Terrorist Insurgency Research Articles

Insurgent Terror during the 1921 West Siberian Uprising

The article considers such a controversial aspect of the West Siberian uprising of 1921 as the repressive and terrorist activities of the rebels towards representatives and supporters of the communist authorities on the ground, members of their families and rural intelligentsia. The author makes an attempt to characterize its forms, orientation, socio-psychological and moral motives. The motives for peasants’ protest sentiments, which grew into various forms of aggression, violence and terrorist activities by the most active anti-communist insurgents, are viewed from the standpoint of the theory of relative deprivation. The paper describes the symptomatic cruel, bloody torture and reprisals suffered by party and Soviet workers on the ground, food suppliers, policemen and representatives of the rural intelligentsia. The most terrible blow was dealt to the rural communes, which was caused by the outright rejection of collectivist morality and psychology by the prosperous Siberian peasantry. The article shows the tragic consequences of brutal, uncontrolled, spontaneous and emotional insurgent terror. The feelings of hatred and revenge towards the communist government and its representatives on the ground were long-term. On the basis of the documents from the regional archives, the author presents the facts characterizing the degradation and moral decline of the rebel movement, pointing out the long-term nature of anti-communist sentiments in the peasant community. This circumstance in particular led to a rebellion against the Soviet authorities, which broke out in the Sorokinsky area of the Ishim district of the Ural region in March 1930. The article gives a general assessment of the scale and consequences of the insurgent terror in Western Siberia, which became a backlash against the social deprivation of war communism period and a product of the moral degradation of its participants’ conscience.

Pakistan's Security Challenges after the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal on 15 August 2021. Because of the sudden withdrawal of the United States, a political and security vacuum has spread to all of the regional states, and the state system has also broken down. The purpose of this study is to identify the security challenges for Pakistan after the Taliban regime. This study will also comprehend the different security challenges like terrorist insurgencies, regrouping of TTP, Durand line issue, and spillover effect. The research paper used the theoretical perspective of Neo-Realism to better understand the behaviour of Afghanistan and Pakistan in contemporary times.

History Strikes Back

ABSTRACT This article is an explication of our immediate times in plainly historical terms; an underwriting, as it were, of the idea of the present as part of the historian’s craft and mission. The West’s victorious end of the Cold War was seen by many as a defining ideological triumph that heralded the coming of a post-historical era, in which wars and sanguinary revolutions would be a thing of the past. But it did not take too long for the ‘end of the end of history’ to be apparent in both the geostrategic sphere and the political-cultural realm. The new prevailing notion that the emerging Huntingtonian reality would be mostly confined to asymmetric wars between states and terrorist insurgencies in faraway lands was belied by America’s regime-change wars in the Middle East, and now by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The latter has shattered Europe’s fantasy about a post-historical world where military power does not matter, nationalism can be tamed by subsidies, world leaders are law-abiding gentlemen, and the continent’s security can safely be outsourced to America’s power. Rearmament and military alliances are again the order of the day in Europe, as is the division of the continent between East and West. In Europe and beyond, geopolitics have again prevailed over economic calculations. History strikes back on all fronts, and our understanding of current crises – deglobalization, the competition between the US and China, Russia’s aggressive revisionism, capitalism’s 2008 crisis, the rise of populism, and Brexit’s essay in imperial nostalgia – would greatly benefit from the invocation of relevant historical analogies. But the determinist assumption that ‘analogies (are) the key to understanding our future’ (Oswald Spengler) is stretching the concept into the realm of prophecy.

Making Terrorism Thinkable: The Philosophy of the Act and Its Reception in German Thought, 1794–1845

Abstract This article challenges the widespread assumption that terrorist ideology was invented in the mid-nineteenth century by figures such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. Instead, the article argues, the foundations of terrorism were laid at the end of the eighteenth century by the Enlightenment philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte and his disciples, who in turn exerted a strong influence on later radical thinkers. In showing how the intellectual reverberations of the French Revolution gave rise to anarchist ideology as well as actual acts of terrorism in Germany, the article traces the link between the state terror of the French Revolution and the emergence of insurgent terrorism.

ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of People and Goods: Its Implications for Nigeria’s National Security

The formation of ECOWAS was a bold attempt to stimulate interdependence and regional integration in West Africa. The central objective of the organization was to promote cooperation and development in economic, political, social and cultural affairs among member states. As part of the efforts to achieve its central objective ECOWAS member nations adopted, ratified and put into effect the 'Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Establishment. The protocol was directed at eliminating barriers to free trade including the removal of obstacles to the free movement of goods, capital and person. Without much doubt, the protocol on free movement has eased the movement of persons, enhanced mobility, and promoted closer cooperation and policy coordination among community members and their citizens. However, the protocol is not without its drawback, the most important of which is the fact that the unhindered movement of people that it promotes directly and indirectly generates threats to national security. Informed by this position, this paper examines ECOWAS protocol on the free movement of persons and its negative implications on Nigeria's national security within the context of the tenuous security challenges arising from terrorist insurgency and transnational criminal activities in the sub-region.

