Islamic State Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This work reflects on how the representation of the Arab world has evolved in three fictional works that have emerged in the second decade of the 21st century: Homeland (Showtime Networks, 2011-2020), Tyrant (FX Network-Fox, 2014-2016), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime Video, 2018-). The goal is to determine whether the main socio-political milestones that occurred during this period (the Arab Spring, Syrian Civil War, appearance of ISIS, etc.) have transformed the already classic theories of authors such as Edward Said, Jack Shaheen, or Evelyn Alsultany, among others. A viewing and analysis of the first season of each show demonstrates that the panorama has not improved in terms of discourse, topics, and stereotypes. It is clear, therefore, that the lens of 9/11 is still very present in the Hollywood mindset regarding Arabs, Muslims, and Islam.

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- Media Studies, Terrorism, Middle East Studies, Media

Following the devastation of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by the
Islamic State (IS), UNESCO launched a project to ‘Revive the Spirit of
Mosul’. This article critically reflects on this UNESCO-led project, drawing
on 47 interviews with Syrians and Iraqis, as well as documenting the
implications of UNESCO’s efforts in earlier (post-)conflict heritage reconstruction
projects in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Mali. Specifically, this
article focuses on two sites in Mosul, both deliberately destroyed by the
IS and both nominated by UNESCO for reconstruction. The data analysed
reveal that heritage reconstruction projects, especially in complex (post-)
conflict environments such as Iraq, requires ongoing, nuanced and careful
engagement with local populations to succeed. Failure to do so
leaves both local people and their heritage sites vulnerable to renewed
attacks and therefore ultimately undermines UNESCO’s broader mission
to foster peace.

- by Lynn Meskell and +1
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- Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies

Spanning the globe to protect US interests.

- by John Stanton
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- Cognitive Science, Russian Studies, War Studies, China Going Global

מאמר זה מבקש לתאר ולהגדיר את תפיסת התכסית האנושית, שהתפתחה בצבא האמריקאי לאור ניסיונו באפגניסטן ובעיראק. המאמר יעמוד על הסיבות שהובילו את הצבא האמריקאי לפתח תפיסה זאת; יתמקד בתשתית התיאורטית ובזיקות שבין התכסית האנושית לבין מודיעין תרבותי... more

מאמר זה מבקש לתאר ולהגדיר את תפיסת התכסית האנושית, שהתפתחה
בצבא האמריקאי לאור ניסיונו באפגניסטן ובעיראק. המאמר יעמוד על הסיבות
שהובילו את הצבא האמריקאי לפתח תפיסה זאת; יתמקד בתשתית התיאורטית
ובזיקות שבין התכסית האנושית לבין מודיעין תרבותי ואינטליגנציה תרבותית.
כל אלה, לאור הניסיון האמריקאי והישראלי בזירות העימות השונות.

- by Dr. Omer Dostri
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- Military Science, Military Intelligence, Peace and Conflict Studies, Terrorism

The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.

- by Hekmatullah Azamy and +1
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- Terrorism, International Terrorism, Afghanistan, Political Violence and Terrorism

Facilitating access to asylum and other forms of refugee protection for the millions displaced by mass atrocities in Syria and Iraq is essential to the implementation of the international norm of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). This responsibility, however, has been disproportionately shouldered by several states in the Middle East and Europe. This article explores the challenges associated with refugee responsibility-sharing in the context of RtoP and draws on work in climate justice and political realism to articulate a framework for integrating culpability as a key criterion in allocating states' responsibilities to protect refugees. An empirical and normative assessment of U.S. responsibilities to protect refugees in the cases of conflict-induced displacement in Syria and Iraq outlines several potential paths of culpability. The article ultimately argues for greater attention to culpability, equity, and legitimacy within the discourse surrounding RtoP and refugee protection. The article also advocates linking the benefits of refugee responsibility-sharing with states' national interests and highlights several such links with regard to U.S. responsibilities in Syria and Iraq.

