Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s English language publication Inspire that was conceptualized and conducted on the basis of the Information- Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) framework. The IMB model has been widely tested, validated, and applied across a range of behavior change interventions, and provides both a conceptual and analytic framework to examine the range and quality of content featured across the 11 issues of Inspire that were published and distributed online starting in July of 2010. Inspire has been implicated in multiple instances of terrorism cases in the U.S. and its impact and potential can be analyzed on the extent to which it effectively targets core attitudes, perceptions of social normative support for violence, and its regular featuring of behavioral skills such as bomb making, weapons training, and emphasizing a creative and do-it-yourself ethos.

Comments

This article will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Terrorism & Political Violence. Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

The post-peer-reviewed version will be available here with the permission of the author after the 18-month publisher embargo.

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