Conclusion

Abstract

This book has explored the changing ways in which images circulate within contemporary society. I define this as a shift from a mass-media system (connected to a twentieth-century notion of propaganda, characterized by control and the ‘mobilization of images’) to a rhizomatic media system (connected to the deterritorialized circulation and the ‘weaponization of images’). I have also argued that this has resulted in a paradigm shift from techno-war to image warfare. Failing to recognize this shift, the American and British governments and militaries are also failing to respond effectively to image warfare in the war on terror because they are still trapped in an outdated techno-war mindset, whereas al-Qaeda, in contrast, seemingly has a better understanding that images are indeed uncontrollable in an image warfare theatre of war.