Isaac Kfir
Biographic Data
| ID | 1493979 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Isaac Kfir |
| GIVEN NAMES | Isaac |
| FAMILY NAME | Kfir |
| SIGNATURE | KFIR I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Syracuse University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9228-0510 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Towards Jihad? Muslims and Politics in Postcolonial Mozambique , By Eric Morier-Genoud
The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa By Malika Zeghal
Leaders in the Middle East and North Africa: How Ideology Shapes Foreign Policy By Özgür Özdamar and Sercan Canbolat
Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia’s Global Influence on Islam Edited by Peter Mandaville
Journal Article Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia’s Global Influence on Islam, Edited by Peter Mandaville Get access Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia’s Global Influence on Islam Edited by Peter Mandaville (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Religion and Global Politics), xv + 326 pp. Price PB £19.99. EAN 978–0197532577. Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir Charles Sturt University E-mail: [email protected] Search for ot…
The Islamic State in Africa: The Emergence, Evolution, and Future of the Next Jihadist Battlefront By Jason Warner with Ryan O’Farrell, Héni Nsaibia and Ryan Cummings
Journal Article The Islamic State in Africa: The Emergence, Evolution, and Future of the Next Jihadist Battlefront By Jason Warner with Ryan O'Farrell, Héni Nsaibia and Ryan Cummings Get access The Islamic State in Africa: The Emergence, Evolution, and Future of the Next Jihadist BattlefrontBy Jason Warner with Ryan O'Farrell, Héni Nsaibia and Ryan Cummings (London: Hurst & Company, 2021), 288 pp. Price: HB £35.00. EAN 978–1787383906. Isaac Kfir …
Islam and Muslims in Australia: Settlement, Integration, Shariah, Education and Terrorism . By Jan A. Ali
Jan Ali, a religious sociologist, examines and challenges the assertion that Australia is a multicultural country ‘but only to the extent that it does not undermine the values, customs and institutions of the dominant Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Celtic society. Conformity is required’ (p. 36). Islam and Muslims in Australia offers an insight into the Australian Muslim community, emphasizing its heterogeneity, the barriers members face in entering the p…
Western Jihadism: A Thirty Year History By Jytte Klausen
Innovating to Survive, a Look at How Extremists Adapt to Counterterrorism
This paper examines the under-studied area of innovation and terrorism. Beyond exploring the debate on the difference between creativity and innovation and how it impacts terrorist groups, the paper also reviews the typology of terrorist innovation and of the law of unintended consequences. The presence of terrorist groups in the online gaming world is an example of creativity and innovation as the groups recognize that counterterrorist policies …
Iran: A Social and Political History since the Qajars By Yann Richard
Written by the eminent Iranologist Yann Richard, Professor Emeritus at the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle–Paris III, and translated by Dutch Iranologist Willem Floor, highlights the author’s exceptional knowledge of the country and its people despite being unable to visit Iran since the early 2000s. He deploys his familiarity with the history, culture, and religion of Iran to explain the country to a Western audience that has come to see it a…
Cryptocurrencies, national security, crime and terrorism
This study looks at the challenge that cryptocurrencies could pose to national security as it pertains to terrorism. The study begins by untangling what are cryptocurrencies before shifting attention to how criminal use cryptocurrencies and how terrorist could use cryptocurrencies. One of the key issues identified is the lack of an international regulatory regime, including, a definition of what are cryptocurrencies and how one could regulate the…
Australia and the European Union promoting a normative, security agenda in the South Pacific Islands
This study shows that Australia and the European Union (EU) have many shared interests when it comes to the South Pacific and its inhabitants. In looking at the shared interests, the study focuses on humanitarianism but viewing it through a broad security lens. Australia’s engagement in the region is generally framed through aid due to the islands’ fragility, strategic importance and Australia’s and the EU’s commitment to maintaining the rule-bas…
The Boko Haram Reader: From Nigerian Preachers to the Islamic StateEdited by Abdulbasit Kassim and Michael Nwankpa, introduced by David Cook