- by Alise Coen
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- International Relations, Political Theory, Human Rights, Refugee Studies

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT In the study of the Islamic State, it can be assumed that it adds a new type of objective, a political and religious researchers of terrorism must understand t integration between a separatist in the 21th century no longer strives to remove a foreign presence or to establish a regular state recognized by the United Nations but to establish political background on the global level (regardless of Copyright©2016, David Schwarz and Daniel Galily. This unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

- by Daniel Galily and +1
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- Terrorism, Isis, Islamic State, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- by Joas Wagemakers
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- Jihad, Al Qaeda, Salafi-jihadist groups, Salafism

Even though Jordanian authorities vowed a security crackdown after the attack on al-Karak castle on December 18, the episode seems to have found the security apparatus largely unprepared, and it is now imperative for the country to... more

- by Sara Brzuszkiewicz
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- Terrorism, Radicalization, Jordan, Foreign Fighters

Territorial losses of Daesh, or the Islamic State (IS), in Iraq and Syria have led many to conjure the demise of the global terrorist organization. Conditions on ground, however, are ripe for the recuperation of the organization. The presence of extra-regional players, the widening Shia-Sunni divide, the failure of Iraqi and Syrian governments to stabilize the conflict-hit regions and a timely decision by Daesh to activate its sleeper cells in different parts of Europe, Asia and Africa could very much benefit the organization in recovering from battlefield losses or heralding the fourth wave of global jihad. This, then, could further augment the global implications of the rise of IS, including revival of Cold War era "proxy-ism", refugee crises leading to fissures among the community of European nations, the intensification of the sectarian conflict in the Muslim world and "lone wolf" terrorism in the West. The paper seeks to map the possibility of Daesh's recuperation in light of the "terrorist lifecycle" and how this would impact the global peace in general, and in South Asia in particular.

- by Khuram Iqbal
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- Terrorism, Middle East Studies, South Asian Studies, South Asia
- by Henrik Gråtrud
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- Music, Propaganda, Poetry, Salafi-jihadist groups

In the developing world and unstable regions, illicit non-state actors often become involved in planning activities such as providing basic services, managing land use, and organizing the real estate market. This paper will look at the scholarly and journalistic conversations surrounding criminal groups engaged in planning activities that are traditionally seen as the government’s province. The first section of the paper will explain the rationale for treating criminal 1 groups as planners and provide an overview of existing literature on criminal planning. The second section will propose a typology of illicit non-state actors based on their structure, planning involvement, and relationships with the formal government, finding commonality among these disparate groups. It will discuss three broad types of criminal planners—traffickers, mafias, and militant groups—using the examples of Brazilian trafficking gangs and militias, the Medellín cartel, Indian mafias, ISIS, and Hezbollah. The third section will look at two forms of criminal involvement in planning: first, as a replacement for an absent government, and second, as an obstacle to government planning. Both are designed to assert and maintain the criminal group’s territorial and social control, and they rarely exist independently of each other. In fact, they are usually intertwined, creating complex symbiotic relationships between official and unofficial authority.

- by Zoe Roller
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- Urban Planning, Lebanon, Organized Crime, Utilities
- by Mark Beumer
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- Religion, History, Ancient History, Archaeology

The Middle East is commonly perceived as a zone of cultural and political differences within the global international society. Imagining the Middle East as a ‘unique’ region is not a new idea, but relocating this conception within the English School (ES) of International Relations (IR) is. This article challenges the perceived ‘exceptionalism’ of the Middle East, which claims that the European concepts of state, sovereignty and nationalism are alien to Islam, therefore preventing the emergence of a regional international society. The first part highlights the correlation between Eurocentrism in IR and the lack of interest in regional – area – studies through the critique of Orientalism and the ES. The second part moves to demonstrate why the ES is more explanatory than other IR theories in the context of the Ottoman–European relations. The third part explores the ‘institutional distinctiveness’ of the Middle East, disproving the notion of regional ‘exceptionalism’ and IR’s foundational Eurocentric assumptions. This article concludes by arguing that there is a strong case for calling the Middle East a ‘regional interstate society’, which remains to be a litmus test of whether or not a truly global international society is possible.

- by Imogen Richards
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- Post-Marxism, Social Media, Neoliberalism, David Harvey
- by Johnny Martins
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- Isis Cult, Islamic State

The Islamic State, an extremist Islamist organization established during the Syrian civil war, attracted a large number of sympathizers and volunteers, including women, from around the world. An estimated 1,000 female volunteers from Europe left for Syria or Iraq and became part of «the Caliphate», established by the group in mid-2014, representing an historically unprecedented female «emigration to jihad». This article seeks to explain why so many European women traveled to «the Caliphate» and what roles they assumed or were given in the Islamic State

- by Brynjar Lia
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- Jihadism, Foreign Fighters, Islamic State, Jihadism and Radical Islamism

This report aims to identify, deconstruct, analyze, contextualize and interpret the IS propaganda targeting Kosovo Albanians as well as to reveal the tools employed to spread this narrative among different audiences in Kosovo. Throughout the report, we define the IS narrative as a term that in the broader sense encompasses the terrorist organization’s worldview, its political and religious ideology and more specifically the way it is told to audiences in Kosovo.

