Explodes and Expands: How the ‘Islamic State’ Fights in Syria

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-125
Author(s):  
Omar Ashour
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Government Operation ◽  
Provincial Capital ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Military ◽  
Source Materials

This chapter provides an overview of the birth and the military build-up of ISIS/IS in Syria, as of 9 April 2013. It aims to explain how ISIS/IS was able to gradually develop their combat capacities and the resulting combat and military effectiveness in Syria. The chapter then focuses on describing and analysing the battlefronts of Raqqa Governorate between 2013 and 2019. Raqqa City, the governorate’s provincial capital, was the first “capital” of the organisation. Arguably, ISIS/IS had shown its maximum combat capacities in Syria during its occupation of the governorate and in defence of its “capital.” The chapter is partly based on interviews with Syrian rebels and soldiers who fought against IS in eight Syrian governorates: Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Damascus, and Rif Dimashq. It is also based on documents, audio-visual and photographic releases produced by ISIS/IS in Syria. The chapter also relies on official documents released by the US government, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), and other open-source materials. The chapter is composed of five sections. It overviews the military build-up of ISIS/IS in Syria since its establishment in April 2013. It then outlines the details of the battlefronts of Raqqa Governorates within specific timeframes. It analyses how IS fight in Syria, using data and observations from the Raqqa battlefronts as well as others, such as Deir Ezzor and Aleppo Governorates. Finally, it reflects on the future of IS insurgency in Syria after losing Raqqa and other territories and shifting back to mainly guerrilla and terrorism tactics.

Reloads, but Implodes: How the ‘Islamic State’ Fights in Libya

2020 ◽  
pp. 126-159
Author(s):  
Omar Ashour
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
State Sponsorship ◽  
The Us ◽  
Local Support ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
Source Materials

This chapter provides a historical overview of the birth of “Islamic State” in Libya, as of 22 June 2014. It aims to explain how the organisation was able to gradually develop their combat capacities in Libya since then. As a result of this, ISIS was able to take control of parts of Derna in October 2014, and the whole of Sirte by the end of May 2015. The occupations happened despite a lack of local support, state sponsorship or supportive geography. The chapter focuses on analysing the battlefronts of Derna and Sirte between June 2015 and December 2016, as a sample reflecting how IS fights in Libya. The chapter is partly based on interviews with soldiers and militiamen who fought against IS in the aforementioned battlefronts. It is also based on documents produced by ISIS in Libya, represented by two of its three former ‘provinces’: Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. The chapter also relies on official documents released by the US government, and on other open-source materials. The chapter is composed of six sections. First, it overviews the military build-up of IS in Libya since June 2014. Then, it outlines the details of the battlefronts of Derna and Sirte within specific timeframes. After that, it analyses how IS fights in Libya, using empirical data and observations from the two battlefronts and elsewhere in Libya. Finally, the concluding section reflects on the future of IS insurgency in Libya, after losing territory and shifting back to guerrilla and terrorism ways of warfare.

Functioning of Ukrainian Bureau in Washington D. C. (March 1939 – May 1940)

2019 ◽  
pp. 142-157
Author(s):  
Danylo Kravets
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
College Degrees ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
General Functioning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
History Of Journalism ◽  
The Military

The aim of the Ukrainian Bureau in Washington was propaganda of Ukrainian question among US government and American publicity in general. Functioning of the Bureau is not represented non in Ukrainian neither in foreign historiographies, so that’s why the main goal of presented paper is to investigate its activity. The research is based on personal papers of Ukrainian diaspora representatives (O. Granovskyi, E. Skotzko, E. Onatskyi) and articles from American and Ukrainian newspapers. The second mass immigration of Ukrainians to the US (1914‒1930s) has often been called the «military» immigration and what it lacked in numbers, it made up in quality. Most immigrants were educated, some with college degrees. The founder of the Ukrainian Bureau Eugene Skotzko was born near Western Ukrainian town of Zoloczhiv and immigrated to the United States in late 1920s after graduating from Lviv Polytechnic University. In New York he began to collaborate with OUN member O. Senyk-Hrabivskyi who gave E. Skotzko task to create informational bureau for propaganda of Ukrainian case. On March 23 1939 the Bureau was founded in Washington D. C. E. Skotzko was an editor of its Informational Bulletins. The Bureau biggest problem was lack of financial support. It was the main reason why it stopped functioning in May 1940. During 14 months of functioning Ukrainian Bureau in Washington posted dozens of informational bulletins and send it to hundreds of addressees; E. Skotzko, as a director, personally wrote to American governmental institutions and foreign diplomats informing about Ukrainian problem in Europe. Ukrainian Bureau activity is an inspiring example for those who care for informational policy of modern Ukraine.Keywords: Ukrainian small encyclopedia, Yevhen Onatsky, journalism, worldview, Ukrainian state. Keywords: Ukrainian Bureau in Washington, Eugene Skotzko, public opinion, history of journalism, diaspora.

scholarly journals Educational Television in El Salvador and Modernisation Theory

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-792
Author(s):  
HÉCTOR LINDO-FUENTES
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Educational Television ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alliance For Progress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
International Aid Agencies

AbstractThis article investigates the introduction of educational television in El Salvador in the late 1960s, an Alliance for Progress project, in light of the preoccupations of the Cold War, the application of modernisation theory, the growing influence of a development community grounded in the social sciences and the Salvadorean elite's particular obsession with communism. The top-down approach used by the military regime to introduce a flurry of changes in the education system was facilitated by the extensive resources provided by international aid agencies and the US government. However, the reforms alienated Salvadorean teachers and fuelled teachers' strikes that are still remembered as pivotal moments in the urban mass movements of the 1970s which preceded the civil war of the 1980s.

