Understanding the Islamic State—A Review Essay

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Byman
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Terrorist Threat ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Raison D’État ◽  
Foreign Fighters

This article reviews several recent books on the Islamic State in order to understand its goals, motivations, strategy, and vulnerabilities. It argues that the Islamic State's ideology is powerful but also highly instrumental, offering the group legitimacy and recruiting appeal. Raison d'etat often dominates its decisionmaking. The Islamic State's strength is largely a consequence of the policies and weaknesses of its state adversaries. In addition, the group has many weaknesses of its own, notably its brutality, reliance on foreign fighters, and investment in a state as well as its tendency to seek out new enemies. The threat the Islamic State poses is most severe at the local and regional levels. The danger of terrorism to the West is real but mitigated by the Islamic State's continued prioritization of the Muslim world and the heightened focus of Western security forces on the terrorist threat. A high-quality military force could easily defeat Islamic State fighters, but there is no desire to deploy large numbers of Western ground troops, and local forces have repeatedly shown many weaknesses. In the end, containing the Islamic State and making modest rollback efforts may be the best local outcomes.

Islamophobia

2019 ◽  
pp. 244-271
Author(s):  
Martin Pugh
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
The West ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Proximate Causes ◽  
To Come ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter discusses how, misled by Islamophobic propaganda, Britain and America were unable to come to terms with what they called ‘Islamism’. The origins of what is variously known as Islamism, Islamic fundamentalism, and radical Islamism lie in the 1960s, in the ideas of a handful of Muslims in Pakistan, Egypt, and Iran who believed that Muslims had been led astray from their religion by nationalist movements. Although some Muslims were critical of Western morality and politics, Islamism was not primarily anti-Western: it was essentially a reaction against what were widely seen as the corrupt, authoritarian, and secular regimes that controlled much of the Muslim world. The aim was to evict them, return to a purer form of Islam and re-create an Islamic state. In view of the exaggerated reputation it enjoys in the West, it is worth remembering that this movement has largely been a failure. Yet while fundamentalism appeals to only a small minority, it is also the case that large numbers of Muslims have become aggrieved by the policies of the Western powers. The explanation for this can be found in long-term frustration with the consistently pro-Israeli policy of Britain and the United States over Palestine, in addition to the proximate causes in the shape of two Afghan wars, the genocide in Bosnia, the Rushdie affair, and the first Gulf War in 1990, which made many Muslims see themselves as the victims of Western aggression and interventionism.

Travelling for an Idea

2019 ◽  
pp. 425-434
Author(s):  
Johusa Meservey
Keyword(s):  
Host Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Somali Diaspora ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter considers Al-Shabaab's Western foreign fighters. Members of the Somali diaspora in the West were the major source of Al-Shabaab's Western foreign fighters. Previously, a considerable number of members of the diaspora joined or attempted to join Al-Shabaab (referred to as ‘travellers’), and while the group's attractiveness for potential travellers has waned, the risk remains that it could revive. The chapter suggests that alienation plays a role in radicalization, such that travellers' acceptance of Al-Shabaab's violently anti-Western rhetoric demonstrates they were not deeply assimilated into the mainstream values of their host countries. However, it was Al-Shabaab's ideology that primarily attracted travellers. Thus, governments must try to delegitimize Al-Shabaab's worldview while promoting the attractions of their own ways of life in order to ensure travellers will not again seek out Al-Shabaab in large numbers.

Once upon a time

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Pfeifer ◽  
Alexander Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Online Videos ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
Foreign Fighters

Abstract The article examines the romantic narratives told by the “Islamic State” in the propaganda online videos of foreign fighters. Employing a method of narrative analysis, based on insight from Literary Studies and Narratology, it holds that while narratives of jihad differ to “war on terror” narratives told in the West with regard to their content, narratives of jihad employ a very western romantic genre style. Focusing on the narrative elements of setting, characterisation and emplotment the article illustrates a romantic narrative of jihad which contains classical elements of a romantic story in which the everyday person is forced to become a hero in a legitimate struggle against an unjust order for the greater good and in aid of the down trodden. The article thereby aims to contribute to the debate on why such narratives of jihad have an appeal in certain parts of western society.

From Isolation to Radicalization: Anti-Muslim Hostility and Support for ISIS in the West

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAMAR MITTS
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Local Level ◽  
High Frequency Data ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Foreign Fighters

What explains online radicalization and support for ISIS in the West? Over the past few years, thousands of individuals have radicalized by consuming extremist content online, many of whom eventually traveled overseas to join the Islamic State. This study examines whether anti-Muslim hostility might drive pro-ISIS radicalization in Western Europe. Using new geo-referenced data on the online behavior of thousands of Islamic State sympathizers in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium, I study whether the intensity of anti-Muslim hostility at the local level is linked to pro-ISIS radicalization on Twitter. The results show that local-level measures of anti-Muslim animosity correlate significantly and substantively with indicators of online radicalization, including posting tweets sympathizing with ISIS, describing life in ISIS-controlled territories, and discussing foreign fighters. High-frequency data surrounding events that stir support for ISIS—terrorist attacks, propaganda releases, and anti-Muslim protests—show the same pattern.

