Presentation Title: Framing the 'Good Fight': The Propaganda Techniques of Jihadi Insurgents and Asymmetric Actors 
Theme: Future Operations
Presenter: Ms Katja Theodorakis

Insurgent groups, as typical asymmetric non-state actors, make extensive use of propaganda and information operations to achieve their military and political objectives. This is especially the case when theirs is a revolutionary movement, seeking to implement an alternative political order in opposition to the socio-cultural, religious and legal systems of the existing state. IS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are cases in point for this – movements dedicated to the utopian vision of a more ‘righteous’ order, fuelled by an alleged superior moral code.  

This presentation will delve into the key elements of these groups’ propaganda campaigns, outlining prominent themes and techniques via a discursive analysis. In particular, the focus will be on the ethical claims these movements make in a bid for legitimacy vis-à-vis the status-quo regime and its Western backers. Commonly, they seek to gain the moral high-ground by exposing the so-called hypocrisy, injustices and moral corruption of the resident/dominant powers as illegitimate occupiers. Ultimately, it seeks to demonstrate how these groups seek to lay ‘ethical traps’ through their information operations, and what can be done to avoid this.  

By drawing on themes/findings from my research on propaganda, resistance narratives and information campaigns across various case studies, I will look at some of the variables and vectors that may play a key role in the future operating environment (as we understand and imagine it now). 

Katja is a national security professional with particular expertise in the areas of terrorism/extremism, jihadism and the propaganda dynamics of asymmetric/hybrid conflict. Her PhD research is concerned with insurgent ideology and propaganda narratives – in particular their moral dimensions and strategic use in information operations.  She is also a founding member of their Future Operations Research Group an co-founder of the associated Women in Future Operations Platform. In her day job, Katja works as Senior Program Coordinator for Foreign/Security Policy at the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation’s Regional Program Australia and the Pacific in Canberra.