Shawn Malley
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786941190
- eISBN:
- 9781789629088
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941190.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Well-known in popular culture for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist is also a rich though often unacknowledged figure for constructing ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds’ ...
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Well-known in popular culture for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist is also a rich though often unacknowledged figure for constructing ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds’ in science fiction. But more than a well-spring for scenarios, SF’s archaeological imaginary is also a hermeneutic tool for excavating the ideological motivations of digging up the past buried in the future. A cultural study of an array of popular though critically neglected North American SF film and television texts–spanning the gamut of telefilms, pseudo-documentaries, teen serial drama and Hollywood blockbusters–Excavating the Future treats archaeology as a trope for exploring the popular archaeological imagination and the uses to which it is being put by the U.S. state and its adversaries. By treating SF texts as documents of archaeological experience circulating within and between scientific and popular culture communities and media, Excavating the Future develops critical strategies for analyzing SF film and television’s critical and adaptive responses to contemporary geopolitical concerns about the war on terror, homeland security, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, and the ongoing fight against ISIS.Less
Well-known in popular culture for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist is also a rich though often unacknowledged figure for constructing ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds’ in science fiction. But more than a well-spring for scenarios, SF’s archaeological imaginary is also a hermeneutic tool for excavating the ideological motivations of digging up the past buried in the future. A cultural study of an array of popular though critically neglected North American SF film and television texts–spanning the gamut of telefilms, pseudo-documentaries, teen serial drama and Hollywood blockbusters–Excavating the Future treats archaeology as a trope for exploring the popular archaeological imagination and the uses to which it is being put by the U.S. state and its adversaries. By treating SF texts as documents of archaeological experience circulating within and between scientific and popular culture communities and media, Excavating the Future develops critical strategies for analyzing SF film and television’s critical and adaptive responses to contemporary geopolitical concerns about the war on terror, homeland security, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, and the ongoing fight against ISIS.
Audrey Kurth Cronin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780197265901
- eISBN:
- 9780191772047
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265901.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
In order to assess terrorist groups within a broad historical and strategic framework, it is vital to assess how and why terrorist campaigns end. Moreover, if effective counter-terrorism is to be ...
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In order to assess terrorist groups within a broad historical and strategic framework, it is vital to assess how and why terrorist campaigns end. Moreover, if effective counter-terrorism is to be developed, then serious reflection is required regarding what happens during the final phase of terrorist campaigns, and why. This chapter therefore: first, analyses four classic strategies of terrorism and considers why Western democracies have particular difficulty responding to them; second, it reviews six historical patterns of endings for terrorist organisations that have emerged from scholarly research on hundreds of groups; third, it assesses (in light of these six patterns) which counter-terrorism policies have hastened al-Qaida’s demise and which have not, while also reflecting upon the rise of ISIS and its potential future significance.Less
In order to assess terrorist groups within a broad historical and strategic framework, it is vital to assess how and why terrorist campaigns end. Moreover, if effective counter-terrorism is to be developed, then serious reflection is required regarding what happens during the final phase of terrorist campaigns, and why. This chapter therefore: first, analyses four classic strategies of terrorism and considers why Western democracies have particular difficulty responding to them; second, it reviews six historical patterns of endings for terrorist organisations that have emerged from scholarly research on hundreds of groups; third, it assesses (in light of these six patterns) which counter-terrorism policies have hastened al-Qaida’s demise and which have not, while also reflecting upon the rise of ISIS and its potential future significance.
Bronislav Ostranský
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474439237
- eISBN:
- 9781474476805
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474439237.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Focusing on apocalyptic manifestations found in ISIS propaganda, this book situates the group’s agenda in the broader framework of contemporary Muslim thought and elucidates key topics in millennial ...
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Focusing on apocalyptic manifestations found in ISIS propaganda, this book situates the group’s agenda in the broader framework of contemporary Muslim thought and elucidates key topics in millennial thinking within the spiritual context of modern Islamic apocalypticism. Based on the group’s primary sources as well as medieval Muslim apocalyptic literature and its modern interpretations, the book analyses the ways ISIS presents its message concerning the Last Days as a meaningful, inventive and frightening expression of collectively shared expectations relating to the supposedly approaching the End Times. Key features The first comprehensive study of ISIS primary sources, previously only discussed as part of the background to broader interpretations of the ISIS campaign Introduces and analyses the key topics of ISIS propaganda Places particular manifestations of ISIS apocalypticism in a consistent and meaningful framework
Based on a coherent critical approach to the primary sources, both in Arabic and Western languages, including new media and social network sources Interpretations are interspersed with extensive quotations from ISIS sources, providing the reader with the specifics of the Jihadist approach to apocalyptic rhetoric. Includes an appendix containing an ISIS ‘apocalyptic reader’ of primary source materialLess
Focusing on apocalyptic manifestations found in ISIS propaganda, this book situates the group’s agenda in the broader framework of contemporary Muslim thought and elucidates key topics in millennial thinking within the spiritual context of modern Islamic apocalypticism. Based on the group’s primary sources as well as medieval Muslim apocalyptic literature and its modern interpretations, the book analyses the ways ISIS presents its message concerning the Last Days as a meaningful, inventive and frightening expression of collectively shared expectations relating to the supposedly approaching the End Times. Key features The first comprehensive study of ISIS primary sources, previously only discussed as part of the background to broader interpretations of the ISIS campaign Introduces and analyses the key topics of ISIS propaganda Places particular manifestations of ISIS apocalypticism in a consistent and meaningful framework
Based on a coherent critical approach to the primary sources, both in Arabic and Western languages, including new media and social network sources Interpretations are interspersed with extensive quotations from ISIS sources, providing the reader with the specifics of the Jihadist approach to apocalyptic rhetoric. Includes an appendix containing an ISIS ‘apocalyptic reader’ of primary source material
Shawn Malley
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786941190
- eISBN:
- 9781789629088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941190.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Excavating the Future concludes with a discussion of two real-world archaeological events: ISIS’s destruction of artefacts at Palmyra and Nimrud and the reaction by heritage preservation ...
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Excavating the Future concludes with a discussion of two real-world archaeological events: ISIS’s destruction of artefacts at Palmyra and Nimrud and the reaction by heritage preservation organizations to simulate destroyed artefacts through 3D printing, stereoscopic modelling, and crowdsourcing projects. The envoi contends that these reproductive countermeasures to the world-wide media dissemination of terrorist attacks on material history serve to perpetuate a desired future born from the very logic of globalization and progress that has made World Heritage sites such irresistible targets for Islamic extremists. The envoi argues that SF’s response to the material conditions of history in the post 9/11 world invites attentive audiences to remain suspicious of such iconodulist claims upon the past and future.Less
Excavating the Future concludes with a discussion of two real-world archaeological events: ISIS’s destruction of artefacts at Palmyra and Nimrud and the reaction by heritage preservation organizations to simulate destroyed artefacts through 3D printing, stereoscopic modelling, and crowdsourcing projects. The envoi contends that these reproductive countermeasures to the world-wide media dissemination of terrorist attacks on material history serve to perpetuate a desired future born from the very logic of globalization and progress that has made World Heritage sites such irresistible targets for Islamic extremists. The envoi argues that SF’s response to the material conditions of history in the post 9/11 world invites attentive audiences to remain suspicious of such iconodulist claims upon the past and future.
Neophytos Loizides
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804794084
- eISBN:
- 9780804796330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804794084.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined ...
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Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined mass nationalist mobilizations to protest against third countries (Syria, Italy and Greece) (allegedly) supporting the PKK (Kurdistan’s Workers Party). It examines how Turkish elites framed foreign governments and the PKK as the parties solely responsible for the Kurdish uprising, making any potential compromise unimaginable for the next two decades. At the same time the chapter examines the progress made by Turkey in reaching better relations with Greece leading to the Helsinki compromise in 1999. The chapter looks at parliamentary records and political discourse in the years preceding this crucial 1998-9 period to identify the framing of Turkey’s foreign policy, explain variation in foreign policy outcomes and Turkey’s subsequent reactions to the civil wars in Iraq and Syria.Less
Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined mass nationalist mobilizations to protest against third countries (Syria, Italy and Greece) (allegedly) supporting the PKK (Kurdistan’s Workers Party). It examines how Turkish elites framed foreign governments and the PKK as the parties solely responsible for the Kurdish uprising, making any potential compromise unimaginable for the next two decades. At the same time the chapter examines the progress made by Turkey in reaching better relations with Greece leading to the Helsinki compromise in 1999. The chapter looks at parliamentary records and political discourse in the years preceding this crucial 1998-9 period to identify the framing of Turkey’s foreign policy, explain variation in foreign policy outcomes and Turkey’s subsequent reactions to the civil wars in Iraq and Syria.
Benjamin Isakhan (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748696161
- eISBN:
- 9781474416177
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748696161.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This book critically reflects on the failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. ...
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This book critically reflects on the failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. The book argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq War and denying their connection to contemporary events could mean that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.Less
This book critically reflects on the failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. The book argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq War and denying their connection to contemporary events could mean that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.
Joel Blecher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520295933
- eISBN:
- 9780520968677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295933.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
While scholars have long studied how Muslims authenticated and transmitted Muhammad’s sayings and practices (hadith), the story of how Muslims interpreted and reinterpreted hadith across a millennium ...
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While scholars have long studied how Muslims authenticated and transmitted Muhammad’s sayings and practices (hadith), the story of how Muslims interpreted and reinterpreted hadith across a millennium or more has yet to be told. Said the Prophet of God takes up this charge, illuminating the rich social and intellectual stakes of hadith commentary in the times and places it came to life: classical Andalusia, medieval Egypt, and modern India. The book closes with an epilogue on how commentary has been taken up by contemporary Islamist groups such as ISIS. Weaving together tales of high court rivalries, colonial politics, and contemporary field notes with explorations of the fine-grained debates among hadith commentators, Said the Prophet of God offers an interdisciplinary audience new avenues for understanding traditions of interpretation at the intersection of social and intellectual history across long periods of time.Less
While scholars have long studied how Muslims authenticated and transmitted Muhammad’s sayings and practices (hadith), the story of how Muslims interpreted and reinterpreted hadith across a millennium or more has yet to be told. Said the Prophet of God takes up this charge, illuminating the rich social and intellectual stakes of hadith commentary in the times and places it came to life: classical Andalusia, medieval Egypt, and modern India. The book closes with an epilogue on how commentary has been taken up by contemporary Islamist groups such as ISIS. Weaving together tales of high court rivalries, colonial politics, and contemporary field notes with explorations of the fine-grained debates among hadith commentators, Said the Prophet of God offers an interdisciplinary audience new avenues for understanding traditions of interpretation at the intersection of social and intellectual history across long periods of time.
Philip Cunliffe
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526105721
- eISBN:
- 9781526152084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526151452.00005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter lays out the theme of cosmopolitan dystopia, and shows that the most direct and concrete embodiment of the failure of global cosmopolitanism was expressed in the rise of ISIS in the ...
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This chapter lays out the theme of cosmopolitan dystopia, and shows that the most direct and concrete embodiment of the failure of global cosmopolitanism was expressed in the rise of ISIS in the Middle East. The Introduction explains that the counter-utopianism built into the structure and functioning of cosmopolitan human rights means that cosmopolitanism is reactive rather than transformative, with the result that humanitarian politics is trapped in a loop of responding to humanitarian emergencies with military force. Incapable of transcending the existing political order, efforts at melioration succeed only in eroding that order. The end result of these cumulative military interventions is a decayed liberal international order and a cosmopolitan dystopia of permanent war across the Greater Middle East.Less
This chapter lays out the theme of cosmopolitan dystopia, and shows that the most direct and concrete embodiment of the failure of global cosmopolitanism was expressed in the rise of ISIS in the Middle East. The Introduction explains that the counter-utopianism built into the structure and functioning of cosmopolitan human rights means that cosmopolitanism is reactive rather than transformative, with the result that humanitarian politics is trapped in a loop of responding to humanitarian emergencies with military force. Incapable of transcending the existing political order, efforts at melioration succeed only in eroding that order. The end result of these cumulative military interventions is a decayed liberal international order and a cosmopolitan dystopia of permanent war across the Greater Middle East.
Christopher Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300217179
- eISBN:
- 9780300222173
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300217179.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This book provides an analysis of the crucial but underexplored roles the United States and other nations have played in shaping Syria's ongoing civil war. Most accounts of Syria's brutal, ...
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This book provides an analysis of the crucial but underexplored roles the United States and other nations have played in shaping Syria's ongoing civil war. Most accounts of Syria's brutal, long-lasting civil war focus on a domestic contest that began in 2011 and only later drew foreign nations into the escalating violence. The book argues instead that the international dimension was never secondary but that Syria's war was, from the very start, profoundly influenced by regional factors, particularly the vacuum created by a perceived decline of U.S. power in the Middle East. This precipitated a new regional order in which six external protagonists — the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar — have violently competed for influence, with Syria a key battleground. Drawing on a plethora of original interviews, the book constructs a new narrative of Syria's war. Without absolving the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime, the book untangles the key external factors which explain the acceleration and endurance of the conflict, including the West's strategy against ISIS. It concludes with some insights on Syria and the region's future.Less
This book provides an analysis of the crucial but underexplored roles the United States and other nations have played in shaping Syria's ongoing civil war. Most accounts of Syria's brutal, long-lasting civil war focus on a domestic contest that began in 2011 and only later drew foreign nations into the escalating violence. The book argues instead that the international dimension was never secondary but that Syria's war was, from the very start, profoundly influenced by regional factors, particularly the vacuum created by a perceived decline of U.S. power in the Middle East. This precipitated a new regional order in which six external protagonists — the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar — have violently competed for influence, with Syria a key battleground. Drawing on a plethora of original interviews, the book constructs a new narrative of Syria's war. Without absolving the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime, the book untangles the key external factors which explain the acceleration and endurance of the conflict, including the West's strategy against ISIS. It concludes with some insights on Syria and the region's future.
Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside, and Charlie Winter
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197501436
- eISBN:
- 9780197520789
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197501436.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
In the wake of its "Caliphate" declaration in 2014, the self-described Islamic State has been the focus of countless academic papers, government studies, media commentaries and documentaries. Despite ...
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In the wake of its "Caliphate" declaration in 2014, the self-described Islamic State has been the focus of countless academic papers, government studies, media commentaries and documentaries. Despite all this attention, persistent myths continue to shape--and misdirect--public understanding and strategic policy decisions. A significant factor in this trend has been a strong disinclination to engage critically with Islamic State's speeches and writings--as if doing so reflects empathy with the movement's goals or, even more absurdly, may itself lead to radicalization.
Going beyond the descriptive and the sensationalist, this volume presents and analyses a series of milestone Islamic State primary source materials. Scholar-practitioners with field experience in confronting the movement explore and contextualize its approach to warfare, propaganda and governance, examining the factors behind its dramatic evolution from failed proto-state in 2010 to standard-bearer of global jihadism in 2014, to besieged insurgency in 2018. The ISIS Reader will help anyone--students and journalists, military personnel, civil servants and inquisitive observers--to better understand not only the evolution of Islamic State and the dynamics of asymmetric warfare, but the importance of primary sources in doing so.Less
In the wake of its "Caliphate" declaration in 2014, the self-described Islamic State has been the focus of countless academic papers, government studies, media commentaries and documentaries. Despite all this attention, persistent myths continue to shape--and misdirect--public understanding and strategic policy decisions. A significant factor in this trend has been a strong disinclination to engage critically with Islamic State's speeches and writings--as if doing so reflects empathy with the movement's goals or, even more absurdly, may itself lead to radicalization.