- by Kosovar Centre for Security Studies KCSS and +1
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- Islamic State, Countering Violent Extremism

This article offers a comprehensive explanation of why Chechen and other North Caucasian jihadists join the Syrian civil war. It also details the ongoing split in the ranks of North Caucasian jihadists; their complex relationship with the leadership of the Caucasus Emirate; and the security implications of the jihadists' prospective return to their homeland.

Il volume è strutturato come un insieme di sguardi che osservano, da più angolazioni, un argomento complesso e articolato qual è quello della violenza di genere, soffermandosi su alcune delle peculiari modalità tramite cui, nelle aree... more

- by Società Editrice Fiorentina and +4
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- Adivasi Studies, Donne, Hijras and gender in India, Indian Penal Code

This chapter focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish response to the rapid and devastating advance of ISIS. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish response to the ISIS advance has been a multifaceted, complex, and evolving one that includes military strategy, pragmatic politics, and aspirations of independence. Leaving aside the fact that the ISIS advance has granted the Iraqi Kurds unprecedented access to Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the fact that the initial Kurdish reaction was to ramp up their rhetoric toward complete secession from Iraq, this chapter focuses on two further dimensions of the Iraqi Kurdish response. Firstly, it documents the Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the so-called “disputed territories,” especially
Kirkuk, and their stated intent to hold a referendum on the future of these
regions (effectively to force a resolution to Article 140 of the constitution). Secondly, the chapter documents the Iraqi Kurdish use of the ISIS advance as leverage to enhance Kurdish relations dramatically with the US and Europe via direct military support (including airstrikes and weapons supply) and to become the key launchpad
in the fight against ISIS planned for 2015. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the efficacy and wisdom of the Kurdish strategy of leveraging the ISIS onslaught to advance their own interests.

- by Benjamin Isakhan
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- Ethnohistory, Political Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political Economy

Jabhat al-Nusra has long been one of the most militarily effective armed actors against the Syrian Baathist regime and it continues to play a central role in the country's civil war. With a leadership that mixes the transnational jihadi ideology of al-Qaeda with Syria-specific interests, the group is also at the forefront of battling the Islamic State in Syria. In the midst of its battlefield offensives, Jabhat al-Nusra is also busy building governing structures to control territory in different parts of the country [...]

As the very title suggests, in this thesis I will aim to provide a brief analysis of the science fiction genre as a critique and reflection of the socio-political climate. Namely, I will base my analysis on the events mainly surrounding the notion of reproductive rights of women present in Margaret Atwood's novel titled The Handmaid's Tale. The choice of a novel is such because The Handmaid's Tale could easily be regarded as one of the most applicable political critiques and most relatable reflections of a socio-political climate seemingly regardless of the time and place in which it is analyzed or to which it is compared. This extensive account of a society plagued by restrictions where women's reproductive rights seem to be completely absent proves to be an excellent ground for exploring socio-political inequality present in various times and places regarding women, but also all the people. Aside from drawing parallels with some current events that eerily seem to correspond to the events of the novel, I will also provide an analysis on three different levels:
1. An analysis of the notion of reproductive rights in a literal sense,
2. Reproductive rights as an allegorical representation of the Marxist theory of (social) reproduction,
3. Reproductive rights as a reflection of a dominant male-submissive female dynamics and the influence of that dynamics on other societal structures, explored through the concept of Jineology

- by Katarina Pavicic Ivelja
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- Marxism, Literature, Margaret Atwood, Feminist science fiction
- by Zenonas Tziarras
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- History, Cultural History, Political Sociology, Comparative Politics
- by Ayham Alata
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- International Law, Revolutions, Responsibility to Protect, Non-Interference

This report highlights core contours of jihadist recruitment in Turkey and unpacks key push-pull factors that motivate individuals to fight with jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. It concludes by offering insight into how Turkey’s government is framing the problem. The report draws on leading research about Turkish fighter recruitment, first-hand examination of Turkish language jihadist propaganda from relevant groups, and face-to-face conversations with representatives of the Turkish government.