The editors of The Boko Haram Reader are to be congratulated for undertaking a herculean task of collecting and translating a plethora of primary documents from Arabic and Kanuri to English from Boko Haram (Jamaʿat ahl al-sunna li-daʿwa wa-l-qital). Over the last few years, Boko Haram has attracted a lot of interest as the group is responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of millions. Studies have examined its history …
The Caliphate at War: The Ideological, Organisational and Military Innovations of Islamic State By Ahmed S. Hashim
Ahmed Hashim’s book the Caliphate at War has two principal objectives: understand the Islamic State (IS), specifically in respect of ideology, organization, war-fighting and state buildings, and to examine the factors that facilitated the rise of IS. Neither objective is particularly novel, as there are plenty of excellent studies exploring these issues such as Will McCants’ The ISIS Apocalypse (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2015), Jessica Stern a…
Organized Criminal-Terrorist Groups in the Sahel: How Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency Approaches Ignore the Roots of the Problem
The Sahel region is home to several groups that profess to be jihadi in orientation. To raise funds, these groups rely on criminal activity that nets them millions of dollars, and helps them embed within local communities. As worrying as the presence of these entities is, what is of greater concern is the way the United States and France have militarized the region. The argument made in this article is twofold. First, the appeal of the Sahel jiha…
The Making of Salafism: Islamic Reform in the Twentieth Century By Henri Lauzière
Lauzière in this remarkable study examines the historical process that surrounds Salafism by first identifying two paradigmatic strands, the modernist Salafist and the purist Salafist, and then deconstructing them. Key to Lauzière’s work is the need to challenge contemporary Salafists whose ‘preconceived notion of Salafism ... does not seem to have existed in the medieval period’ (p. 17). This observation leads Lauzière to argue that Salafism is,…
A Faustian pact: Has the EU-Turkey deal undermined the EU’s own security
This article argues that because the EU is more concerned with Turkey serving as a barrier to those seeking refuge in Europe, it has empowered the Erdoğan regime to continue to adopt and implement measures that undermine Turkish democracy. Such a myopic approach has allowed Erdoğan to usurp more power, which has had dire consequences for European security as it means that Europe would share a border a with a nondemocratic state. It also makes it …
My Review of Iraq and the Crimes of Aggressive War: The Legal Cynicism of Criminal Militarism
It would be easy to describe this book as just another anti-Iraq, anti–United States book, which is part of the cottage industry that has emerged in the post–United States occupation of Iraq. However, to do so would be an injustice to the book and its authors. Drawing from the sociology of law, as well as Critical Legal Studies, Iraq and the Crimes of Aggressive War empirically examines and theorizes about the American involvement, activities, an…
Yemen: Revolution, Civil War and Unification By Uzi Rabi
It is rather unsurprising that contemporary political science scholarship and policymakers tend to disregard Yemen. After all, it appears that there are more pressing issues in the Middle East such as the ongoing bloody war in Syria, the omnipresent and increasingly dangerous Sunni–Shiʿa schism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. And yet, Yemen is of enormous importance. It has a population of over 27 million people, of whom 3 million have been di…
Jared Del Rosso, Talking about Torture: How Political Discourse Shapes the Debate
September 11 initiated a distinct narrative: American exceptionalism is under threat, the world is inhabited by fanatics, who without any real justification have decided to launch a war to destroy Western civilization and the American way of life. Key to this narrative is the claim that the Western world, particularly the United States of America (US), is at enormous disadvantage as we live in a society of rules that mean that we fight wars with …
Laura Westra, Satvinder Juss and Tullio Scovazzi, Towards a Refugee Oriented Right of Asylum
Reviewing Towards a Refugee Oriented Right to Asylum is exceedingly challenging as the book, at least through its title, promises so much especially as it is authored by such eminent scholars as Laura Westra and Satvinder Juss who have helped shape the field of refugee studies (Westra in the context of climate refugees and Juss the intersection between refugee law and human rights). Nevertheless, despite its authors’ reputation, the book has many…
