Rise Of ISIS Research Articles

Processes of Cohesion and Fragmentation among Arab Tribes During the Syrian Civil War

ABSTRACT With the rise of ISIS in eastern Syria after 2014, there was a discussion among Western powers about the possibility of arming Arab tribes to lead the fight against ISIS on the ground. This paper challenges the assumption that tribes are cohesive units and argues that internal differences and contested leadership run counter to the image of tribes as unified groups. While tribes are fragmented, one can, however, observe some examples that testify to the existence of tribal solidarity during the course of the Syrian civil war. Overall, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: What caused fragmentation among members of the Syrian tribes during the Syrian Civil War? What inspired cohesion in other instances? It argues that multiple factors, such as violence, patronage networks with internal and external authorities, and competition among leaders to represent the group internally and externally, can have a fundamental effect on the processes of cohesion and fragmentation.

Deterred But Not Defeated: The Case of Abu Sayyaf’s Resilience

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is known for its criminal and terror operations. Since the group's base is located in islands in the southern Philippines such as Basilan and Sulu, its notorious activities have extended to neighbouring countries; Malaysia and Indonesia. Thereby, making the group a destabilising force for regional security. This article discusses the factors that shaped the resilience of the ASG by looking at the evolution of the group for more than three decades. The evolutionary phases of the group will be divided into four: the early years (the 1980s-2001), the post-9/11 tragedy (2002-2014), the rise of ISIS (2014-2017), and the post-ISIS (2018-Present). Based on the analysis of the group’s evolution, this article argues that the ability of the ASG to shift its focus of operations from criminal activities such as kidnapping for ransom and piracy to terrorist acts and vice versa has contributed to its resilience. Three interrelated factors have made possible for the fluidity of the group: the factionalised structure of the group, the existence of an international terrorist organization as a patron, and the convenience of committing crimes.

ONLINE VISIBILITY AND RADICALIZATION: CONCEPTS, CONTEXTUALIZATION, AND CASES

In recent decades, security institutions have placed high priority on understanding the relationship between radicalization, violent extremism, terrorism, and the use of both traditional and new media tools. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 brought global attention to terrorism and its cross-border impact, but the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by terrorist groups has increasingly become a crucial aspect of terrorism. The rise of ISIS and their adept use of social media and the internet, in particular, has been a significant milestone in demonstrating how effective these tools can be for terrorist organizations, even after the group's demise, and inspiring others to follow suit.

Al‐Azhar and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

<scp>Al‐Azhar</scp> and the Salafis in Egypt: Contestation of two traditions

The War on Terror: The Neo-American Manifest Destiny

Significant literature has concluded that Islamic-terrorist activity in the Middle East and in Europe had increased drastically since the beginning of the implementation of the Bush Doctrine in 2001 after 9/11, with the rise of ISIS. However, little is known about the causal mechanism that links between the Post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy and the rise of new terrorist organizations, particularly the Islamic State in Iraq. Hence, the focus of this study is to process trace such mechanism. It will also explain why the War on Terror has produced totally opposite results from those it was originally intended for. Finally, this study is a within-case analysis that might be a microscopic observation of the imperial American behavior in the Middle East. This study relies on explaining outcome process-tracing methodology, and employing oral and historical accounts, archives and statistical data. I argue that the War on Terror, precisely the period of the Bush’s presidency (2001-2009), to be the continuity of the historical imperial behavior that inspires the U.S. foreign policy. I will only focus on two main policies: the Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 because invasion is the most concrete manifestation of imperialism. The result shows that the invasion of Iraq led to sectarianism that IS feeds on, and that the invasion of Afghanistan led to the geographical expansion of Jihadists. Together they fused to cause the mutation of Al-Qaeda into a more complex Islamic-inspired terrorist organization (IS).

Resolving Conflicting Emotions: Obama's Quandaries on the Red Line and the Fight against ISIS

AbstractThe study of emotions in foreign policymaking has emphasized dominant discrete emotions and how they each lead to specific action tendencies. Scholars often focus on one emotion to explain decisions and have an additive view of emotions. This article argues that decision-makers often feel conflicting emotions and that emotions are not simply additive. What are conflicting emotions’ consequences for foreign policymaking? How are these conflicts resolved? The cases of President Obama's response to the Syrian chemical weapon attack in 2013 and the rise of ISIS in 2014 provide an occasion to study these questions on major security issues surrounding military intervention. This article argues that when decision-makers feel conflicted emotions their anxiety level rises, and that they are likely to attempt to gain time through procrastination, to resolve their conflict by focusing their attention on new developments, and to seek support to bolster confidence in their decision.

