Hizb'allah's communication strategy : making friends and intimidating enemies / Rune Friberg Lyme

Abstract

Managing external communication has proven an increasingly significant concern to Lebanese Hizb'allah. This report argues that the organisation has developed a highly sophisticated communication strategy that enables it to address a variety of target groups efficiently with differentiated aspects of its particular ideologically informed message, using the particular media platform best suited for this purpose. In doing so, the communication serves two main objectives: first, to disseminate aspects of the organisation's religiously informed world-view, ideology, values, motives and moral codes; and secondly, to conduct psychological warfare against its enemies. The report outlines the versatility and comprehensiveness of the external and internal media used by Hizb'allah, analyses the ideological content of its communication and explains how the organisation takes advantage of different foci, rhetoric and media to convey different layers of its ideological package depending on which group is at the receiving end.