Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns

CHAPTER 13 Terrorist Communication Campaigns Two Major Case Studies

This chapter defines fundamental terms related to terrorism, extremism, radicalization, indoctrination, and the weaponization of language as a whole. Two large-scale case studies, the FARC in Colombia and the Rwanda Genocide in 1994, thoroughly demonstrate how public communication campaigns can be used to turn hatred and extreme violence into an addiction or a way of life. As Lenin famously said, “the purpose of terror is to terrorize.”¹ Such malevolent killing violates the most fundamental conceptions of morality that buttress most social institutions (religious and secular alike). Terrorism can be defined as an intentional and insensible form of violence, making it uncontrollable and, in the eyes of many, transcending the mere concept of warfare.² Indeed, unlike warfare, terrorism is symbolized by the political or ideological motivation of violence, the noncombatant nature of its perpetrators, and by their covert or clandestine modus operandi. Although terrorism causes fewer casualties than warfare (and other specific forms of violence) annually, it seems to attract as much attention from the audience.³

Title 22 of the United States Code defines terrorism as politically motivated violence committed in a stealthy and surreptitious manner against noncombatants. Scholars with expert knowledge in that field incorporate an additional aspect in the definition: the act is perpetrated to produce a fearful state of ...