The Soldier, The Terrorist, and The Woman: A Gendered Analysis of Enforced Displacement in Northwestern Pakistan Post 2014

After the enforced displacement of around 1.7 million civilians from Federally Administered Tribal Areas in 2014, as a result of Pakistan’s military operation ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ against terrorist insurgencies located in the said area, the military were celebrated, while issues of enforced displacement were relegated to the backseat, with rudimentary charitable actions executed to eulogize the sacrifice of the Pashtuns, already existing on the periphery. This article focuses on Pashtun women who can be described as the marginalized of the marginalized, existing outside the realm of authority and politics, wholly ignored by the state and the military with respect to their absence in repatriation policies and unthought of by the metropolitan nationals and self-proclaimed intellectuals.

No Opportunity Lost: The ISWAP Insurgency in the Changing Climate of Lake Chad Region

Boko Haram spin-off Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has entrenched itself in the Lake Chad Region. In an area direly affected by climate change and counterproductive government policies aimed at disrupting ISWAP's activities, the terrorist insurgency is proving its resilience and adaptability by adjusting its strategies and recruiting among the local population. This article shows that the impact of climate change is exacerbating already-precarious livelihoods in the Lake Chad Region and argues that government failures as well as ISWAP's break from Boko Haram's nihilistic methods have combined to create an opportunity for terrorists to resurge by capitalizing on rising and justifiable local grievances. The result is a lesson for governments not to ignore the impact of climate change in the greater security paradigm of the nation.

The Domestic Contexts of the Boko Haram Terrorist Insurgency in Nigeria and What to Do About It

The Domestic Contexts of the Boko Haram Terrorist Insurgency in Nigeria and What to Do About It

Carrots, Sticks, and Insurgent Targeting of Civilians

How do conciliatory and coercive counterinsurgency tactics affect militant group violence against civilians? Scholars of civil war increasingly seek to understand intentional civilian targeting, often referred to as terrorism. Extant research emphasizes group weakness, or general state attributes such as regime type. We focus on terrorism as violent communication and as a response to government actions. State tactics toward groups, carrots and sticks, should be important for explaining insurgent terror. We test the argument using new data on terrorism by insurgent groups, with many time-varying variables, covering 1998 through 2012. Results suggest government coercion against a group is associated with subsequent terrorism by that group. However, this is only the case for larger insurgent groups, which raises questions about the notion of terrorism as a weapon of the weak. Carrots are often negatively related to group terrorism. Other factors associated with insurgent terrorism include holding territory, ethnic motivation, and social service provision.

ROLE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY OF THE NORTHWESTERN KRAI OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE 1863 POLISH UPRISING

The article considers the problems of forming the religious component of the Polish uprising in 1863 in the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. The author analyzes the peculiarities of the relationship between the Roman Catholic clergy and its laity in the process of the religious mobilization of the participants in the uprising. The article reveals the methods of influence of the radically-minded clergy on the consciousness and political behavior of the laity. There is shown that the spiritual power of the Roman Catholic clergy was used to achieve the political goals of the liberation of Poland. There is established the relationship between the religious motivation of the participants in the uprising and the brutality towards the law-abiding population in various forms of insurgent terror and violence. The author comes to the conclusion that radically-minded Roman Catholic priests and monks managed to turn the church doctrine into a mobilizing ideology of the armed struggle. Religious legitimization, propaganda and organization of the armed uprising turned a part of the Roman Catholic clergy of the Northwestern Krai into a political enemy of the Russian Empire. The article deals with the retaliatory measures of punishment applied to the rebellious representatives of the clergy on the part of the administration of M.N. Muravyov, which were caused by the conditions of martial law, the necessity to protect the territorial integrity of the state, to protect the lives and property of law-abiding citizens. In this regard, the Russian government, army, society and the Orthodox population of Lithuania and Belarus perceived the uprising as an attempt on the part of the Polish separatists on the ancestral Russian territory. Therefore, for the Russian side, the goals of the armed struggle were not the return of the Polish land, but the morally justified protection of the Russian land and the Russian people living in the West who had the same faith. In this regard, the author comes to the conclusion that in the process of preparing and carrying out the uprising, some of the Roman Catholic clergy of the Northwestern Kraiacted as a political enemy of the Russian Empire.

