Image Warfare In The War On Terror

Image Warfare in the War on Terror provides an innovative re-examination of the war on terror, arguing that since September 11th 2001, image warfare has replaced techno-war as the dominant warfighting model. Roger suggests that image warfare is a form of warfare in which Al Qaeda currently dominates while the West is still playing catch-up.

By dealing with the deployment of disturbing images generated by the 9/11 attacks from bin Laden videos, suicide terrorism and hostage executions to prisoner abuses, Roger provides us with a new vocabulary through which these acts can be discussed and understood. Offering the first comprehensive assessment of image warfare from an International Relations perspective, this study also engages with media studies and visual cultures to reveal an intriguing new line of political communications explained through Roger's conceptual terms 'image munitions', 'counter-image munitions' and 'remediation battles'.

Review: What Roger is justifiably attempting to do is relocate media in the international relations literature; namely, to treat the media landscape as a central principle, perhaps the primary theatre in which events are played out. Combining theoretical literature from international relations and from strategic, cultural, media and terrorist studies, he traces the changing nature of image use during the so-called War on Terror [...] The reason Roger deserves a wider readership is that he is tackling a significant argument, and one that some in the academy and government on both sides of the Atlantic have been engaged in for many years. - Times Higher Education