Al Qaeda's miscommunication war: the terrorism paradox

The Bush administration's response to the September 11 attacks has rendered more urgent Al Qaeda's stated objective to eject the U.S. from the Middle East. The aim here is not to evaluate the direction of the war on terrorism, but to explore why Al Qaeda has been so unsuccessful in capitalising on its political violence. The article begins with the premise that terrrorism is a communication strategy. It contends that Al Qaeda's policy failures are due to its inability to convince Bush that it would refrain from attacking Americans if the U.S. moderated its Middle East policies. Borrowing from the literature in political psychology and perception and misperception in international relations, the article offers several explanations for Al Qaeda's ineffectiveness in getting this message across. The article concludes by deriving general observations about the limitations of terrorism as aform of political communication.