- by Monica Marks
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- Terrorism, Middle East Studies, Religion and Politics, Kurdish Studies
- by Wael Hallaq and +1
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- Islamic Contemporary Studies, Islamic Studies, Islam, Critique

Existing accounts of the Islamic State (IS) tend to rely on orientalist and technicist assumptions and hence insufficiently sensitive to the historical, sociological, and international conditions of the possibility of IS. The present article provides an alternative account through a conjunctural analysis that is anchored in an international historical sociology of modern Iraq informed by Leon Trotsky's idea of 'uneven and combined development'. It foregrounds the concatena-tion of Iraq's contradictory (post‐)colonial nation‐state formation with the neoliberal conjuncture of 1990‐2014. It shows that the former process involved the tension‐prone fusion of governing institutions of the modern state and the intermittent but steady reproduction, valorization, and politicization of supra‐national (religious‐sectarian) and sub‐national (ethno‐tribal) collective identities , which subverted the emergence of an Iraqi nation. The international sanctions regime of the 1990s transformed sectarian and tribal difference into communitarian tension by fatally undermining the integrative efficacy of the Ba'ath party's authoritarian welfare‐ state. Concurrently, the neo‐liberal demolition of the post‐colonial authoritarian welfare states in the region gave rise to the Arab Spring revolutions. The Arab Spring however elicited a successful authoritarian counter‐revolution that eliminated secular‐nationalist forms of oppositional politics. This illiberal neoliberalisation of the region's political economy valorised the religionisation of the domestic effects of the 2003 US‐led destruction of the Iraqi state and its reconstruction on a majoritarian basis favouring the Shi'as and hence transforming sectarian tension into sectarian conflict culminating in IS. Thus, IS is, the paper demonstrates, the result of neither an internal cultural pathology nor sheerly external forces. Rather, it is the novel product of an utterly historical congealment of the intrinsically interactive and multilinear dynamics of socio‐ political change.

- by Kamran Matin
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- Iraqi History, Nationalism, Uneven and Combined Development, Nation-State

The prominence of transnational identities has been one of the main features of the Arab uprisings that started in late 2010. While all the uprisings were driven by local grievances and the protesters were careful to initially use local and national slogans, in most cases the transnational dimension became central, particularly after the harsh security responses and the failure of some of the democratic experiments (such as in Egypt). But has this transnational dimension undermined the importance of the state as a key actor and as the form of government these transnational movements aspire to? Or are movements such as Islamic State merely replicating many of the forms of governance that have characterised Middle Eastern states for decades?

- by Toby Matthiesen
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- Intellectual History, Middle East Studies, Transnationalism, Political Science
- by Roland Bartetzko
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- Criminology, Terrorism, International Terrorism, Balkan Studies

This studio/seminar is an arts and art history collaboration, combining theory and praxis by integrating creative work with art theory, criticism and history. Representation of pain and human suffering has always been a vibrant subject of debate in the history of art from the Pergamene sculpture of dying Gauls and snake bitten Laocoön to Edward Munch's Der Schrei der Natur or Otto Dix's War graphics. In the new world order of late capitalism, we are constantly bombarded with visceral images of human suffering: the image of the Syrian refugee boy Alan Kurdi washed ashore on the Turkish coast, ISIS beheadings, scenes of torture in Abu Ghraib prison, the repeated image of the starving African child. The pornographic intensity and numbing effect of violent and painful imagery in the digital age raises serious questions about the ethics and politics of representation: how does one deal with the pain of others and the questions raised by its visualization? How can we understand the permanent depicting of individual hardship and suffering in times of invisible threats to mankind? What does it mean to be alive in the Anthropocene and what can we expect in the future? This seminar will seek creative, collaborative responses and critical debate on the relationship between visuality and pain, suffering, and violence.

- by Ömür Harmansah
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- Ethics, Visual Studies, Art History, Art Theory

With the re-establishment of Bashar al-Assad’s power in Syria, the strengthening of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and finally the political and military victory of pro-Iranian forces in Iraq, it is clear that an Iranian axis now prevails in the Levant. The strength of this geopolitical axis is reinforced by the territorial continuity between Tehran and Beirut via Damascus and Baghdad: “the Iranian land bridge” or “Iranian corridor,” controlled by Iranian troops directly and by proxies.

