islamic State (IS). What I found particularly striking about Kinross's discussion of IS is how much the young fighters and their PR teams learnt from the very Western culture they affected to despise, from Hollywood through video games to the slickest of TV advertisements."" --Jonathan Fryer, Goodreads ""This gripping book charts the often hidden information war, from the propaganda coup of the entry of British forces into Jerusalem in 1917, to the campaign of perception management that sold the case for regime change in Saddam's Iraq in 2003."" --The Cordoba Foundation ""As Vyvyan Kinross writes...: ""It is hard to completely escape the parallel in this aspect of Eden's premiership with that of Tony Blair's flawed rationale and media manipulation prior to the invasion of Iraq 40 years later, finally laid bare in the Chilcot Report. In his role as architect of Britain's information wars over Suez, Eden can truly be said to have designed a house with no stairs."" --David Hearst, Middle East Eye, 28th February, 2020 ""Greater public assertiveness driving regional unrest' Author Vyvyan Kinross' book tackles the information war in the region that has been at play since World War I, and that has been pivotal in shaping events across the Middle East."" --Tarek Ali Ahmad, Arab News, February 07, 2020

Author Information

Vyvyan Kinross is a PR and communications specialist, advising governments managing their information and communications capacity.  He has recently worked in the UAE and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  

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