Views: Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, and the Rise of ISIS in Iraq

Views: Sectarianism, Authoritarianism, and the Rise of ISIS in Iraq

“This barbaric terrorist organization”: Orientalism and Barack Obama’s language on ISIS

ABSTRACT This article explores US foreign policy discourse surrounding the rise of ISIS, from 2014 to 2016. Specifically, it asks how Obama constructed ISIS as a threatening Other at this time. This research responds to a gap in the literature concerning official Western discourses on ISIS violence, and partially fills this by tracing the formation of US foreign policy narratives and exploring how this drew from existing discourses and older Orientalist tropes. Conducting a discourse analysis of official statements, this paper shows how Obama modified his language to elevate the level of the threat in official discourse. It argues that he achieved this by drawing upon longstanding racialised and Orientalist archives of knowledge, effectively resituating the terrorist Other within a more markedly Orientalist discourse. Finally, the article concludes that by (re)producing the traditional Orientalist character of the barbarian as an existential threat to a Eurocentric idea of Western civilisation, Obama made possible an approach to intervention that prioritised air power, targeted assassinations and international cooperation to defend the “civilised” world. This had the effect of stigmatising Muslim communities who were left occupying a discursive space between the civilised West and the barbaric ISIS.

Anatomising Syrian crisis: Enumerating actors, motivations, and their strategies (2011-2019)

Syrian crisis started as a domestic uprising against President Bashar-ul-Assad, and soon engulfed not only the neighbouring states, but also extra-regional great powers. This study tries to anatomise the crisis by addressing the nature of the actors lying at domestic, regional, and system levels, who have rendered the conflict its multifaceted nature. The main question this study addresses is: What are the actors and factors that have contributed to the complexity of the Syrian Civil War and why has this conflict degenerated into a prolonged violent engagement between different groups? While using the theoretical prism of contentious theory of civil war developed by Adrian Florea and in-depth qualitative case study as methodological tool, this study hypothesizes that grievances at the domestic level have resulted in the onset of the conflict in Syria, which was later exacerbated and prolonged by the rise of ISIS and strategic competition among the regional and system level powers. The study concludes that, though the crisis is not over yet, increasing interests and overtures by Saudi Arabia and the domestic growing Syrian animosity towards Iran has opened new avenues for regional and extra-regional involvement in the post-conflict reconstruction for effective governance, peace, and stability in Syria.

The Expanded Usul of Violence by ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Other Similar Extremist Groups

This paper discusses the methodology of violence used by modern extremist groups that affiliate themselves with Islam, particularly al-Qaeda and ISIS. With the rise of groups claiming to wage jihad, the public has a difficult time discerning traditional concepts from modern aberrations. Furthermore, the groups themselves seem to be alike. The examination of the legal framework used by these groups to justify their violent practices shows a dishonest usage of the traditions they claim to defend. This becomes most obvious with the rise of ISIS, which claims to manifest concepts beyond jihad, such as bayah and jizyah. It is also highlighted in the paper that the selective readings of these groups take the most violent interpretations of numerous issues and reduces every target to a disbeliever worthy of being killed or subjugated. By discrediting their usul (interpretive principles), the claims they make for an entire tradition are called into question.

Reclaiming Saudi Salafism: The Saudi Religious Circles and the Threat of ISIS

The Syrian civil war prompted a new wave of religious discourse in Saudi Arabia as the Saudi government and its clerics expressed support for the Sunni protesters in Syria. The issues of jihad and Sunni groups fighting in Syria received significant clerical attention; the Saudi ʿulamāʾ of various political persuasions, including “activists” and “quietists”, commented on the events in Syria. Following the rise of ISIS as the war progressed, the ʿulamāʾ became themselves the subject of scrutiny for allegedly providing the foundations for extremism in Syria. Both the rhetoric of the clerics, as well as Saudi Salafi religious traditions more broadly, came under immense attack domestically and internationally. This article examines how the Saudi clerics dealt with these criticisms. It analyses the rhetoric and actions of the clerics in relation to ISIS’s brand of Salafism, both theologically and politically. It finds that the Saudi ʿulamāʾ of various political persuasions are contesting claims to Salafism, resulting in heated debates and attempts to reconstruct Saudi religious traditions.

The problem of minorities in the Arab countries A study of the 1990s

The Topic area of that's paper dealing with nature of concluding minorities in Arabic world. The Arabic and Islamic society has been contain many minorities lived with Arabs and Muslims for centuries with coherent and tolerance of Islamic religion, Arabic state saved the identities of that's minorities without any kind of coercion or persecution.&#x0D; After the colonialism period the enmities were arisen among different ethnic and religious communities as a result of Western plans to divided Arabic region, destroyed their abilities ,seizure their wealth and keep the region as base of tension and conflicts the most significant slogan was divided and rule. The many variables grown and arisen during 1990s its lead to many disputes and dilemmas which was dealing with rights of religious and ethnic minorities, the foreign dimension was strongly existence. The dilemma of minorities in Arabic World still sparkle especially afire occupation of Iraq and rise of ISIS, and conflicts in Syria Libya, Yemen and other Arabic countries which are select to be as models of fragmentation and division.