Will Biden could withdraw the US forces from Afghanistan?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislav Mikhailovich Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

The article analyzes the military operation of the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan, which lasted for 20 years, and the prospects for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from this country. The author states that the new US President D. Biden does not abandon the foreign policy course pursued by his predecessors earlier to reduce the US military presence in Afghanistan. Moreover, the new president reaffirmed his commitment to the peace agreement between the United States and the opposition Taliban, reached in the Qatari capital of Doha in February 2020, which provides for the withdrawal of US troops and their NATO allies from the country. However, the author comes to the conclusion that due to a number of objective and subjective factors, the timing of the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan may be postponed indefinitely, and even the deadline recently declared by the White House on September 11, 2021, may be far from final and may be repeatedly subjected to revisions. The main obstacle to the implementation of this important clause of the bilateral agreement is the lack of progress in negotiations between the Taliban representatives and the central government, as well as the lack of security guarantees for the withdrawn contingent of the US Armed Forces, NATO and the remaining staff of Western foreign missions in Afghanistan. Not only the radical Taliban wing, but also a number of current ministers in Kabul are trying to sabotage the conclusion of a second peace agreement and the subsequent integration of the Taliban into power. Without a lasting agreement between the Taliban and the central authorities in Kabul and the formation of a new coalition government, the likelihood of a resumption of civil war in the country will remain. New terrorist attacks and outbursts of violence on the part of the radical wing of the Taliban movement against the central government and foreign troops are not excluded. The penetration of Islamic State gangs into Afghanistan, which can undermine the stability of the military-political situation from within and provoke new armed conflicts, also carries certain risks. Much will also depend on the position of one of the main external players in Afghan affairs — Islamabad. Time will show whether Pakistan will be ready to take on part of the functions of a peaceful settlement within the Afghan conflict. The US administration would like more participation in stabilizing the further situation in Afghanistan from other regional forces (China, Russia, India, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan).

Ambiguous Allegiances and Divided Sovereignty

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Us Federal Government ◽  
The Military

This chapter recounts the Mormons' uneven relationship with the US government throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the middle of the nineteenth century. It traces back how Mormons faced the greatest persecution at the hands of Americans and came closest to political independence, developing separate and semiautonomous economic, political, and military institutions, and relocating to the Great Basin. It also describes the Mormon settlement, political authority, economic development, and relations with the Great Basin's Native populations that threatened to disrupt US claims to the region. The chapter highlights anti-Mormon prejudice and the Mormons' continued suspicion of government officials and non-Mormons. It also talks about the military conflict that erupted between the US federal government and the Mormons in 1857.

The Regulation of Alcohol and other Drugs in a Colonial Context: United States Policy towards the Philippines, C. 1898–1910

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Tyrrell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
East Asia Region ◽  
Alcohol And Other Drugs ◽  
The Military

The article compares attitudes towards and laws regulating the use of alcohol and opium in the United States (US) colonial possession of the Philippines. Forces within the United States and missionary groups in the field in the Philippines fought to have the supply of alcohol to American troops restricted by abolition of the military canteen system, and to eliminate use of alcohol among the indigenous population. To achieve these aims, they developed highly skilled networks of political lobbying led by Wilbur Craft's International Reform Bureau. Temperance, church and missionary groups differed among themselves over the relative seriousness of the two drugs’ impact in the Philippines, but skillfully adapted their tactics in the light of experience in the colony to focus on opium. They developed a tacit coalition with the US government, using the Philippines opium policy to distinguish the United States as a morally superior colonial ruler. By lobbying the government to oppose opium use in the East Asia region, they served to promote an American regional hegemony, and provided an important departure point for modern US drug poalicies.

Afghan Challenges and their Impact on Reconfiguration of Foreign Military Presence

2015 ◽  
pp. 118-125
Author(s):  
M. Konarovskiy
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

Against the background of wide range of the “Islamic state” terrorismin the Middle East, the aggravating civil war in Afghanistan does not reduce the threat of destabilization beyond Russia’s southern borders. The Taliban’s terrorism in IRA is recently becoming even more diversified through the infiltration of the IS ideology and militancy to IRA northern enclave. Reshaping of the US and NATO military presence in that country did not help to stabilize the situation that is facing the whole complex of unresolved problems. This reality urged Washington to prolong the military presence till 2017 amid new efforts to strengthen its positions in Central Asia.

Afghan talks will inch forward with impatient Taliban

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Peace Process ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Way

Significance The move should open the way to 'intra-Afghan' talks involving government and Taliban representatives. This may help prop up the February deal between the US government and the Taliban, which has frayed as milestones are missed or misread. Impacts The Taliban leadership will be forced to take difficult decisions, putting added strain on their already weak cohesion. A faltering peace process would offer Iran a route to rebuilding influence with the Taliban leadership. Islamic State will use any opportunity such as the recent Jalalabad mass prison escape to undermine peace steps.

scholarly journals Global privatized power

Focaal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (73) ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Maria Theresia Starzmann
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
State Organizations ◽  
The Military

The practice of archaeologists and other heritage specialists to embed with the US military in Iraq has received critical attention from anthropologists. Scholars have highlighted the dire consequences of such a partnership for cultural heritage protection by invoking the imperialist dimension of archaeological knowledge production. While critical of state power and increasingly of militarized para-state actors like the self-proclaimed Islamic State, these accounts typically eclipse other forms of collaboration with non-state organizations, such as private military and security companies (PMSCs). Focusing on the central role of private contractors in the context of heritage missions in Iraq since 2003, I demonstrate that the war economy's exploitative regime in regions marked by violent conflict is intensified by the growth of the military-industrial complex on a global scale. Drawing on data from interviews conducted with archaeologists working in the Middle East, it becomes clear how archaeology and heritage work prop up the coloniality of power by tying cultural to economic forms of control.

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