Islamist Terrorism in the Context of Contemporary Hybrid Wars

The article deals with the present-day causes of the reproduction of Islamist terrorism. The concepts of desecularization, hybrid wars, and a system-functional approach form the methodological basis of the research. Recognizing the failure of liberal explanations of the causes of Islamist terrorism, the author criticizes the liberal methodology, which is based on an essentialist explanation of Islam and Muslim civilization and attributes a fixed set of qualities to Islam as an ontological evil, a barbarism hostile to Western civilization. The paper presents a viewpoint based on the approaches proposed by representatives of left-wing radical thought, postmodernism and neo-Marxism. It is concluded that the politicization of Islam, including its radical interpretations, is due not to the militant unchanging nature of Islam, but to the crisis of a number of Muslim societies. The Muslim worlds reaction to Western globalism is also an attempt to implement its own global political projects as a response of Islamic fundamentalism to the challenge of Western democratic fundamentalism. The author analyzes the phenomenon of hybrid wars as a form of armed violence that the Western world uses to restore order in its global empire. The connection between hybrid wars and the concept of a just war is shown, as well as the relevance of Islamist terrorism as an element of the system of hybrid wars. Islamist terrorism and counterterrorism are present in all hybrid wars waged in the Muslim world. This is manifested both in military actions on the ground, and in information warfare, as well as in virtual space. The market for terrorist and counterterrorist services inherent in hybrid wars and the place of Islamist terrorism in it are examined. Financial relations bind the participants in terrorist activities, including the customer, sponsor, mediator, organizer, informant, and performer. It is concluded that Islamist terrorism is not the activity of individual fanatics or a manifestation of the militant nature of Islam, but is produced by the conflict system of contemporary international relations.

State Failure, Violence, and Trade: Dangerous Trade Routes in Colombia

We investigate the effect of domestic armed violence brought about by political instability on the geography of distance frictions in freight mobility and the resulting differential access of regions to global markets. The Colombian transportation system has been found to be impeded by deficiencies in landside transport infrastructure and institutions, and by fragmented political environments. The micro-level analysis of U.S.-bounded export shipping records corroborates that export freight shipping from inland regions is re-routed to avoid exposures to domestic armed violence despite greatly extended landside and maritime shipping distances. We exploit the trajectories of freight shipping from Colombian regions and spatial patterns of violent armed conflicts to see how unstable geopolitical environments are detrimental to freight shipping mobility and market openness. The discrete choice model shows that the shipping flow is greatly curbed by the extended re-routing due to domestic armed violence and that inland regions have restricted access to the global market. The perception of risk and re-routing behavior is found heterogeneous across shipments and conditional to shipment characteristics, such as commodity type, freight value and shipper sizes. The results highlight that political stability must be accommodated for improved freight mobility and export-oriented economic development in the global South.

Has the firearms protocol helped reduced armed violence?

This paper focuses on the long-term objective of the Firearms Protocol supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime to reduce certain kinds of armed violence associated with the misuse of firearms. More than 15 years after the Protocol has come into force, the authors ask how its possible impacts on armed violence might be assessed; indicate key challenges for such an enterprise, and suggest directions for future work in this area, towards the establishment of a measurement tool which could help inform the recently established Review Mechanism of the Protocol.

Jihad.cz: Interpreting Jihad, Sexual Jihad and Demographic Jihad in the Czech Anti-Islamic Milieu

In the last 10 years, we have seen an increased frequency of fear and criticism of Islam and Muslims in the Czech media scene. Even though the percentage of Muslims in the Czech Republic is tiny (approx. estimate is 0.2%), there are active groups and movements in the country that seek to stop the spread of Islam in the Czech Republic, and the discussion of threats from Muslims routinely permeates political statements. A very common argumentation of Czech anti-Islamic claims uses the presentation of jihad as evidence of the danger that threatens the Western world from Muslims. The most widespread understanding of this phenomenon still presents jihad as armed violence against non-Muslims, which is supposed to be clear evidence of the warlike and violent nature of Islam. However, in the Czech-language milieu in recent years, there have also been descriptions of other forms of so-called “creeping” or “stealth” jihad. The article focused on the analysis of the concepts of “population jihad” or “demographic jihad”, violent “sexual jihad”, “womb jihad” or “wombfare”, and the so-called “great replacement” as presented on websites, radio, and social networks by the authors of the Czech-language anti-Islamic milieu. The present text thus illustrated the use of interpretations of sexual and demographic jihad to rationalize the fear and hatred of Muslims and Islam in the Czech Republic.

