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Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy
A seasoned diplomat with deep knowledge of Islamist politics and digital innovation draws the first clear picture of the unprecedented impact of online networks
Social media has dominated the discourse of recent events in the Muslim world—from the Arab Spring and its aftermath to ISIS’s online recruitment. Yet the roles of social media in these events and the use of the dark web, hacking, and digital attacks have received little attention.
Haroon Ullah investigates the unprecedented impact of social media across the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia and demonstrates how it has profoundly changed relationships between regimes and peoples, and within populations—mostly, but not always, for the better. He considers its apparent inherently “democratic,” anti-establishment revolutionary impact, as well as how religious conservatives and extremists have co-opted various platforms. He goes on to show how political parties, corporations, and governments have learned to exploit digital tools to target and mobilize audiences, to ultimately achieve power and status. Identifying key trends across the Muslim world, Ullah outlines what a proper understanding of social media can teach us about regional and international politics and diplomacy.
Social media has dominated the discourse of recent events in the Muslim world—from the Arab Spring and its aftermath to ISIS’s online recruitment. Yet the roles of social media in these events and the use of the dark web, hacking, and digital attacks have received little attention.
Haroon Ullah investigates the unprecedented impact of social media across the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia and demonstrates how it has profoundly changed relationships between regimes and peoples, and within populations—mostly, but not always, for the better. He considers its apparent inherently “democratic,” anti-establishment revolutionary impact, as well as how religious conservatives and extremists have co-opted various platforms. He goes on to show how political parties, corporations, and governments have learned to exploit digital tools to target and mobilize audiences, to ultimately achieve power and status. Identifying key trends across the Muslim world, Ullah outlines what a proper understanding of social media can teach us about regional and international politics and diplomacy.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published October 24, 2017
About the author
Haroon K. Ullah
9 books9 followersHaroon K. Ullah is Chief Strategy Officer for the Broadcasting Board of Governors. A former senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, with a special portfolio on digital transmedia strategy and countering violent extremism, he is an award-winning author and Peabody TV Award recipient, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 27, 2017
An academic summary of the various trends in social media use in the Muslim world and how different mediums are being used for political mobilization, as well as economic change. There was not a ton that would be unfamiliar to most people who grew up with social media, but perhaps it'd be novel for policymakers. There were some interesting references and comparisons though - including the point that social media makes revolutions faster but less centralized, and thus much more disorderly and unpredictable. The comparison between the successful Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Hobbesian outcomes of most Arab Spring countries is instructive here. Activists can stir up a crowd but then they have little control of what comes next. Will incorporate more findings into a more substantive review of this and other books on information warfare.
March 8, 2020
An interesting but possibly (outdated) book with respect to the current national-security policy focus, despite the absurd title, this is very much a serious policy analysis on the spread of digital Islamist content on the web, the nature of it, how it operates, and how possibly the combat it from the standpoint of mitigating the spread of malicious idea/content.
Though some of the content is definitely generlizable for analyzing/combating any extreme content, most of the material serves as a moderately detailed backgrounder to specific nature of how nations in the middle-east and other majority-Muslim states have adapted to internet technologies and platforms, more specifically, to mobile-based web platforms, and how the relatively unique nature of this integration has informed the growth of radical ideologies via the web.
In this sense the book would be ideal for both people interested in cybersecurity (or as an aside-reading for those interested even in general computing), as well as those interested in the history of the modern middle east (and especially those focused within the policy domain).
The text goes into great detail on the Arab spring and ISIS (since these were topics of great interest when the book was probably being written in 2012 - 2015), and stresses the importance of understanding the nuance of the various actors within these nations, instead of bucketing everyone as "Islamist" or "radicalist", there is much content that analyzes the differences even within radicals themselves, which offers a kind of realpolotik synthesis on who the United States (or the broader Western community) could/should partner with in the fight against groups like ISIS. Further, the text also analyzes what the composition of motivations may actually be with respect to these actors. Are they as they state, purely motivated/incentive by religious goals, or are there material interests that can be leveraged for non-violent collaboration?
The book was probably published too late, as when it was released right after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the major policy apparatus has started to shift out of counter-terrorism and back into "great power" conflict. Had this been released 8 years ago, it probably would have gotten better readership.
As is, it's a good introduction to the topic, though possibly too specific for most readers. Conditional recommend.
Though some of the content is definitely generlizable for analyzing/combating any extreme content, most of the material serves as a moderately detailed backgrounder to specific nature of how nations in the middle-east and other majority-Muslim states have adapted to internet technologies and platforms, more specifically, to mobile-based web platforms, and how the relatively unique nature of this integration has informed the growth of radical ideologies via the web.
In this sense the book would be ideal for both people interested in cybersecurity (or as an aside-reading for those interested even in general computing), as well as those interested in the history of the modern middle east (and especially those focused within the policy domain).
The text goes into great detail on the Arab spring and ISIS (since these were topics of great interest when the book was probably being written in 2012 - 2015), and stresses the importance of understanding the nuance of the various actors within these nations, instead of bucketing everyone as "Islamist" or "radicalist", there is much content that analyzes the differences even within radicals themselves, which offers a kind of realpolotik synthesis on who the United States (or the broader Western community) could/should partner with in the fight against groups like ISIS. Further, the text also analyzes what the composition of motivations may actually be with respect to these actors. Are they as they state, purely motivated/incentive by religious goals, or are there material interests that can be leveraged for non-violent collaboration?
The book was probably published too late, as when it was released right after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the major policy apparatus has started to shift out of counter-terrorism and back into "great power" conflict. Had this been released 8 years ago, it probably would have gotten better readership.
As is, it's a good introduction to the topic, though possibly too specific for most readers. Conditional recommend.
March 12, 2018
New and actionable information, based on first-hand investigation by Haroon Ullah, a national treasure now helping America to win the information war against the Islamists. This is not a rehash of press reports, and includes interviews with jihadis encountered in Pakistan and the UAE I have not seen elsewhere.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews