Building resilient secular citizens: Tajikistan’s response to the Islamic State

Abstract

ABSTRACTBetween 500 and 1000 citizens of Tajikistan have travelled to take part in hostilities in Syria and Iraq. The majority of these transnational activists are recruited in Russia, where over one million Tajik citizens live and work. In this article, I examine the politics of the Tajik government’s response. I answer three questions: how has the Tajik government reacted to its citizens joining the Islamic State? How has the foreign fighter phenomenon proved useful to securing the authoritarian regime? How have these, often illiberal, security practices shaped the lives of those they affect? Tajikistan’s government has responded to the Islamic State with a series of policies aimed at securing the regime. By conflating Islamization with radicalization, the Tajik government has extended its security practices to many more individuals than those directly involved with the Islamic State. Tajik counter-terrorism is based on all three forms of power identified by Michel Foucault. It is sovereign as it aims to protect the government and Tajikistan’s territory. It is disciplinary as it punishes those who are accused of “extremism”, offering a warning to others. And it is biopolitical because it involves the management of populations and individual subjects through practices of self-regulation.