Small Arms and Armed Violence in Papua New Guinea: Developing a demand-reduction agenda

<p>The Papua New Guinea government has adopted a range of measures aimed at reducing the supply of illicit small arms and light weapons in response to persistent problems with their use in inter-communal fighting and crime. However, these measures have been largely ineffective at reducing the level of armed violence in PNG, in part because of the failure to also address the demand that exists for these weapons. A nascent demand reduction agenda has emerged at the local level throughout Papua New Guinea in response to the failure of the national government to adequately address small arms and armed violence problems. This thesis provides a detailed overview of national, regional and international initiatives to address small arms issues and examines how they have been implemented in PNG. It then examines initiatives by local community groups and NGOs that are aimed at reducing small arms and armed violence and considers how successful they have been.</p>

Small Arms and Armed Violence in Papua New Guinea: Developing a demand-reduction agenda

<p>The Papua New Guinea government has adopted a range of measures aimed at reducing the supply of illicit small arms and light weapons in response to persistent problems with their use in inter-communal fighting and crime. However, these measures have been largely ineffective at reducing the level of armed violence in PNG, in part because of the failure to also address the demand that exists for these weapons. A nascent demand reduction agenda has emerged at the local level throughout Papua New Guinea in response to the failure of the national government to adequately address small arms and armed violence problems. This thesis provides a detailed overview of national, regional and international initiatives to address small arms issues and examines how they have been implemented in PNG. It then examines initiatives by local community groups and NGOs that are aimed at reducing small arms and armed violence and considers how successful they have been.</p>

Mauritania

As a Sahelian state, Mauritania is inevitably affected by the insecurity stemming from its geopolitical environment. However, Mauritania’s comparatively less obvious vulnerabilities are to be found more in its own checkered recent history and the resulting fraught political, socioeconomic, and cultural dynamics than in its geographic location. The country’s complex social mosaic is marked by tensions between Moors and Negro-Mauritanians, as well as between beydane and haratine resulting from a legacy of Moorish slavery. Its fragile stability is built on an illusory efficacy against terrorism and a façade of unity among its officer corps, but may be unsustainable in the long run. The insecurities and vulnerabilities have the potential to lead to acute communitarian conflicts, even armed violence, if three persistent, interrelated challenges are not decisively addressed: deciding on the very identity of the country, an end to militarization by definitively extirpating the military from national politics, and genuinely reducing the threat of radicalization and terrorism by ending the related manipulation of Islam by its elites.

Exploiting bullets: international business and the dynamics of war

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically review the existing research on the intersection between war and international business (IB) and to map out a future research agenda. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on corporate examples and extant literature within IB, political science and international relations, the paper provides an introduction to the main concepts of war, a review of the IB research on war and provides a critical future research agenda. Findings The review of the multiple strands of war-related research in IB generally reveals an understudied area. Among other biases, prior research has focused on inter-state wars and has relatively unexplored foreign direct investment (FDI) and non-FDI within civil wars. Furthermore, previous studies offer little attention to how IB and multinational companies contribute to the emergence and development of wars. Originality/value The paper develops an analytical and critical research agenda for future research to examine the relationship between war and IB. This includes a set of questions for each of the three major phases of war: pre-conflict, armed violence and post-conflict. To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done before in the context of IB research.

Discontent over Congo’s state of siege will grow

Significance The attack is just the latest in a long series of massacres in the region but comes almost four months into a ‘state of siege’ established by President Felix Tshisekedi to put an end to armed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Impacts The security situation in eastern DRC remains precarious and could deteriorate further. A failure to stabilise eastern DRC will weigh on Tshisekedi’s re-election prospects. Entrenched national, local and cross-border political tensions will provide fertile ground for continued armed-group evolution in the east.

Unintended Consequences: Reconsidering the Effects of UN Peacekeeping on State-sponsored Violence

This essay challenges theoretical and empirical arguments about peacebuilding effectiveness that put the state at the center of United Nations peace operations. We argue that state-centric UN peacebuilding operations inadvertently incentivize local-level violence in post-conflict zones. We demonstrate that when the UN supports central governments it unintentionally empowers non-professionalized militaries, paramilitaries, and warlords to settle local scores. Armed violence against civilians in turn triggers a vicious cycle of reprisals and counter-reprisals. As an alternative to state-centric peacebuilding operations that incentivize local violence, we suggest that the UN should shift strategic resources away from central governments and toward UN policing, support of traditional and religious authorities, and the training of local security institutions.