Going beyond the descriptive and the sensationalist, this volume presents and analyses a series of milestone Islamic State primary source materials. Scholar-practitioners with field experience in confronting the movement explore and contextualize its approach to warfare, propaganda and governance, examining the factors behind its dramatic evolution from failed proto-state in 2010 to standard-bearer of global jihadism in 2014, to besieged insurgency in 2018. The ISIS Reader will help anyone--students and journalists, military personnel, civil servants and inquisitive observers--to better understand not only the evolution of Islamic State and the dynamics of asymmetric warfare, but the importance of primary sources in doing so.
Mia Bloom
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780801453885
- eISBN:
- 9781501709425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453885.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
Using child operatives provides terrorist organizations with the element of surprise. Small Arms assesses the growing phenomenon of children’s involvement in terrorist organizations. The book ...
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Using child operatives provides terrorist organizations with the element of surprise. Small Arms assesses the growing phenomenon of children’s involvement in terrorist organizations. The book analyses the different mechanisms for children’s mobilization, contrasts children in terrorist movements with child and discusses the impact that this tactic has on the militarized children. The book explores in details ISIS Cubs of the Caliphate and shows how children are both victims and victimizers.Less
Using child operatives provides terrorist organizations with the element of surprise. Small Arms assesses the growing phenomenon of children’s involvement in terrorist organizations. The book analyses the different mechanisms for children’s mobilization, contrasts children in terrorist movements with child and discusses the impact that this tactic has on the militarized children. The book explores in details ISIS Cubs of the Caliphate and shows how children are both victims and victimizers.
Phillip S. Meilinger
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178899
- eISBN:
- 9780813178905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178899.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, Military History
The final chapter is an overview of the entire book, which leads to a new paradigm of war. Starting with a past overemphasis on bloody battle inherited from Clausewitz, it then proceeds through ...
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The final chapter is an overview of the entire book, which leads to a new paradigm of war. Starting with a past overemphasis on bloody battle inherited from Clausewitz, it then proceeds through discussions of various methods to avoid such battles, to capitalize on speed and surprise, to reflect individual service and national cultures, and to capitalize on new technologies and doctrines. These varied factors suggest alternatives that emphasize the importance of speed, surprise, precision, and the limitation of risk.Less
The final chapter is an overview of the entire book, which leads to a new paradigm of war. Starting with a past overemphasis on bloody battle inherited from Clausewitz, it then proceeds through discussions of various methods to avoid such battles, to capitalize on speed and surprise, to reflect individual service and national cultures, and to capitalize on new technologies and doctrines. These varied factors suggest alternatives that emphasize the importance of speed, surprise, precision, and the limitation of risk.
Paul J. Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823285792
- eISBN:
- 9780823288755
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823285792.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The secular state, the church, and the caliphate are associations that each hold universal aspirations, at least implicitly. While the universal aspirations of the church and caliphate may be obvious ...
