Iraq

By 2005, Coalition occupation forces in Iraq, having removed the dictator Saddam Hussein and his Baathist movement from power two years before, and seeking to support the country’s transformation to democracy, found themselves embroiled in a bloody struggle against the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in Iraq. It became apparent to military commanders that military power alone could not prevail, and that the Iraqi people themselves were the centre of gravity in what had become in effect a psychological war. But their military psychological and information operations specialists were losing because they lacked the insight and skills to take on and defeat AQI. This led to the formation of a special task force – led and supported by several members of our Change Network. They set up a robust communications system that combined – on a scale not seen since World War 2 – research, analysis and strategy development with a rapid-fire content production unit capable of producing a highly diverse range of material that, with generous budget support, was able to dominate the Iraqi information space. Within its first nine months, the unit’s communications were credited with having turned the tide of tribal opinion in the crucial Anbar province, heartland of the AQI insurgency, and inspiring the launch of the ‘awakening movement’ among tribal leaders who agreed to throw their weight behind the Coalition’s military effort to contain the insurgency. This led to a sharp reduction in the violence. The strategy involved revealing AQI’s plans to use Anbar as a launch pad for violence across the Middle East, and showing how AQI was not liberating the local tribes but merely exploiting them for its own purposes. A captured document cache included correspondence between the insurgent leader and AQ headquarters in Afghanistan in which he complained of being overwhelmed by the ‘American propaganda’.

The unit’s work continued across several lines of operation, supporting ethnic reconciliation and the development of a new constitution, general stability operations, the containment of armed militia, and countering Iranian influence. Its operations continued until the final day of the US occupation in December 2011. Its work is considered seminal to the development of subsequent government and commercial counter-extremism operations.