Introduction: The Rise of Geopolitics in the EU’s Approach in its Eastern Neighbourhood

ABSTRACTThe article and the special section aim to discuss and contextualise the recent rise of traditional aspects of geopolitics in EU foreign policy with a focus on the region on its eastern borders (that the EU has identified as its Eastern Neighbourhood) and Russia. Contributions evaluate the way recent events in the international arena (such as the Ukraine crisis, the Arab Spring or the rise of ISIS) have emphasised the need for the EU to engage with traditional aspects of geopolitics and strategic thinking in foreign policy. While, an initial reading of the EU’s recent development and behaviour in the Eastern Neighbourhood might point to the increasingly salience of traditional geopolitical considerations, the articles in the collection highlight that the hybrid nature of the EU also translates into its approach to geopolitics. Acknowledging that elements of traditional geopolitics are salient forces in world politics adds to the EU’s hybrid approach and has made it reframe its search for authenticity

From regional politics to street demonstrations: Changes in the Iraqi Communist Party’s political strategies in the post-war era

Abstract This article analyses how the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) altered its political strategies in post-war Iraq. After the decline of the political presence, the ICP formed large alliances with small parties in the third round of local and national elections, opting to support candidates on a national scale; in doing so, the ICP achieved significant breakthrough. The party’s election strategy not only led to the ICP’s success but also to the overall stabilization of Iraqi party politics. After the rise of ISIS, the ICP overcame its ideological differences with Sadrist factions that similarly stood alongside the masses; pursuing large-scale demonstrations, the ICP found further opportunities to carry out its political activities. The ICP has thus been adroit in adapting its political strategies according to political and social circumstances. As Islamist groups have seized political power and religious sentiment has spread, the ICP might be seen as pursuing the best of strategies that remain available to it.

The relation between religion and state in Islam and Christianity in the rise of ISIS

The recent development of the Islamic State (ISIS 2010–2014 and IS 2014) is a radicalisation of the relation between religion and state in Islam. The relation of religion and state to Christianity has been shaped by the philosophy of dualism and Greek thought in the West. The relation of religion and state in Islam, however, has been shaped by a completely different tradition and conflicting view than Western thought and is based on the codified system of Shari’a law in Arabic thought. One of the most debated topics in Islamic studies is the inseparable nature of religion and state in Islam and the role of Shari’a law to the state. In the West the historical debate concerns the indiscriminate blending of church and state and the separation of church and state as indispensable to democracy and the modern question of the relation of Christian morality and public law. Islamic fundamentalism is a political and religious reform movement that indiscriminately blends the political and religious.

Theatrical Topographies: Spatial Crises in Uruguayan Theater Post-2001 by Sarah M. Misemer

