The Struggle for ‘ Global Opinion ’ and the War on Iraq :

The purpose of the paper is to raise a question of whether it is possible to regard the global internet-based antiwar/peace movement as a challenger to the premises of the U.S. foreign policy and U.S. power. The anti-war movement, like most transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs), does not possess much hard power but in terms of soft power, which has become increasingly important in the global information age (Nye 2004), it is doing significantly better. Not only the role of soft power has grown but also information can be regarded as power (Nye 2004; Beck 2000; Castells 2002). Therefore, the U.S., although undeniably dominant in military terms, is gaining new kind of challengers (of which the terrorist networks is only one example) whose power is based much on their ability to influence the ‘global opinion’ by informational and symbolic politics (Keck & Sikkink 1998). Actually, Noam Chomsky (2003) has argued that the only (f)actor that can challenge the global supremacy of the U.S. is the international public opinion. Whether this is true or not, the unpopularity of the War on Iraq as well as the ever-growing distrust in U.S. policies have illustrated that international opinion can seriously undermine soft power of a country, the ability to attract and shape preferences of others. Therefore, the paper starts with discussion on global attitudes towards the War on Iraq and the role of the U.S. in world politics. In this regard, different reasons for the degeneration of the U.S. image are discussed. Next, the global internetbased anti-war/peace movement is taken up for a closer exanimation. The paper argues that there are several reasons why to pay attention to the global anti-war/peace movement as a potential challenger to the U.S. power. (There are also many constraints and open questions which will be discussed as well.) First of all, due to globalization, all transnational movements have gained more power in the international system at the expense of state(s), which the information revolution, and especially the internet, has highlighted even more. Secondly, the nature of power has been transformed as soft power and information-related power have become more important. Thirdly, the anti-war/peace movement has succeeded quite well in the political-informational struggle for information and interpretations concerning the War on Iraq. It has been able, with the help of internet and alternative media, to counter much of the war-related information provided by the U.S. as well as to challenge interpretations of the mainstream media. The global anti-war/peace movement uses the internet as its main forum and instrument for its internal and external communication. Via the internet it is possible for a political movement to organize in spite of the locations of the people taking part in it, and it can be used as a channel for forwarding political messages to a world-wide audience in real-time. In this sense, the internet offers alternatives for mainstream media as well as mainstream politics, and resistance. 1 The paper is a draft, and has not been language-checked. Please do not quote without permission.