Social media platforms have become critical components of rebel groups’ communication channels. While discussions on rebels’ social media presence usually centre around issues of violence and...Show moreSocial media platforms have become critical components of rebel groups’ communication channels. While discussions on rebels’ social media presence usually centre around issues of violence and disruption, mounting evidence exists pinpointing the non-violent tactics rebel actors employ online. Interested in how social media use contributes to the ability of established rebel groups to project, cultivate, and negotiate favourable online personas internationally, this research project offers an exploratory case study analysis of the 5-day long #AskHamas Twitter campaign that Islamic resistance movement for Palestinian liberation Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah - commonly known as Hamas, conducted in March 2015. A mixed method approach combining social network analysis and empathic close-text reading was employed to reconstruct the international reception of the online event. Framing the Twitter campaign conceptually as an instance of public relations (PR) management, findings substantiate that the #AskHamas Twitter event allowed Hamas to establishing direct, and relevant relations with its targeted Western audience. At the same time, evidence pinpoints the ultimate dependency of online campaigns on the willingness of targeted audience to engage seriously. In case of #AskHamas, meaningful exchange with Hamas was obstructed by deliberate trolling, mocking and ridiculing on parts of participating. Evidence collected in this study implicates the urgency to overcome violence-fixation in Western understandings of rebel actors, and the necessity to contextualise identified rebel online communication practices to their socially mediated context of creation and dissemination.Show less
The professional military organisations of states generally find it hard to implement military change. Rebel groups, on the other hand, have been depicted as more flexible and adaptive actors than...Show moreThe professional military organisations of states generally find it hard to implement military change. Rebel groups, on the other hand, have been depicted as more flexible and adaptive actors than state militaries. This thesis probes the plausibility of this proposition by conducting an illustrative case study of the Chechen separatist rebel movement. It will be demonstrated that several factors that complicate and impede rebel military change can be identified and that resultantly the effectuation and implementation of military change, especially at the strategic level, is unlikely to be a straightforward process for rebel groups. In this way, the thesis points at the need for the field of military change studies to move beyond its state-centric focus.Show less
