“Jihadist Cognitive Warfare Dynamics in AQAP’s «America Evil State» Magazine”
An Intelligence-Oriented Assessment
Executive Summary
This report analyses the magazine “America Evil State,” an English-language propaganda product distributed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) through al-Malahem Media and included in the Inspire – Open Source Jihad editorial line. The paper evaluates the product not as mere ideological material, but as a strategic influence tool operating in the cognitive domain, designed to impact the perceptions, identities, and decision-making processes of the English-speaking public, with a particular focus on Muslims living in the United States and the West.
The analysis highlights how the magazine constructs a coherent narrative of total delegitimisation of the US state, presenting it as an intrinsically evil, repressive, and hostile entity to Islam. By integrating real events, protests, immigration policies, the security management of dissent, and international conflicts, the publication transforms political and social grievances into an existential and religious framework, in which conflict is redefined as inevitable and sacralized. This shift drastically reduces the perceived legitimacy of political, institutional, or nonviolent solutions.
From an intelligence perspective, “America Evil State” is positioned at an intermediate stage of the radicalisation cycle. The magazine neither provides operational instructions nor directly incites violence, but serves a cognitive preparation function, normalising violence as a morally justifiable option and paving the way for more advanced forms of mobilisation. The primary risk lies not in the product’s immediate impact but rather in its ability to circulate in fragmented form within polarised digital ecosystems, acting as a bridge to more explicit content or intermediate radicalising actors.
The scenario-based threat assessment indicates that the most likely scenario is a widespread but medium-intensity impact, characterised by the strengthening of narratives of victimisation, institutional distrust, and identity polarisation. Higher-impact scenarios, including the facilitation of individual self-radicalisation, are less likely but potentially significant in terms of security.
Framed in the cognitive domain, the magazine represents a low-intensity hostile influence action with high cumulative potential. Its effectiveness stems from its ability to progressively reshape the public’s cognitive terrain, eroding critical resilience and institutional trust, rather than from the use of verifiable disinformation or direct incitement.
For decision makers, the report highlights that exclusively reactive or security-focused responses risk being ineffective or counterproductive. An effective approach requires integrated policies that combine security, strategic communication, and preventative interventions geared toward cognitive resilience, with particular attention to intermediate amplification networks and the identity dynamics exploited by jihadist propaganda. Without such measures, products like “America Evil State” will continue to represent a risk multiplier in the medium to long term, even in the absence of an immediate operational threat.
Key Judgments
The following judgments reflect moderate to high confidence assessments based on qualitative analysis of primary-source jihadist propaganda.
“America Evil State” constitutes a cognitive-domain influence product rather than a direct incitement-to-violence tool. The magazine does not provide operational guidance nor explicitly call for attacks; instead, it deliberately reshapes perceptions, identities, and interpretive frameworks, contributing to the normalisation of violence as a morally legitimate response to perceived systemic oppression.
The product indicates a deliberate positioning within an intermediate phase of the radicalisation cycle. By delegitimising democratic institutions and sacralising political conflict, the magazine progressively reduces the perceived credibility of non-violent and institutional alternatives, thereby preparing the cognitive ground for subsequent and more explicit forms of mobilisation.
The primary threat associated with “America Evil State” is cumulative and medium- to long-term in nature, rather than immediate or operational. The most significant risk stems from the fragmented circulation and reinterpretation of its narratives within polarised digital ecosystems, where intermediary actors can amplify and adapt the message, facilitating self-radicalisation pathways.
The content targets, with moderate confidence, Muslim Anglophone audiences in Western contexts, with particular emphasis on “Muslims in America.” The narrative exploits perceived victimisation, identity under threat, and institutional distrust to promote identity fusion dynamics, increasing psychological receptivity to extremist worldviews without requiring prior ideological commitment.
Predominantly reactive or exclusively security-driven responses are assessed to risk, reinforcing the very narratives promoted by the magazine. Effective mitigation requires integrated approaches combining security measures, strategic communication, and cognitive resilience-building, with particular attention to early-stage prevention, prebunking strategies, and the disruption of amplification networks.
Abstract
This report analyses the magazine “America Evil State”, an English-language propaganda product released on November 26, 2025, by AQAP via al-Malahem Media and included in the Inspire – Open Source Jihad editorial line. The analysis evaluates narrative structure, persuasive techniques, strategic objectives, and implications for radicalisation and security, focusing on English-speaking audiences and Muslims living in the United States. The document interprets the product as a tool for cognitive preparation and ideological legitimisation of violence, rather than as direct operational incitement, and proposes a comparative framework (coding scheme) and a scenario-based threat assessment to support monitoring and prevention.
Methodology
The analysis adopts a multidimensional qualitative approach, combining propaganda analysis, discourse analysis, and intelligence assessment. The text was examined in its entirety (textual and visual components), with attention to narrative sequence, ideological frames, persuasive techniques, implicit targets, and call-to-action levels. Threat assessment follows a scenario-based logic, distinguishing probability and impact, to avoid over- or underestimations of risk.
Methodological note on the nature of the sources and the analytical approach
This analysis is based exclusively on the direct examination of a jihadist primary source, specifically the magazine “America Evil State” produced by AQAP through al-Malahem Media. The document is treated as an object of analysis in itself, and not as a vehicle for factual claims to be verified through secondary sources. The lack of bibliographic references, therefore, does not constitute a gap but a choice consistent with the objective of the study. The analysis does not aim to establish the veracity of the claims, but to understand narrative strategies, propaganda techniques, ideological frames, and potential radicalisation effects. From this perspective, the magazine is considered a source of qualitative data, whose value lies in the construction of meaning and the language used. This approach is consistent with established practices in intelligence and terrorism studies. The absence of external sources does not imply a lack of conceptual anchoring: the interpretative categories employed (radicalisation, identity mobilisation, delegitimisation of the state, sacralization of conflict) derive from consolidated analytical literature and practices, used here as interpretative tools and not as a citation apparatus.
Analysis of the AQAP Magazine “America Evil State”
The magazine “America Evil State” is clearly part of AQAP’s communications strategy aimed at expanding its reach into the English-speaking world and penetrating Western sociopolitical contexts. Unlike more explicitly violent propaganda products, this issue adopts an editorial format that draws on political analysis and the denunciation of civil rights, exploiting real events and tensions in the US to construct a narrative of total delegitimisation of the state.
The initial narrative presents the United States as an entity undergoing internal collapse. The images and references to protests, police repression, and political polarisation serve to suggest the idea of a state that has lost all claim to moral legitimacy. This step is crucial because the propaganda does not simply criticise individual policies but suggests that the US system is intrinsically corrupt and violent, lowering the threshold for accepting radical solutions. Analytically, this is a “state collapse” frame, recurrent in contemporary jihadist propaganda.
The text then focuses on the security and immigration apparatus, particularly U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is presented as an instrument of systemic persecution. Immigration policies are portrayed not as administrative measures, but as manifestations of a repressive and dehumanising will. This shift reinforces a second central frame: that of collective victimisation, in which Muslims and immigrants become targets of a hostile state. From a propaganda perspective, this dynamic produces a strong moral shock, serving to open the mind to extremist narratives.