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The secular state, the church, and the caliphate are associations that each hold universal aspirations, at least implicitly. While the universal aspirations of the church and caliphate may be obvious enough, every state seeks dominion over the whole world. (“Secular” describes states that limit their vision to this world, as opposed to the transcendence to which both the church and caliphate appeal.) As an essay in Catholic speculative theology, Griffiths asks two questions: Whether Catholic theology supports or discourages the variety of political orders, and whether these orders could be ranked in terms of goodness from a Catholic perspective? In response to these questions, Griffiths appeals to two aspects of St. Augustine’s political thought: Political rivalries serve the common good; and the principal indicator of the degree to which a state serves the common good is its explicit service to the god of Abraham. The United States (a secular state) is compared with ISIS (an attempted caliphate).Less
The secular state, the church, and the caliphate are associations that each hold universal aspirations, at least implicitly. While the universal aspirations of the church and caliphate may be obvious enough, every state seeks dominion over the whole world. (“Secular” describes states that limit their vision to this world, as opposed to the transcendence to which both the church and caliphate appeal.) As an essay in Catholic speculative theology, Griffiths asks two questions: Whether Catholic theology supports or discourages the variety of political orders, and whether these orders could be ranked in terms of goodness from a Catholic perspective? In response to these questions, Griffiths appeals to two aspects of St. Augustine’s political thought: Political rivalries serve the common good; and the principal indicator of the degree to which a state serves the common good is its explicit service to the god of Abraham. The United States (a secular state) is compared with ISIS (an attempted caliphate).
Ingvild Bode
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474423816
- eISBN:
- 9781474435314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423816.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
Chapter Seven: Intervention and State Obfuscation, begins by arguing that the inclusion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) in the United Nations World Summit Outcome of 2005 marked a decisive ...
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Chapter Seven: Intervention and State Obfuscation, begins by arguing that the inclusion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) in the United Nations World Summit Outcome of 2005 marked a decisive shift in the evolution of interventions for humanitarian purposes. While the phrase “manifest failure” corresponds to the “unwilling or unable” standard previously used by the R2P-defining Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), author Ivi Bode admonishes that the “unable or unwilling” standard has also been used to justify military intervention in a counterterrorism context. She explores recent examples where state’s have used this standard as a legal justification for military intervention for self-defense against terrorist/non-state actors on the sovereign territory of ‘host’ states. The chapter argues that the evolving prominence and, arguably, relevance of the “unwilling or unable” standard warrants a more thorough examination of its legal foundations and policy practice. In adding to existing literature which considers either the counter-terrorism or the R2P context only, Bode’s chapter offers a critical examination of its usage across both contexts, and concludes with a summary of what these developments might indicate in terms of evolving intervention standards.Less
Chapter Seven: Intervention and State Obfuscation, begins by arguing that the inclusion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) in the United Nations World Summit Outcome of 2005 marked a decisive shift in the evolution of interventions for humanitarian purposes. While the phrase “manifest failure” corresponds to the “unwilling or unable” standard previously used by the R2P-defining Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), author Ivi Bode admonishes that the “unable or unwilling” standard has also been used to justify military intervention in a counterterrorism context. She explores recent examples where state’s have used this standard as a legal justification for military intervention for self-defense against terrorist/non-state actors on the sovereign territory of ‘host’ states. The chapter argues that the evolving prominence and, arguably, relevance of the “unwilling or unable” standard warrants a more thorough examination of its legal foundations and policy practice. In adding to existing literature which considers either the counter-terrorism or the R2P context only, Bode’s chapter offers a critical examination of its usage across both contexts, and concludes with a summary of what these developments might indicate in terms of evolving intervention standards.
Stéphane A. Dudoignon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190655914
- eISBN:
- 9780190872632
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190655914.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military ...
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Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.Less
Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.
Ondřej Beránek and Pavel Ťupek
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474417570
- eISBN:
- 9781474444774
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474417570.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter outlines the context within which various iconoclastic incidents have taken place in various parts of the Islamic world in recent years. After focusing on ISIS and the massive ...
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This chapter outlines the context within which various iconoclastic incidents have taken place in various parts of the Islamic world in recent years. After focusing on ISIS and the massive destruction of funerary monuments for which they have been responsible in Iraq and Syria, with a particular emphasis on Mosul, we deal with similar incidents, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of Africa and central and south Asia.Less
This chapter outlines the context within which various iconoclastic incidents have taken place in various parts of the Islamic world in recent years. After focusing on ISIS and the massive destruction of funerary monuments for which they have been responsible in Iraq and Syria, with a particular emphasis on Mosul, we deal with similar incidents, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of Africa and central and south Asia.