Al-Shabaab , Social Identity Group, Human (In)Security, and Counterterrorism
This article examines the link between human security, social identity, and al-Shabaab. The first section explores how social identity group theory can help explain al-Shabaab's recruitment. The second part focuses on the counterterrorism campaign against al-Shabaab, which involves decapitation, aggressive peacekeeping through a proxy in the shape of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the role of a domestic de-radicalization program. The a…
Interpreting Islam, modernity, and women's rights in Pakistan
In Interpreting Islam, modernity, and women's rights in Pakistan Anita Weiss takes on the issue of women rights in Pakistan. In focusing on ijtihad (interpretation) Weiss underlines the paradoxical
The Arabs at War in Afghanistan By Mustafa Hamid and Leah Farrall in conversation
Journal Article The Arabs at War in Afghanistan By Mustafa Hamid and Leah Farrall in conversation Get access The Arabs at War in Afghanistan By Mustafa Hamid and Leah Farrall in conversation (London: Hurst & Company, 2015), xxxi + 355 pp. Price HB £20.00. EAN 978–1849044202. Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 27, Issue 3, September 2016, Pages 419–422, …
Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Islamist Insurgency By Virginia Comolli
The emergence in Northern Nigeria of Boko Haram, Jamāʿat ahl al-Sunna li-l-daʿwa wa-l-jihād (The Group Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad) has spawned a number of studies offering to explain its origins, rise and rationale. In Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Islamist Insurgency Virginia Comolli, a research fellow for security and development at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, offers her interpretation for t…
Nato and Putin's Russia: Seeking to balance divergence and convergence
This article argues that NATO is unable to challenge any of President Putin's expansive policies for two key reasons: First, Europe and the United States have conflicting views on what events qualify as key security threats (different threat perceptions). Infused within this paradigm is a nascent European Union strategic culture that views threats differently from the U.S. This in turn undermines NATO, as the Europeans argue for largely nonmilita…
The warrior state: Pakistan in the contemporary world
In this grim but insightful book, T. V. Paul, a leading scholar on South Asia and security, applies ‘war-making and state-making’ literature to explain Pakistan's dysfunctionalism. Like Husain Haqq
Interpreting Islam, modernity, and women's rights in Pakistan
In Interpreting Islam, modernity, and women's rights in Pakistan Anita Weiss takes on the issue of women rights in Pakistan. In focusing on ijtihad (interpretation) Weiss underlines the paradoxical
Social Identity Group and Human (In)Security: The Case of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil)
The article uses social identity group theory and human insecurity to examine the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). After first defining social group identity and its characteristics, the article reviews the Al Qaeda ideology that serves as the foundation of ISIL, before turning attention to the message and legacy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and their profound influence on ISIL. The article concludes by arguing that only by end…
Sectarian Violence and Social Group Identity in Pakistan
Individual basic security is limited in Pakistan as the state is institutionally weak. One way to attain basic security is by joining groups who provide security and services. Consequently, groups not part of the political mainstream, to attract a following, must therefore show that they are sufficiently powerful to obtain concessions from established actors. Thus, by engaging in violence primarily of a sectarian nature, the Pakistani Taliban sus…
Organized Criminal-Terrorist Groups in the Sahel: How Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency Approaches Ignore the Roots of the Problem
The Sahel region is home to several groups that profess to be jihadi in orientation. To raise funds, these groups rely on criminal activity that nets them millions of dollars, and helps them embed within local communities. As worrying as the presence of these entities is, what is of greater concern is the way the United States and France have militarized the region. The argument made in this article is twofold. First, the appeal of the Sahel jiha…
