The PAE Corner: (Out)marketing bin Laden
by Tamara Heimur on February 26, 2008 in News, PAE Corner
Gallo (left) & Ciovacco. Credit: Naseem Khuri
Top three things on Osama bin Laden’s mind: Jihad. Muslim unity. Marketing strategy.
Wait, what was that last one?
That is the topic of Carl Ciovacco (MPP2) and Alex Gallo’s (MPP2) Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE), titled Combating al-Qaeda’s Marketing Strategy: History, Analysis and Recommendations, produced for the Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Ciovacco and Gallo, both West Point graduates who served combat tours in Iraq, systematically analyzed al Qaeda communications to recommend how the U.S. can better win in the “battle of ideas” in the war on terror.The exercise is predicated on the idea that the U.S. and al-Qaeda are engaged in an ideological struggle fought in the “non-traditional battlefield,” such as in the airwaves and on the web. It uses a business marketing approach to study how the target market segment - moderate Muslims - are being influenced and recruited. To conduct their analysis, Ciovacco and Gallo have gone directly to the source, reviewing transcripts from 64 videos and letters from Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, from 2001 to 2008.
Their analysis has uncovered seven consistent themes in al-Qaeda communications, such as the launch of a jihad, the weakening of the United States and the existence of a clash of civilizations. The report makes recommendations for a U.S. strategy to combat bin Laden’s messages, such as a “Radio Free World,” similar to Radio Free Europe, to improve understanding of Western values, and win over crucial Muslim moderates.
In a pre-9/11 letter, bin Laden speculated that 90 percent of battle preparation is laid in the media. With Ciovacco and Gallo’s help, the U.S. hopes to do some battle preparation of its own and win back a crucial market from bin Laden.
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