Ekaterina Stepanova
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526105813
- eISBN:
- 9781526135988
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526105813.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
The chapter explores how, despite earlier counterterrorism failures and two bitter wars in Chechnya, terrorism in Russia has declined in the 2010s. The Islamist-separatist terrorism problem that used ...
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The chapter explores how, despite earlier counterterrorism failures and two bitter wars in Chechnya, terrorism in Russia has declined in the 2010s. The Islamist-separatist terrorism problem that used to dominate national politics was degraded to a relatively peripheral issue that hovers at a level of persistent, but low-scale and increasingly fragmented violence, primarily in the North Caucasus. However imperfect, interim and incomplete, a ‘solution’ that has worked out in the Russian case was not ‘war’. This ‘solution other than war’ was made possible by certain developments outside Moscow’s direct control, such as the internal split within the insurgency catalyzed by its increasing jihadization, and resulted from a combination of the policy of Chechenization, shifts in federal security strategy towards smarter suppression and prevention, and massive reconstruction and development assistance. While this solution is no substitute for addressing the underlying structural causes of violent extremism and has involved enormous security, financial, human rights and governance costs for the nation, these costs are much lower than the cost of war. This is seen as one of the key broader lessons to be gleaned from Russia’s response to terrorism. It also explains why Russia has a genuine interest in ensuring that this degree of stabilization and decline in terrorism of North Caucasian origin is not distorted or reversed by new destabilizing factors, including transnational influences and connections.Less
The chapter explores how, despite earlier counterterrorism failures and two bitter wars in Chechnya, terrorism in Russia has declined in the 2010s. The Islamist-separatist terrorism problem that used to dominate national politics was degraded to a relatively peripheral issue that hovers at a level of persistent, but low-scale and increasingly fragmented violence, primarily in the North Caucasus. However imperfect, interim and incomplete, a ‘solution’ that has worked out in the Russian case was not ‘war’. This ‘solution other than war’ was made possible by certain developments outside Moscow’s direct control, such as the internal split within the insurgency catalyzed by its increasing jihadization, and resulted from a combination of the policy of Chechenization, shifts in federal security strategy towards smarter suppression and prevention, and massive reconstruction and development assistance. While this solution is no substitute for addressing the underlying structural causes of violent extremism and has involved enormous security, financial, human rights and governance costs for the nation, these costs are much lower than the cost of war. This is seen as one of the key broader lessons to be gleaned from Russia’s response to terrorism. It also explains why Russia has a genuine interest in ensuring that this degree of stabilization and decline in terrorism of North Caucasian origin is not distorted or reversed by new destabilizing factors, including transnational influences and connections.
Bronislav Ostřanský
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474439237
- eISBN:
- 9781474476805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474439237.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter extensively develops considerations related to what could be metaphorically called “an apocalyptic topography of Syria and Iraq”. In such a context, we should be aware that both ...