Islamic Radicalism in East Africa: Is There a Cause for Concern
The article explores the development of Islamic radicalism in East Africa by examining specific states. The author argues that the evidence suggests that although Islamic radicalism has not made substantial inroads into the region, it may still do so, as East Africa suffers from political repression as well as socioeconomic problems. The author concludes that the region must undergo significant changes to improve political representation and soci…
Innovating to Survive, a Look at How Extremists Adapt to Counterterrorism
This paper examines the under-studied area of innovation and terrorism. Beyond exploring the debate on the difference between creativity and innovation and how it impacts terrorist groups, the paper also reviews the typology of terrorist innovation and of the law of unintended consequences. The presence of terrorist groups in the online gaming world is an example of creativity and innovation as the groups recognize that counterterrorist policies …
Al-Shabaab , Social Identity Group, Human (In)Security, and Counterterrorism
This article examines the link between human security, social identity, and al-Shabaab. The first section explores how social identity group theory can help explain al-Shabaab's recruitment. The second part focuses on the counterterrorism campaign against al-Shabaab, which involves decapitation, aggressive peacekeeping through a proxy in the shape of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the role of a domestic de-radicalization program. The a…
Nato's Paradigm Shift: Searching for a Traditional Security–Human Security Nexus
Although recent years have seen more talk about Article 5 and the need for NATO to stand up to an expansive Russia, NATO states are unlikely to engage in a new Cold War with Russia. Instead the alliance continues to explore its agenda in the post-Afghanistan and post-Crimea period. One answer to these tensions is to develop an agenda stressing human security to counter the pervasive threats of regional instability and terrorism. After reviewing t…
Islamic Radicalism in East Africa: Is There a Cause for Concern
The article explores the development of Islamic radicalism in East Africa by examining specific states. The author argues that the evidence suggests that although Islamic radicalism has not made substantial inroads into the region, it may still do so, as East Africa suffers from political repression as well as socioeconomic problems. The author concludes that the region must undergo significant changes to improve political representation and soci…
Peacebuilding’ in Afghanistan: A Bridge Too Far? 1
Violence and Belonging: Land, Love and Lethal Conflict in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan * by Are Knudsen
Are Knudsen’s book, Violence and Belonging based on his doctoral research provides an ethnographic insight into one of the most neglected areas in the world, the Kohistan region, which lies in the North-West Frontier Province, in northern Pakistan. The Pashtuns dominate the area though other groups reside in this part of Pakistan—the Hindkuwans, Gujars, Chitralis and the Kohistanis on whom Knudsen focuses his research. Knudsen has spent many year…
C. Hillebrand, Counter-terrorism Networks in the European Union: Maintaining Democratic Legitimacy after 9/11
In Counter-terrorism Networks in the European Union, Claudia Hillebrand, a lecturer in Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism at Aberystwyth University examines the European Union’s counter-terrorism programme and analyses whether it meets a democratic legitimacy standard, defined as being subject to parliamentary and judicial scrutiny. The book is a useful contribution to the growing body of literature on the EU’s approach to counter-terrorism. Hill…
Political survival in Pakistan: Beyond ideology
Anas Malik's Political Survival in Pakistan is a useful addition to the burgeoning literature on political survival specifically in relation to weak states. Drawing on the 2003 volume edited by Bue
Ted Piccone, Catalysts for CHANGE: How the UN's Independent Experts Promote Human Rights
Journal Article Ted Piccone, Catalysts for CHANGE: How the UN’s Independent Experts Promote Human Rights Get access Ted Piccone, Catalysts for CHANGE: How the UN’s Independent Experts Promote Human Rights ( Brookings Institute Press, Washington DC, 2012, 225 pp, $26.95) ISBN 978-0-8757-2192-5 (pb) Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir Visiting Professor, Maxwell School & College of LawSenior Researcher, Institute for National Security & Counterterrorism, Syracus…
Sectarian Violence and Social Group Identity in Pakistan
