Month: July 2015

Islamic State’s Propaganda Strategy

~ middleeastweekblog

Charlie Winter comes on the show to talk about Islamic State propaganda. The basis for our discussion is Charlie’s recent paper “The Virtual Caliphate: Understanding Islamic State’s Propaganda Strategy” (PDF). The topics we covered include:

  • Islamic State propaganda that doesn’t focus on brutality
  • How IS propaganda strategy has evolved
  • The ability of Islamic State to control their message
  • Efforts to counter Islamic State propaganda

Links:

Yemen: Not on the Brink, in Free Fall

~ middleeastweekblog

Adam Baron comes back on the show to discuss the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Topics we covered include:

  • Background on the events that lead to the current situation
  • The problems Yemen was facing prior to the past few months of fighting
  • Recent failures to establish a humanitarian cease fire
  • Realistic chances that a cease fire could happen soon
  • AQAP taking advantage of the chaos and controlling territory
  • Lack of urgency in the international community to solving the conflict
  • Who in the international community could have a positive influence on the situation
  • How the Yemeni public views the conflict

Links:

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