Covert Contact 7: Why Daesh's Social Media Campaign is a Massive Failure

In this November 2014 episode of Covert Contact, I challenge the idea that Daesh's visibility on social media should be treated as evidence of strategic success. I acknowledge the group's ability to attract attention and recruits, but argue that publicity needs to be judged against its larger political and territorial ambitions.

My argument is that the group's public displays of brutality were also strengthening opposition to it, exposing its members and networks to intelligence collection, and undermining the legitimacy it sought. The distinction is between generating attention and achieving durable political goals: a campaign can create enormous noise while working against the organization behind it.

The episode also features Ambassador Lukman Faily, then Iraq's ambassador to the United States. Faily describes Daesh as a threat with consequences far beyond Iraq and calls for a coordinated international response. He discusses the Iraqi government's efforts toward political inclusion and argues that the struggle requires social and political measures alongside military action.

These are assessments made in November 2014, during Daesh's rise in Iraq and Syria. The episode preserves that contemporary argument and Faily's perspective at the time; its predictions and descriptions of the conflict should be read in that historical context.