It is called strategic communications and it is a weapon of war. Islamic State (Isis) demonstrated yesterday its grasp of this non-violent but just as effective form of warfare with the release of the video of John Cantlie, playing the part of a pro-jihadist news presenter, offering an alternative narrative on the militant group, analysts said.
“It is defensive PR. They are operating as though they were a country,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, a former SAS commander.
The militants are trying — as are western governments — to control the message portrayed to the public.
“That they have a western journalist doing it is because, in theory, he will be more credible but really importantly, he will be projected,” Colonel Williams said. “If they had an Islamic head-hacker saying: ‘I am telling you my brothers this is the way forward’, no one would believe it or listen to it.”
He said that to have a westerner in an orange jumpsuit saying these things made good television. “Also you have the suspense of when he is going to have his head hacked off,” he said. “It is strategic communications designed to send a message to the world.”
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Paul Cornish, professor of strategic studies at the University of Exeter, said that the video was incredibly striking, well produced and designed to send a message that it was not too late to negotiate with Isis to prevent a protracted war. He said that it felt as though the script spoken by Cantlie was written by a well-educated native English-speaker.
“I thought it was very sophisticated strategic communications, very well put together. Really bloody clever stuff,” he said.
Explaining the importance of information warfare, Colonel Williams said that war was primarily a battle of wills. “It is the use of force and the threat of force and it is how that use and that threat is applied to kill the courage of the opponent,” he said. “It is about killing courage not people. You can scare someone senseless and they won’t turn up to fight. That is a much better way to win and to defend.”
Undermining any such effort, however, is the fact that Isis beheads and tortures its hostages. This means that anyone watching the video would understand that Cantlie is co-operating under duress even though he looks calm, analysts said.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense and Democracies, a Washington think-tank, said: “After seeing three guys having their heads chopped off, people are not going to be persuaded by someone with the threat of being tortured talking about how Isis are actually good guys. It is a man being forced to repeat Isis propaganda.”
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The video’s familiar newscaster style using a western hostage was a “first” for Isis, Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, said. He did not believe that anyone would be won over by such propaganda. “People can quite transparently see that he is saying it because he is being held hostage,” Mr Tamimi said.