Hizbullah’s Image Management Strategy is the latest topic in the CPD Perspectives series

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy has released its first issue of CPD Perspectives for 2012. Authored by CPD Research Fellow, Lina Khatib, the paper examines the image management strategy by Lebanese paramilitary political party Hizbullah over the past five years. "Hizbullah's Image Management Strategy" looks at how the group supports its political activities and cultivates legitimacy for the group among its target audiences.

Through an integration of propaganda and political marketing, Hizbullah has been successful at using multiple communication platforms to propel itself from an Islamist militia operating outside the Lebanese political system into a key political player in Lebanon. Strategically leveraging on changes in the political environment, Hizbullah has created a favorable image for itself, and its image has simultaneously evolved alongside these shifts.

The Arab Spring, however, has detracted the region’s focus on Hizbullah as an Arab hero, throwing up key challenges for its image management strategy. As the party now finds itself at a crossroads, the direction it chooses to take will have a lasting influence on its legitimacy in the region.

Read the entire work here.

To read more about Lina's research project, please follow this link.

CPD Perspectivesis a periodic publication from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and highlights scholarship intended to stimulate critical thinking about the study and practice of public diplomacy.