A New Center for Global Engagement: A Revamped CVE Effort Engenders Skepticism

Or "Countering the so-called Islamic State". As an introduction, let's start with large extracts of a piece by by Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung in The Washington Post, "Obama administration plans shake-up in propaganda war against the Islamic State".

"The Obama administration is overhauling its faltering efforts to combat the online propaganda of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, U.S. officials said, reflecting rising White House frustration with largely ineffective efforts so far to cut into ISIS’s use of social media to draw recruits and incite attacks.

"Officials will create a new counter-terrorism task force, which will be based at the Department of Homeland Security but aims to enlist dozens of federal and local agencies. Other moves include revamping a State Department program that was created to serve as an information war room to challenge the Islamic State online and erode its appeal.

"U.S. officials said the unit at the State Department will turn its focus toward helping allies craft more localized anti-terror messages, and will stop producing any videos or other material in English — ending a campaign that had been derided by critics.

"The plans were announced by the White House Friday, as senior members of President Obama’s national security team traveled to California in a renewed effort to enlist Silicon Valley companies to help contain the morphing terror threat. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, spy chief James Clapper and FBI Director James B. Comey were to meet with executives from Apple, Facebook, Twitter and other firms.

"The moves come at a time of increasing public anxiety and criticism of the administration’s strategy after recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., that were linked to or partly inspired by the Islamic State.

"Although some of the initiatives have been in development for months, U.S. officials acknowledged a heightened sense of urgency and opportunity.

“Everybody realizes that this is a moment .?.?. to take advantage of,” a senior administration official said prior to the announcement. The official added that the objective in sending so many top officials to Silicon Valley was to make sure “that they understand what we are up against with respect to ISIL.”

"The Islamic State is sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL. The official was one of several who were authorized to discuss the plans on condition of anonymity.

"But the changes are also likely to be seen as the latest sign of turmoil in U.S. government efforts to disrupt recruitment and radicalization efforts by terror groups that increasingly exploit social media platforms and encrypted communications technologies, often developed in the United States but beyond the reach of law enforcement.

"The State Department’s counter-messaging team has had three leaders in little more than a year and has cycled through multiple strategies in its search for a way to counter the massive propaganda output of the Islamic State. The FBI has also ramped up efforts against violent extremism, opening nearly 1,000 cases across the country and cultivating closer ties to Muslim communities. Even so, it was caught off-guard by the San Bernardino attacks.

"A report released this week by the conservative Heritage Foundation concluded that U.S. strategy for countering violent extremism “has fallen short, lacking meaningful attention and resources.”

"The changes unveiled Friday appear to be centered on bureaucratic and strategic adjustments, with little indication of any substantial increase in resources.

"U.S. officials said that the State Department’s counter-messaging operation would be re-branded the “Global Engagement Center,” but acknowledged that its annual budget for now remains unchanged at roughly $5 million per year.

"Planning that led up to the new initiatives was set off last February at a Washington summit held by President Obama to spark ideas and buy-in here and abroad. In September, Obama convened another international meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.

“Ultimately, it is not going to be enough to defeat ISIL in the battlefield,” Obama told representatives from more than 100 nations and civil society groups, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. “We have to prevent it from radicalizing, recruiting and inspiring others to violence in the first place. And this means defeating their ideology.”

"One of the biggest problems the administration has faced, however, is determining whether any of it is working. As the U.S. government’s counter-messaging campaign has grown, so has Islamic State recruitment spread. Recent attacks outside the Middle East indicate the group has grown more powerful, rather than less.

“That is the billion-dollar question,” one official said of how they determine whether the campaign is actually accomplishing anything. “We don’t have great, perfect data on why people become radicalized or why people change their mind. .?.?. You can’t prove a negative — ‘How many young guys did you prevent going to Syria today?’ — We don’t know the answer to that. What we can do is learn what kinds of messages resonate.”

"In the absence of evidence, and in the face of more attacks, the new initiatives inevitably appear to be shuffling the deck chairs rather than introducing new, proven strategies.

(...)
"The centerpiece of the administration’s revised plan is a new task force at the Department of Homeland Security that officials said would coordinate all of the government’s domestic counter-radicalization efforts and serve as a conduit for ideas, grants and other resources to community groups across the country.

"The task force will be led by George Selim, a Homeland Security official who previously served at the White House as director for community partnerships — a position that put him in regular contact with local law enforcement agencies and Muslim communities.

"U.S. officials said the new unit will be made up of representatives from at least 11 different departments or agencies, and that its mission will involve using data to find better ways to combat radicalization, as well as funding and supporting intervention efforts.

"Part of the outreach will be to U.S. Muslim communities, although officials cautioned that the environment for these Americans has become more toxic in recent months amid the fallout from the Paris and San Bernardino attacks.

“The climate overall has become pretty bad,” a U.S. official said. “Our business is an uphill business.”

"The revamped State Department program will be led by Michael Lumpkin, a former U.S. Naval officer who since 2013 has served as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict.

"He takes over an organization that became a point of controversy last year for the mocking tone and gruesome images it used in videos and other materials posted online targeting the Islamic State. The group has abandoned aspects of that strategy and is now largely focused on working with other governments to set up overseas messaging centers that officials hope will have more credibility with Islamic State followers.

“We’re not the most effective messenger for the message we want to get out,” a U.S. official said. As a result, the State Department unit has already helped set up a messaging center in the United Arab Emirates, with plans for others in places including Malaysia and Nigeria.

"Friday’s high-level conference with senior executives of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Apple is the administration’s most ambitious attempt to persuade those companies to collaborate in the counter-militant campaign.