Great Powers-Africa Security Relations and War on Terrorism: Extrapolations from 'Operation Serval' in Mali

The terrorist insurgency in Mali was an international jigsaw and a litmus test for African security mechanism under Great Powers’ influence in recent times. The post-bin Ladin terrorist upsurge rekindled anxiety that the assassination of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin did not put an end to international terrorism and that Great Powers can intervene in African states under the guise of war on terrorism as French “Operation Serval” in Mali demonstrates. The paper’s objective is to empirically underscore the politico-economic motivations, strengths and weaknesses of Great Powers’ military intervention in Africa under the guise of war on terrorism. From the theoretical foundation of interdependence of nations, the author argued that intelligence-sharing at early warming stage of terrorist incubation matched with astute diplomatic efforts and respect for people’s rights remain more salutary and effective collective measures to nip on the bud external intervention against terrorism in sovereign states.

О военной стратегии Индии

The article analyzes the evolution of military strategy of the Republic of India and key factors that influences its development. New Delhi keeps an eye on the balance of power in South Asia to create favorable conditions for its economic and social development, yet the remaining threats and new challenges still undermine the security and stability in India. The ambitions of China aspiring to power in Asia-Pacific region, combined with its immense military build-up and territorial disputes, cause disturbance in New Delhi. The remaining tensions between India and Pakistan also cause often border skirmishes and medium-scale conflicts. Close relations between China and Pakistan, labeled as “all-weather friendship”, are a source of major concern for India. The fact that both Beijing and Islamabad wield nuclear weapons means that without effective mechanisms of nuclear deterrence any military conflict may turn into a full-scale nuclear war. Terrorist activities and insurgency in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and in the North-Eastern regions of the country, along with maritime piracy and illicit drug trafficking contribute to the complicated nature of the challenges to the Indian security. Indian military strategy is considered as a combination of the army doctrine, maritime doctrine and nuclear doctrine. The Indian political and military leadership wants to meet the challenges of changing geopolitical environment and thus continuously adapts its strategy. However, there is still a gap between theory and practice: Indian armed forces lack the capacity to implement the declared goals because of bulky bureaucratic system, outdated military equipment and insufficient level of command and control. The government needs to mobilize political will and administrative resources to upgrade its defense sector to counter its security threats and challenges.

Pediatric otorhinolaryngology emergencies at the Jos University Teaching Hospital: Study of frequency, management, and outcomes.

Background:Studies from Nigeria on pediatric otorhinolaryngology (ORL) emergencies are rare in literature with most focusing on emergencies involving individual systems.Objective:The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of all ORL emergencies among children in our region to provide a baseline data for future health planning.Patients and Methods:This is a 1-year retrospective cross-sectional study of patients aged 16 years and below presenting to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria.Results:A total of 203 otolaryngology emergencies were attended of which 129 (63.5%) were pediatric emergencies. Records of 87 patients were retrievable with age range 2 months to 15 years (mean 3.44 years; standard deviation ± 3.35). There were 55 males and 32 females with a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. The majority of cases were aged under 5 years (64; 73.6%). Acute tonsillitis accounted for 32 (36.7%) cases with 6 (6.9%) having peritonsillar abscesses. Acute pharyngitis accounted for 11 (12.6%) presentations followed closely by foreign bodies (FBs) in the ear with 10 (11.5%) presentations. FB in the throat occurred in 4 (4.6%) patients who had removal under general anesthesia. Three (3.4%) cases of maxillofacial injuries occurred as a result of insurgent terror attacks and 3.4% presented following corrosive substance ingestion. Conservative management was commenced in 76 (87.4%) patients, 23 (26.4%) had surgery with 68 (78.2%) admitted and discharged, 18 (20.7%) treated as outpatients, and 1 (1.1%) died on admission. Otolaryngologists attended most (95.4%) patients.Conclusion:Pediatric ORL emergencies are common in our region involving a wide range of pathologies. Expansion is required in the ORL training of the emergency room physician to enhance emergency services.

Implication of Boko Haram Terrorism on Northern Nigeria

Terrorism has been a global menace which affects economic, political and social status of the country experiencing it. The political dimension of terrorism and insecurity have been examined in this study which moribund political regime of President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria. Many lives and properties have been destroyed in Northern Nigeria by the Boko Haram deadly attacks. It is evident from this study that Boko Haram terrorist insurgency invigorated as a result of pronouncement of Goodluck Jonathan as president of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the inception of this political regime, Boko Haram has been disrupting and destabilizing government activities mainly in Northern Nigeria. The political implication of terrorism has been deadly in Nigerian democratic governance. The study found that North-Eastern Nigeria witnessed a monumental influx of Boko Haram deadly attacks (115), followed by North-West with (13) attacks while North-Central experienced (12) attacks since last four years, consequently culminated into epileptic socio-political activities in these geo-political zones; many lives have been lost while the Nigerian political environment continue to produce social insecurity and enduring political diaphragm. The challenges of terrorism and insecurity have been traumatizing President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in Nigeria while many political gladiators hide under the siege of Boko Haram insurgency in terrorizing existing political regime in Nigeria which makes it difficult to actualize governmental policies and programmes in Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorism is an ethnic political tool aimed at causing political chaos by political elites in Nigeria; therefore this study makes a prognosis for reawakening of militancy in Niger-Delta if President Jonathan is denied second term presidential political contestation in Nigeria. Regardless of political affiliations, all the political stakeholders should rally round the Jonathan’s administration to proffer solution to the current security conundrum in Nigeria. The pull-down political syndrome should be shunned for the sake of general well-being of the citizenry which serves as a bedrock of statecraft. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3p371