- by Fabrice Balanche
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- Near Eastern Studies, Middle East Studies, Geopolitics, Iranian Studies

At the height of its power, ISIS was perceived as the biggest contemporary terrorist threat to world security. In this paper, we analyze the phenomenon of ISIS and its unique history through the lens of general social psychological principles that might have contributed to its stunning—even if only temporary—success. We suggest that ISIS represents a special case of a radical group born of the conjunction between psychological needs, an ideological narrative, and a networking process. We describe the details of ISIS’s evolution and operation in order to shed light on this threatening movement.

The introductory article proposes the hypothesis, which informed the decision making and editorial work in the Special Issue, that appropriations and weaponisations of the crusades in the modern era rely on culturally embedded master narratives of the past that are often thought to encompass public or cultural memories. Crucially, medievalism, communicated through metonyms, metaphors, symbols and motifs frequently acts as a placeholder instead of the master narratives themselves. The article addresses differences between medievalists' and modernists' conceptions of crusades, especially highlighting how the very meaning of words - such as crusade - differ in the respective fields. But the matter at hand goes beyond semantics, for the notion that the act of crusading is a live and potent issue is hard to ignore. There exists a complex and multifaceted crusading present. That people can appeal to master narratives of the crusades via mutable medievalism, which embodies zero-sum, Manichaean-type "clash of civilisations" scenarios, helps explain the continued appeal of the crusades to those who seek to weaponise them. It is hoped that the contributions to the special issue, introduced towards the end of the article, further a better understanding of the ways this has happened in the modern era.

When it comes to the establishment of an Islamic State, we must not only examine the Holy Quran and the Hadith collections, we should also consider a contract made by the Prophet that has often been referred to as the Medina Constitution. It provides insight into how the Prophet organized and governed the first Islamic community. By examining and comparing these three sources, we can uncover six values which, I believe, are deemed crucial by Allah and His last messenger. They are Tawhid* (Unicity of Allah), Hurriyah al-din (Freedom of Religion), Adl (Justice), Masawah 1 (Equality), La Tagulu (Moderation), and Shura (Consultation).

- by Arooj Alam
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- Quranic Studies, Islamic Studies, Hadith Studies, Islam and Secularism

The article studies the influence of the Arab Spring on the rise of terrorist activity in countries of the Sahel. For decades this region has been one of the most unstable in Africa and in the Afrasian instability zone. However, in the 2010s the Sahel experienced unprecedented growth of terrorist activity: by 2015 the number of terror attacks in the region had multiplied 7 times in comparison with 2010 statistics. The aim of this research is to find factors and mechanisms of terrorism's spread in the region with quantitative methods. Conducted analysis has shown that there are several trajectories of the Arab Spring's influence on terrorist activity in the Sahel. For instance, collapse of government structures in Libya during Arab Spring was a trigger for activation of Tuareg and Islamist terrorist movements in Mali and Niger. In Chad sudden rise of terrorist attacks is connected to so called "ISIS factor" when groups pledging allegiance to ISIS (like Boko Haram) aim to prove their ability to fight and to be "useful". Finally, in Burkina Faso revolutionaries were able to repeat a classic Arab Spring scenario of 2011 and to overthrow the regime of Blaise Compaoré. However, the fall of an authoritarian regime in Burkina Faso in 2014, just like in Libya, Yemen, or Egypt, has led to the inability of new government to guarantee security. As a result, a previously very calm and peaceful nation experienced explosive rise of terrorist attacks.

- by Andrey Korotayev
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- Terrorism, International Terrorism, Middle East & North Africa, West Africa

After conquering large swaths of Syria and Iraq, the IS undertook an aggressive sectarian campaign in which they not only enacted horrific violence against the Shia people, but also damaged or destroyed several key Shia mosques and shrines. Drawing on Social Movement Theory (SMT), this article analyzes the response by various Shia nonstate actors—militia leaders, religious clergymen, populist preachers, and seminal poets. It argues that they used the IS threat to Shia holy sites to develop and deploy a mobilization frame that has come to be referred to as the “shrine protection narrative.” The article also documents the manifold consequences of the shrine protection narrative: it underpinned a mass recruitment drive that saw tens of thousands enlist; it legitimized foreign Shia militias to enter the conflicts in both Syria and Iraq; it justified the formation of entirely new militias who declared the centrality of shrine protection to their mandate; and it mobilized them to enact political violence. In doing so, this article extends existing studies of SMT to demonstrate that “sacred spaces”—and particularly the need to protect religious sites from specific threats—can serve as a powerful mobilization frame towards political violence.

- by Benjamin Isakhan
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- Religion, Comparative Religion, Political Sociology, Social Movements