Reviewed by: Theatrical Topographies: Spatial Crises in Uruguayan Theater Post-2001 by Sarah M. Misemer Victoria L. Garrett Misemer, Sarah M. Theatrical Topographies: Spatial Crises in Uruguayan Theater Post-2001. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 2017. 215 pp. ISBN: 978-16-1148-797-8. Situating itself in the context of such global crises as Argentina's and Uruguay's 2001/2002 monetary crisis, the 2008/2009 Wall Street financial crisis, the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS and ISIL, and narcotrafficking, this book examines the expressions of crisis of traditional spaces of power, such as the state, in twenty-first century Uruguayan independent theater. As such global events illustrate, when competing viewpoints or contradictory frameworks of power meet, a crisis is provoked. Theatrical Topographies explores the spaces of such geographic, cultural, social, gendered, and aesthetic crises. Presenting a wealth of knowledge about the independent theater scene, the book focuses on select works by Gabriel Peveroni, Marianella Morena, Santiago Sanguinetti, Gabriel Calderón, and Sergio Blanco. By drawing on cutting edge theories of space, gender, performance, geography, and globalization, Misemer presents fresh and innovative approaches to contemporary theater studies. The first chapter teases out extensive intertextual references between Peveroni's Shanghai and both his two previous plays Groenlandia and Berlin as well as Jorge Luis Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths." These intertexts open multiple interpretive paths that illuminate contemporary crises related to biopolitics and biotechnology. Misemer analyzes how identity is destabilized through the Shanghai's theme of DNA kits, as well as how the play's global spaces simultaneously evoke different geographies (from other plays and references), their (violent) histories, and themes specific to Uruguay. As she persuasively argues, post-dramatic insertions that disrupt linear plot lines allow for meaning to be produced in the spaces between [End Page 179] different texts, histories, and geographies. The result is a play that questions the efficacy of different economic models and the implications of bodies under biotechnology. Misemer's chapter on sex, gender, and national identity in Morena's work shows how her renditions of the classics Don Juan and Romeo and Juliet position identity and economics as places of crisis, contestation, and ambiguity. She posits that Don Juan: el lugar del beso's emphasis on tongues, oral sex, and consumption repositions feminist discourse over Uruguay's patriarchal landscape and creates an economic space of crisis. Her analysis unveils a connection between Don Juan's infamous sexism and contemporary consumerism, which illustrates the uneven effects of globalization wherein we both consume and are consumed. Misemer aptly explores Las Julietas' use of psychogeography as a critical response to the control represented by urban planning, revealing hidden cartographies and inviting new perceptions of Uruguayan identity in the twenty-first century. Analyzed in the context of other cosmopolitan versions of Romeo and Juliet, Morena's treatment of gender deconstructs, demystifies, and deflates the cultural baggage of Uruguay's national identity to render certain obsessions ridiculous. In Chapter 3, Misemer reads Sanguinetti's Ararat o Las moscas sobre Valkulnichuk and Nuremberg as placing the concept of justice and religion in crisis. Whether evoking the story of Noah's ark, Russia during World War II, or the Holocaust, both works link genocide and justice, as well as World War II and contemporary Uruguay, by focusing on the crisis of human rights and memory. In particular, she focuses on the Jewish Midrashic tradition, which is a performative, improvised act of interpreting scriptures that decenters the text's singular meaning and thus places in crisis univocal accounts of history. Misemer's extended engagement with studies of the ultra-right in twentieth century Argentina effectively makes the case for anti-semitism as a defining political framework for political power in Río de la Plata. Likewise, the insertion of footage from the Nuremberg Trials and Sergei Eisenstein's film Battleship Potemkin evokes Uruguay's recent dictatorship and impunity laws in a way that superimposes disparate geographies and time periods to demonstrate the current emergence of neo-fascism, particularly with the extreme right in Germany and Russia. The result, as she reveals, is a complex engagement with the vexed negotiation between local and international pressures. The final full chapter explores concepts of...

Indian Newspapers Framing of ISIS Coverage: A Content Analysis

&lt;p&gt;A 22-year-old youth, a native of Andhra Pradesh, who had converted to Islam and allegedly joined the Islamic State terror group taking an oath to carry out subversive activities in the country at the instigation of a Mumbai-based IS sympathiser, was arrested by the Hyderabad police on July 24, 2017.This stunning incident shocked the public and police officials. It shows that ISIS impact on Indian youth. This incident inspired the researchers to do research on coverage of ISIS by Indian Newspapers. The rise of ISIS in 2014, in this reason the researchers selected the August 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; to December 31, in 2014 (5 months’ time period) for the content analysis. In this research the researchers selected four Indian newspapers two from English (The Hindu and The Times of India) two from Telugu (Andrajyothi and Prajasakthi).It is not a random sample, it is a purposive sample. The coverage shows the intensity of ISIS activities. This study focused on investigating frames employed when covering ISIS and terrorism-related events in Indian newspapers. All data collected were analysed using simple descriptive statistics. Statistical techniques as chi- square and co – efficient of imbalance have been used for analysis.&lt;/p&gt;

ISIS, Crabgrass, and Religious Imaginaries

A review of seven recently published books on the rise of ISIS shows how it emerged after the Iraq War due to American policy, Iraqi Sunni alienation, the Syrian Assad regime's policies, and factional competition. But ISIS is unique in its use of social media for recruitment. Furthermore, the content of the ISIS message is religious, relying on Salafi teachings, apocalyptic imagery, and the legitimacy of a Caliphate. As with crabgrass, the most effective long-term anti-terrorism policy is prevention rather than eradication. But responding to the religiously inspired “imaginaries” of ISIS will require more inspired religious alternatives and savvier cyber-monitoring.

Was the Rise of ISIS Inevitable?

The most fateful American choice in the rise of ISIS was also the oldest one: the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, followed by the mismanagement of the occupation.

The hidden hand: Why religious studies need to take conspiracy theories seriously

AbstractWhat seemed like fringe concerns to most then have, with Trump's election and Brexit and the growth of the alt‐right across Europe, become of concerns of mainstream commentators. Moreover, the rise of ISIS and the increasingly overt religious language being employed in the political sphere have made the powerful combination of religion and conspiracy plain. This emerging subdiscipline cuts to the very core of some of the most pressing issues in the academic study of religion––and indeed, the social sciences more generally in this postcolonial environment. This article is intended to set out its scope and some of its future directions.