A Threat to National Security: The Case of Boko Haram in Nigeria

Nigeria has been bedeviled by ethno-religious conflicts with both devastating human and material consequences since the return of democracy in 1999. The current terrorist insurgency by the Northern-based Boko Haram group has continued to pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s security and corporate political entity. This is evidenced in the group’s undeterred spate of terrorist attacks on citizens, the nation’s security personnel, wanton destruction of lives and property. This paper will focus on the assessment of the Boko Haram’s unprecedented campaign of terror that is growing both in number and brutality that has constituted itself as a national security threat to the continual and harmonious co-existence of the component nations that make up the Nigerian state. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n4p283

English

This essay begins by analyzing how Hegel and Honneth’s theory of recognition would seem to lend support to insurgent terrorists’ struggle for the right to self-determination. Insurgent terrorism looks like a concretization of what Honneth calls the moral protest of the oppressed against the powerful. Insurgent terrorism also resembles the politics of recognition in that it challenges the legitimacy of the forces owned by the state, seeking public recognition instead for the legitimacy of their own cause. Precisely because what matters uppermost to terrorists is public recognition for their cause, terrorists are eager to seize the mass media to champion their ideas. This essay will end, however, by pointing out major differences between insurgent terrorism on the one hand, and Hegel and Honneth on the other.   Key words: Colonialism, Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Fredrich, Honneth, Axel, imagined community, (insurgent) terrorism.

Understood But Undefined: Why Do Argentina and Brazil Resist Criminalising Terrorism?

Abstract This article considers why Argentina and Brazil have resisted global trends and pressures towards the adoption and implementation of laws criminalising acts of terror. It is argued that the development of Argentine and Brazilian understandings of ‘terrorism’, resulting from the considerable experience of each nation with state and insurgent terror, has led to persistent anti-counter-terrorism-law policies. Some lessons are drawn from this discussion to educate the evolution of counter-terrorism law and policy more widely.

Don't confuse me with the facts: knowledge claims and terrorism

It became commonplace after 11 September 2001 to declare that the events changed ‘everything’ and that the world would never again be as it was before that date. Many spoke of the dividing line of the pre-9/11 and post-9/11 world, and it became commonplace to assert that the events conclusively demonstrated the validity of the thesis that there was a ‘new’ terrorism, at base religious and apocalyptic, more networked rather than hierarchical and very different from the ‘old’ terrorism. This article reflects upon and evaluates the development of knowledge claims about insurgent terrorism and measures them against the standard of how well these claims have advanced the formulation of theories of terrorism that can be subjected to observational testing. The article examines changes in the lethality of terrorism, the characterisations, boundaries and control structures of the network claims and differences amongst the old and new terrorists and concludes that claims of a ‘new terrorism’ are vastly misleading.

“Baptism by Fire”: Boko Haram and the Reign of Terror in Nigeria

The rise of Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect, has heightened the state of insecurity in Nigeria and beyond, triggering deadly bomb attacks on police forces, government officials, places of worship, public institutions, and innocent civilians. With the violence showing no signs of abating, this paper advances two theoretical approaches—a state-failure thesis and a frustration-aggression thesis—to explain the Boko Haram phenomenon in terms of its evolution, intent, enemies, and radicalization. The overarching focus of the paper, however, is on the factors that fan the flames of the terrorist insurgency, including security deficiency, endemic elite corruption and military brutality, continued economic challenges, decrepit and underdeveloped infrastructures, and inaccurate reporting. Accordingly, one way of resolving the Boko Haram impasse would be to address the causal efficacy of each of the foregoing trigger factors. It is hoped that when these issues are addressed, the likelihood that the discontented, aggrieved, and frustrated youth of northern Nigeria will gravitate toward terrorism as an option will be significantly reduced, or even eliminated.

The terrorist insurgency in the South of Thailand

Review of: Zachary Abuza, Conspiracy of silence: The insurgency in Southern Thailand. Duncan McCargo (ed.), Rethinking Thailand’s southern violence.