Individual basic security is limited in Pakistan as the state is institutionally weak. One way to attain basic security is by joining groups who provide security and services. Consequently, groups not part of the political mainstream, to attract a following, must therefore show that they are sufficiently powerful to obtain concessions from established actors. Thus, by engaging in violence primarily of a sectarian nature, the Pakistani Taliban sus…
Social Identity Group and Human (In)Security: The Case of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil)
The article uses social identity group theory and human insecurity to examine the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). After first defining social group identity and its characteristics, the article reviews the Al Qaeda ideology that serves as the foundation of ISIL, before turning attention to the message and legacy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and their profound influence on ISIL. The article concludes by arguing that only by end…
Fragments of the Afghan frontier
Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and Reality Edited by Faegheh SHIRAZI
Journal Article Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and Reality Edited by Faegheh Shirazi Get access Muslim Women in War and Crisis: Representation and RealityEdited by Faegheh Shirazi (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2012), xii + 273 pp., bibliography, index. Price PB $30.00. EAN 978–0292728844. Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir Syracuse University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Islamic …
Representing Jihad: The Appearing and Disappearing Radical * By Jaqueline O'Rourke
Journal Article Representing Jihad: The Appearing and Disappearing RadicalBy Jaqueline O'Rourke Get access Representing Jihad: The Appearing and Disappearing RadicalBy Jaqueline O'Rourke (London and New York: Zed Books, 2012), x + 222 pp., notes, references, index. Price PB £18.99. EAN 978–1780322629. Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir 1Syracuse University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol…
Trying to untangle the mystery of Afghanistan and Pakistan
Robert Johnson s The Afghan Way of War: How and Why They Fight is a book that should be particularly read by military and civilian personnel deploying to Afghanistan, even though it is not designed to be a policy guide (p. 4). Although Johnson s analysis of the Taliban period and the post-2001 US-led invasion is weak, overall the book delivers a thoughtful analysis of how and why Afghans fight, making it clear that conceptions of friends and enem…
Omar G. Encarnación, Democracy without Justice in Spain: The Politics of Forgetting
Omar Encarnación, a political scientist at Bard College, offers seven chapters of detailed analysis of Spain’s pragmatic approach to transition to democracy. Encarnación’s focus is on the period between 1975 and 1980 during which time the ‘Pact of Forgetting’—a series of measures agreed by Spain’s political elite—was formulated. A key question explored in Democracy without Justice in Spain is what the Pact has meant for Spain, and Spanish democra…
Cliodhna Murphy, Immigration, Integration and the Law: The Intersection of Domestic, EU, and International Legal Regimes
Cliodhna Murphy’s Immigration, Integration and the Law, examines the legal elements of integration in national contexts (Ireland, France and the UK), the EU and international settings teasing out an important normative idea from complicated outlooks and ideologies. Recognising that integration impacts such emotive social issues as citizenship, belonging, identity and social cohesion, Murphy’s aim is to call for a broad understanding of the relati…
Nato's Paradigm Shift: Searching for a Traditional Security–Human Security Nexus
Although recent years have seen more talk about Article 5 and the need for NATO to stand up to an expansive Russia, NATO states are unlikely to engage in a new Cold War with Russia. Instead the alliance continues to explore its agenda in the post-Afghanistan and post-Crimea period. One answer to these tensions is to develop an agenda stressing human security to counter the pervasive threats of regional instability and terrorism. After reviewing t…
No exit from Pakistan: America's tortured relationship with Islamabad
Basing his analysis on predominantly western (American) news reports, Markey argues that Washington needs to develop a policy vis-a-vis Pakistan that calls for ‘preparing for the worse, aiming for
The warrior state: Pakistan in the contemporary world
In this grim but insightful book, T. V. Paul, a leading scholar on South Asia and security, applies ‘war-making and state-making’ literature to explain Pakistan's dysfunctionalism. Like Husain Haqq
