The Militant Ideology Atlas

Researchers from the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point spent one year mining the most popular books and articles in al-Qaeda’s online library, profiling hundreds of figures in the Jihadi Movement, and cataloging over 11,000 citations. The empirically supported findings of the project are surprising: (Click to read Atlas)

"The most influential Jihadi intellectuals are clerics from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, two of the US’s closest allies in the Middle East.

Among them, the Jordanian cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi has had the most impact on other Jihadi thinkers and has been the most consequential in shaping the worldview of the Jihadi Movement.

In contrast, the study finds that Osama Bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri have had little influence on other Jihadi theorists and strategists."

"Significantly, the report uses these empirical findings to identify powerful messages and influential messengers that can turn different constituencies against the Jihadis.

These constituencies range from benign mainstream Muslims to the most violent Jihadis. The recommendations of this report establish a baseline against which strategic communications campaigns can be calibrated and adjusted. "

Snop's commentary:

Sec Robert Gates, during his Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas on 26 Nov 2007, emphasised the importance of “speed, agility and cultural relevance [...] when discussing U.S. strategic communications.”

This Atlas provides a wellspring of information needed to communicate with the needed "cultural relevance". The cultural aspect is a critical element of Cognetics and must be fully understood in order succesfully influence target audience behaviors.

From Dawn of the Cognetic Age:

"The physical weapons of the Industrial Age—plane, tank, and rifle—use a wide variety of ordnance, including bombs, shells, and bullets specially designed to create specific effects on specific targets.

Similarly, the virtual weapons of the Cognetic Age (the Internet and transnational television) have a wide variety of content (imagery, sounds, and words) specially designed to create specific psychological and behavioral effects on specific audiences."