“The idea is to come out with a work plan,” one administration official said. “Nobody wants to have their platforms co-opted by terrorists.”

"But companies have been reluctant to cooperate on critical fronts with the government, which has pressured firms to alter encryption systems used in smartphones and other devices to enable the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to monitor communications.

"The roster arriving in Silicon Valley represented almost every top national security official in the U.S. government. Others attending included White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Director of the National Security Agency Michael Rogers and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

(...)
"“Being seen as having the U.S. government force our hands makes others around the world lose confidence in us,” said an industry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. “We understand that the White House [has] a political need to show progress, but we don’t necessarily share that political need.”

https://wapo.st/1Rz8UzC

Comment: The Countering Violent Extremism campaign, which started with a White House summit, has had no noticeable effect, except creating business and jobs for some (there is no implication that the latter were not doing their best). The issue is not that the IS mocked it, but that those in the Muslim world most determined to fight this cancer that Islamist extremism is did the same. And they were right.

There is of course nothing wrong in a whole-of-government approach and in enlisting corporate support, but it won't work is the basic concept is flawed -and it is.

The first prerequisite of a successful campaign is to call things by their name. We went from Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), without saying which sort of violent extremism it was, to "Global Engagement Center". Why not then "The Motherhood and Apple Pie Center"? You don't counter the Colombian FARC or the Peruvian Sendero Luminoso the same way as the Islamic State because while they all embrace violence, ideologically they are not the same thing at all and their appeal is different. As long as the Obama administration will refuse to call things by their name, no program will go very far. The fact that the IS calls itself "Islamic" doesn't make it more Islamic that the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) was in any way Socialist. This can be explained. But not naming things has never produced results.

The second aspect is that countering the Islamic State otherwise then militarily can only be done by Muslims. Who are we, if we are not Muslims, to tell Muslims how Islam should be understood? Do we ask them to tell us which Protestant denomination is closer to "true Christianity" than any other or to provide mainstream Christians with arguments against survivalist Christian militias? One single initiative, the Open Letter to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi (https://www.lettertobaghdadi.com/, with a summary for those not theologically inclined) published for the moment in five languages, has had more impact than many millions of dollars and a meeting of head of state in Washington ever had. It was initially written and endorsed by a total of 120 Islamic thinkers including of course the Rector of Al-Azhar University. It has now been signed by thousands of Ulemas/Theologians including in the West. The letter, which should be even more widely circulated, will not appeal to non-Muslim not versed or interested in Islamic theology, but they are not the target, and the media hopefully can explain its main points.

I am afraid the new effort will be a revamping of the old one. It just won't have much effect.While non-Muslims cannot speak for the Muslims, however, they can help the non-Muslim world understand both mainstream Islam (both Sunni and Shia -the Open Letter is clearly Sunni but can be read by Shias): this will help dispel misunderstandings and prejudices.

Appendix:

A New Center for Global Engagement

 US State Department Fact Sheet

January 8, 2016

The State Department is revamping its counter-violent-extremist communications efforts through a new Global Engagement Center. This center will more effectively coordinate, integrate and synchronize messaging to foreign audiences that undermines the disinformation espoused by violent extremist groups, including ISIL and al-Qaeda, and that offers positive alternatives. The center will focus more on empowering and enabling partners, governmental and non-governmental, who are able to speak out against these groups and provide an alternative to ISIL’s nihilistic vision. To that end, the center will offer services ranging from planning thematic social media campaigns to providing factual information that counters-disinformation to building capacity for third parties to effectively utilize social media to research and evaluation.

The State Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael D. Lumpkin to lead this new effort as the Director of the new Global Engagement Center. Mr. Lumpkin currently serves as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict, a Senate-confirmed position he has held since late 2013. In this role, Mr. Lumpkin oversees all special operations, including counterterrorism, counter narcotics, and humanitarian and disaster relief efforts.

“I am delighted that Michael has agreed to bring his wealth of experience and expertise on counterterrorism issues to lead the new Global Engagement Center at the State Department,” said Secretary of State John Kerry. “At this critical stage in the fight against Daesh – and in the global effort to counter violent extremism – the GEC will lead the effort to synchronize messaging to foreign audiences that will counter the destructive messages of violent extremist groups.”

Under Mr. Lumpkin’s leadership, the Global Engagement Center will employ a strategy defined by:

• Drawing upon data and metrics to develop, test, and evaluate themes, messages, and messengers;
• Building narratives around thematic campaigns on the misdeeds of our enemy (e.g., poor governance, abuse of women, narratives of defectors), not the daily news cycle;
• Focusing on driving third-party content, in addition to our own; and
• Nurturing and empowering a global network of positive messengers.

The Center will implement its strategy by:

• Seeking out and engaging the best talent, within the technology sector, government and beyond
• Engaging across our government to coordinate, integrate and synchronize counterterrorism communications directed toward foreign audiences;
• Identifying and enabling international partners with credibility and expertise
• Establishing and implementing a campaign-focused culture;
• Scaling up data science and analytics and using both throughout the design, implementation and evaluation phases of these campaigns;
• Providing seed funding and other support to NGOs and media startups focused on countering violent extremist messaging;
• Identifying gaps in U.S. Government messaging and counter- messaging capabilities directed toward foreign audiences, and recommending steps to resolve them; and
• Sharing information and best practices with U.S. Government agencies focused on the challenge of homegrown violent extremism.
• Amplifying the successes of the Counter-ISIL Coalition in defeating ISIL on both the military and information battlefield.

The Center will continue to be housed within the Department of State and staffed by experts from the private sector and U.S. Government agencies charged with protecting our national interests and security – as well as the security of our allies – against the threat of international terrorism.

Press Releases: A New Center for Global Engagement