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This chapter extensively develops considerations related to what could be metaphorically called “an apocalyptic topography of Syria and Iraq”. In such a context, we should be aware that both countries, currently struggling with ISIS inspired violence, are, at the same time, a crucial arena in relation to Muslim apocalyptic cycles. The chapter concisely introduces the natural starting points in the form of the narratives belonging to the historical apocalyptic cycles, as well as reviewing the attitudes of Muslim apocalyptists towards various cities and territories. In this respect, the discussion will also be based on the collection of “praise traditions” (fadaʼil) devoted to particular regions in contemporary Syria and Iraq. The analysis focuses on both the search for the supposed “apocalyptic qualities” of given toponyms, but also, primarily, on placing the current struggles and strategic ambitions of ISIS within the context of Muslim traditions devoted to the Last Days.Less
This chapter extensively develops considerations related to what could be metaphorically called “an apocalyptic topography of Syria and Iraq”. In such a context, we should be aware that both countries, currently struggling with ISIS inspired violence, are, at the same time, a crucial arena in relation to Muslim apocalyptic cycles. The chapter concisely introduces the natural starting points in the form of the narratives belonging to the historical apocalyptic cycles, as well as reviewing the attitudes of Muslim apocalyptists towards various cities and territories. In this respect, the discussion will also be based on the collection of “praise traditions” (fadaʼil) devoted to particular regions in contemporary Syria and Iraq. The analysis focuses on both the search for the supposed “apocalyptic qualities” of given toponyms, but also, primarily, on placing the current struggles and strategic ambitions of ISIS within the context of Muslim traditions devoted to the Last Days.
Bronislav Ostřanský
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474439237
- eISBN:
- 9781474476805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474439237.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter addresses in detail the role of the millennial agenda within ISIS propaganda. Using their primary sources (both in Arabic and Western languages), the discussion analyses, step by step, ...
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This chapter addresses in detail the role of the millennial agenda within ISIS propaganda. Using their primary sources (both in Arabic and Western languages), the discussion analyses, step by step, the specific segments of Muslim apocalyptic heritage that have been utilised in ISIS propaganda as a tool for the justification and metaphysical legalization of their struggle. The main objective of this chapter is to carefully discuss the way ISIS has instrumentalized chosen apocalyptic pointers, either events or trends, which, from their own perspective, have already been fulfilled. They have sought to use these claims as a tool to prove the accuracy of their interpretation of contemporary affairs.Less
This chapter addresses in detail the role of the millennial agenda within ISIS propaganda. Using their primary sources (both in Arabic and Western languages), the discussion analyses, step by step, the specific segments of Muslim apocalyptic heritage that have been utilised in ISIS propaganda as a tool for the justification and metaphysical legalization of their struggle. The main objective of this chapter is to carefully discuss the way ISIS has instrumentalized chosen apocalyptic pointers, either events or trends, which, from their own perspective, have already been fulfilled. They have sought to use these claims as a tool to prove the accuracy of their interpretation of contemporary affairs.
Bronislav Ostřanský
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474439237
- eISBN:
- 9781474476805
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474439237.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter is in its own way also devoted to providing a certain kind of “apocalyptic chronology”. The discussion systematically introduces the proclaimed ISIS expectations (both public ...
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This chapter is in its own way also devoted to providing a certain kind of “apocalyptic chronology”. The discussion systematically introduces the proclaimed ISIS expectations (both public announcements and various commentaries) in the form of the portents of the Hour that remain to be fulfilled, either the lesser or the greater ones. The ultimate goal of all millennial Muslim predictions is undoubtedly the final victory of the powers of good, as embodied in the redeemer, al-Mahdi. Let us add here that the apocalyptic expectations of ISIS also clearly reflect their deeply-rooted hatred of Shiites (whose millennial ideas are, in many respects, considerably different from the Sunni mainstream view) and it is precisely this point, as well as an analysis of related sectarian violence associated with the Last Days, that will be the subject of attention.Less
This chapter is in its own way also devoted to providing a certain kind of “apocalyptic chronology”. The discussion systematically introduces the proclaimed ISIS expectations (both public announcements and various commentaries) in the form of the portents of the Hour that remain to be fulfilled, either the lesser or the greater ones. The ultimate goal of all millennial Muslim predictions is undoubtedly the final victory of the powers of good, as embodied in the redeemer, al-Mahdi. Let us add here that the apocalyptic expectations of ISIS also clearly reflect their deeply-rooted hatred of Shiites (whose millennial ideas are, in many respects, considerably different from the Sunni mainstream view) and it is precisely this point, as well as an analysis of related sectarian violence associated with the Last Days, that will be the subject of attention.