The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy By Zaid Al-Ali
Zaid Al-Ali’s The Struggle for Iraq’s Future is the latest edition in a slew of books by individuals who had served in one way or another in post-2003 Iraq. In it, Al-Ali seeks to analyse the two main arguments used to explain the level of nepotism, incompetence and malfeasance that pervades the Iraqi political system and specifically the ruling elite. The first argument centres on the United States, claiming that Washington had imposed on Iraq a…
The Dying Sahara: US Imperialism and Terror in Africa By Jeremy Keenan Martyrdom and Terrorism: Pre-modern to Contemporary Perspectives Edited by Dominic Janes and Alex Houen Martydom in Modern Islam:…
In The Dying Sahara, which follows, and in some ways echoes his The Dark Sahara: America’s War on Terror in Africa (Pluto Press, 2009) Jeremy Keenan a leading scholar on the Sahara and the Sahel, explains how a vast tract of Africa became a domain of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Keenan, writing in a manner reminiscent of a John Le Carré novel, points to three other actors, Algeria and western European countries, particularly the UK and…
Derailing Democracy in Afghanistan: Elections in an Unstable Political Landscape By Noah Coburn and Anna Larson
Journal Article Derailing Democracy in Afghanistan: Elections in an Unstable Political Landscape By N oah C oburn and A nna L arson Get access Derailing Democracy in Afghanistan: Elections in an Unstable Political Landscape By Noah Coburn and Anna Larson ( New York and Chichester, West Sussex : Columbia University Press , 2014 ), xx + 284 pp. Price HB £34.50. EAN 978–0231166201 . Isaac Kfir Isaac Kfir Syracuse University Search for other works by…
Refugeeship and Natural Law: The European Court of Human Rights
The contemporary international refugee system was the product of a desire to provide protection and assistance to those who have a well-founded fear of persecution, a somewhat sophistic term in the twenty-first century. Increasingly, however, the system is being challenged by States seeking to reduce refugee applications by adhering to a restrictive interpretation of their Refugee Convention obligations. Underscoring the link between natural law,…
Is There Still a Need for Nato in the Twenty-First Century
It has become increasingly difficult to ascertain the value of NATO for its member states, necessitating an honest conversion debate as to the alliance's future. The article analyses why NATO is becoming extraneous by reviewing NATO's role in Afghanistan and Libya, the emerging threats to the Euro-zone, and the development of a European Union's Common Foreign and Defense Policy, which is understood as laying the framework for an EU strategic cult…
Jared Del Rosso, Talking about Torture: How Political Discourse Shapes the Debate
September 11 initiated a distinct narrative: American exceptionalism is under threat, the world is inhabited by fanatics, who without any real justification have decided to launch a war to destroy Western civilization and the American way of life. Key to this narrative is the claim that the Western world, particularly the United States of America (US), is at enormous disadvantage as we live in a society of rules that mean that we fight wars with …
Laura Westra, Satvinder Juss and Tullio Scovazzi, Towards a Refugee Oriented Right of Asylum
Reviewing Towards a Refugee Oriented Right to Asylum is exceedingly challenging as the book, at least through its title, promises so much especially as it is authored by such eminent scholars as Laura Westra and Satvinder Juss who have helped shape the field of refugee studies (Westra in the context of climate refugees and Juss the intersection between refugee law and human rights). Nevertheless, despite its authors’ reputation, the book has many…
Al-Shabaab , Social Identity Group, Human (In)Security, and Counterterrorism
This article examines the link between human security, social identity, and al-Shabaab. The first section explores how social identity group theory can help explain al-Shabaab's recruitment. The second part focuses on the counterterrorism campaign against al-Shabaab, which involves decapitation, aggressive peacekeeping through a proxy in the shape of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the role of a domestic de-radicalization program. The a…
Political science (45 works) · Sociology (36 works) · Law (32 works) · Politics (27 works) · Law (23 works) · Islam (21 works) · History (16 works) · Political economy (15 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (15 works) · Philosophy (14 works)