The Impact of Evolving Jihadist Narratives on Radicalisation in the West

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akil N. Awan
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the role Jihadist narratives have played in the radicalization of young Muslims in the West towards violent extremism, and how these narratives have changed over the years as Islamic State (ISIS) has trumped Al-Qaeda in becoming the organization of choice for most Western Jihadists today. The chapter explores the biographies of numerous individuals drawn to violent extremism, including those who have travelled abroad as foreign fighters or conducted home grown domestic terrorist attacks. The study finds that radical narratives only have potency when they intersect with structural conditions or the lived experiences that individuals may find themselves in. The chapter explores the role of religion, identity, altruism, and socio-economic marginalization in helping to account for increasing recruitment to Jihadism, suggesting fruitful avenues for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) measures.

Mosul loss could transform global jihadi terrorism

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Significant Risk ◽  
The West ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Foreign Fighters

Significance Iraqi security forces supported by a US-led coalition launched a long-awaited offensive against IS militants in Mosul in October. The group has suffered a string of losses in the past few months, including the Syrian town of Dabiq, of great symbolic importance to IS as the site of its notional apocalyptic showdown with the West. Impacts IS will capitalise on humanitarian and refugee crises in Iraq and Syria to recruit and rebuild its strength over several years. The group may fragment into independent cells that could attempt their own attacks or join the al-Qaida network. Returning foreign fighters could pose a significant risk to their home countries, given their combat experience.

Psychological Effects of the Threat of ISIS

2016 ◽  
pp. 168-173
Author(s):  
Weiying Hu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
The Self ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Psychological Study ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
End Times ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Present World

The threat of violent extremism has been considerably influenced by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), its inhumane brutal killings in Iraq and Syria, and exploitation of social media to recruit large numbers of foreign fighters in a scale never seen before. This development has serious implications for Singapore's security landscape. This aggressive promotion of fighting in Syria has resonated with a handful of Singaporeans, who were radicalised by radical online propaganda. In this psychological study of the Singapore cases, there are five psychological drivers that have contributed to the radicalisation process of these cases. They are: (1) justifying violence, (2) romanticising the notion of a utopian state, (3) desire to be a ‘good' Muslim, (4) escaping the ‘unbearable present' world, and (5) existential anxiety in relation to End Times prophecies. The preliminary findings further indicate that most of these radicalised individuals have engaged in negative activism.

Global War

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-198
Author(s):  
Haroro Ingram ◽  
Craig Whiteside ◽  
Charlie Winter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Global War ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
At Home

Chapter 8 features a speech by Islamic State’s charismatic spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani titled ‘Indeed, Your Lord is Ever Watchful’. In it, Adnani describes a global war and calls on Muslims from around the world to join the fight. Since announcing its caliphate, the Islamic State had called foreign fighters to their lands but with Adnani’s speech came an explicit call for its supporters to engage in terrorism at home. In the months after this rallying cry, terrorist attacks across France, the United States, Canada, and Australia suggested that Islamic State supporters had heeded Adnani’s call. This chapter also features excerpts from ‘The Extinction of the Grayzone’, an article in the seventh issue of Islamic State’s Dabiq magazine. Praising terrorist attacks in the West, the article calls for all true Muslims to either travel to Islamic State territories or attack Islamic State’s enemies wherever they reside.

Problems of military-political interaction between the countries of the West and Central Asia at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Boris G. Koybaev
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Military

Central Asia in recent history is a vast region with five Muslim States-new actors in modern international relations. The countries of Central Asia, having become sovereign States, at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries are trying to peaceful interaction not only with their underdeveloped neighbors, but also with the far-off prosperous West. At the same time, the United States and Western European countries, in their centrosilic ambitions, seek to increase their military and political presence in Central Asia and use the military bases of the region’s States as a springboard for supplying their troops during anti-terrorist and other operations. With the active support of the West, the Central Asian States were accepted as members of the United Nations. For monitoring and exerting diplomatic influence on the regional environment, the administration of the President of the Russian Federation H. W. Bush established U.S. embassies in all Central Asian States. Turkey, a NATO member and secular Islamic state, was used as a lever of indirect Western influence over Central Asian governments, and its model of successful development was presented as an example to follow.

The New Islamic State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
The West ◽  
Patriarchal Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.

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