Mohammed M Hafez
Biographic Data
| ID | 1494213 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mohammed M Hafez |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mohammed M |
| FAMILY NAME | Hafez |
| SIGNATURE | HAFEZ M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Naval Postgraduate School |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4902-7023 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 252 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
A Waning Crescent
Al-Shabaab’s Financial Fortitude
Al-Shabaab poses a serious threat to regional stability and security. Its financial resilience is notable, as the group has maintained its operational capabilities despite increased global counter-terrorism efforts. The ongoing political instability in Somalia, combined with weak governance structures, has created an environment that allows the group to survive and adapt. Theoretical frameworks such as the Reach Theory, the Terror-Crime Nexus Mod…
Choosing Sides in Forever Wars
The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War
This Companion offers a global, comparative history of the interplay between religion and war from ancient times to the present. Moving beyond sensationalist theories that seek to explain why 'religion causes war,' the volume takes a thoughtful look at the connection between religion and war through a variety of lenses - historical, literary, and sociological-as well as the particular features of religious war. The twenty-three carefully nuanced …
Consolidation of Nonstate Armed Actors in Fragmented Conflicts
How do armed groups consolidate power in conflict landscapes packed with rival factions, paramilitary militias, and local warlords? Extant scholarship has studied the causes and consequences of rebel fragmentation, but the reverse process in which power that is dispersed among many armed actors becomes concentrated among a handful of factions is underexplored. In this special issue, we bring together eight case studies to illustrate at least thre…
Fratricidal Rebels
Why do rebels kill each other? When confronting a formidable regime, rebels often descend into warring factionalism rather than forge unity across their ranks to reap the advantages of cooperation. This article tackles the puzzle of inter-rebel fratricide. It explores power and resource competition arguments, and contrasts them with ideological mechanisms that can drive inter-rebel violence. It argues that ideological extremity is central to rebe…
Not My Brother’s Keeper
Islamists in civil wars often prioritize their factional conflicts above the collective goals of their movements. They end up fighting and killing each other despite having mutual state adversaries and shared normative commitments. This reality raises an intriguing puzzle. How can Islamists justify fratricidal practices given the ubiquity of Quranic scripture and prophetic traditions that prevail upon them to unite and refrain from infighting. Th…
Caravan of Martyrs
Networks of Cooperation
When rebels make alliances, what informs their choice of allies? Civil wars are rarely simple contests between rebels and incumbent regimes. Rather, rival militant networks provide the context in which these fragmented conflicts unfold. Alliances that emerge within this competitive landscape have the power to alter conflict trajectories and shape their outcomes. Yet patterns of interrebel cooperation are understudied. The existing scholarship on …
Fratricide in rebel movements
Violent conflict among rebels is a common feature of civil wars and insurgencies. Yet, not all rebel groups are equally prone to such infighting. While previous research has focused on the systemic causes of violent conflict within rebel movements, this article explores the factors that affect the risk of conflict between pairs of rebel groups. We generate hypotheses concerning how differences in power, ideology, and state sponsors between rebel …
Social Network Analysis of German Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
Why do Westerners become foreign fighters in civil conflicts? We explore this question through original data collection on German foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, and test three sets of hypotheses that revolve around socioeconomic integration, online radicalization, and social network mobilization. We conduct link analysis to map the network of German foreign fighters prior to their mobilization, and marshal evidence to assess the validity of …
Apologia for Suicide
Suicide attacks have become a conventional tactic in the arsenal of militant Islamists. Yet suicide is strictly prohibited in the Islamic heritage. Radical Salafists have succeeded in framing suicide attacks as religiously permissible, indeed venerable, by elevating human intentionality above textual forms of authority, and by euphemistically labeling such acts as martyrdom. They have also inferred a normative paradigm from Islam’s formative gene…
Fratricidal Jihadists
Why do Islamists kill each other? In the last three decades, Islamist rebels enmeshed in civil wars have descended into internecine con icts that divided their ranks, alienated their sup- porters, and cost them their bid for power. From the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, to al-Qaeda in Iraq, to the Islamic State, each of these movements had perfect op- portunities to topple their regimes. Yet, in the midst of civil wars, they turned their guns o…
Deterring Rational Fanatics
More than a decade since the U.S.-led war on al Qaeda and its affiliate terrorist networks, we are nowhere near defeating this vexing adversary. On the contrary, the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and America’s renewed engagement with countering radicalization at home and abroad demonstrate the failure of earlier strategies to contain, delegitimize, and defeat violent extremists. After two major wars, extensive security assist…
The Radicalization Puzzle
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1051375
The Alchemy of Martyrdom
Militant Islam
Journal Article Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes and ConsequencesBy Stephen Vertigans Get access Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes and ConsequencesBy Stephen Vertigans (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), 211 pp. Price HB $65.00. EAN 978–0415412469. Mohammed Hafez Mohammed Hafez Naval Postgraduate SchoolE-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Jo…
Jihad after Iraq
The defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq may generate new threats associated with the dispersal of its fighters in the region and around the world. Veterans of earlier insurgencies and civil wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya moved from one conflict zone to another, lending combatants valuable skills and networks of support. The flight of Iraq's irreconcilable insurgents is a greater threat to global security than the one posed by the Arab Afghans b…
Radicalization in the Persian Gulf
Islamist militancy in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ebbs and flows, but it is a recurring phenomenon that has underlying regional, political, and cultural determinants. Successes against specific terrorist threats are negated in the long term by the failure of these countries to undertake political and institutional reforms that might undermine existing elite alignments and challenge entrenched interests. This article investigates the key fighting group…
Looking backward and forward at the global war on terrorism
The Occupation of Iraq
Journal Article The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by Ali A. Allawi Get access The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peaceby Ali A. Allawi. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2007. 544pp. $28.00. Mohammed M. Hafez Mohammed M. Hafez University of Missouri, Kansas City Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 123, Issue 1, Spring 2008, Pages …
Martyrdom Mythology in Iraq
The jihadists in Iraq strategically deploy emotional narratives to construct the myth of heroic martyrdom, demonize their intended targets, and appeal to potential recruits from around the Muslim world. These culturally astute jihadists know well the themes that resonate with the wider Muslim public, and have done an extraordinary job in harnessing three narratives to mobilize for martyrdom: humiliation of Muslims at the hands of foreigners, impo…
Do Targeted Assassinations Work? A Multivariate Analysis of Israel's Controversial Tactic during Al-Aqsa Uprising 1
We assess the impact of Israel's targeted assassinations policy on rates of Palestinian violence from September 2000, the beginning of Al-Aqsa uprising, through June 2004. Literature concerning the relationship between repression and rebellion suggests four plausible effects of targeted assassinations on insurgents: deterrence, backlash, disruption, and incapacitation. Using differenced and lagged time-series analysis, this article utilizes multi…
Suicide Terrorism in Iraq
This preliminary assessment of suicide terrorism in Iraq sheds light on why some groups in the insurgency employ suicide attacks although others do not. The unequal utilization of suicide bombings corresponds to divergent strategies in the insurgency. Some groups fight to achieve system reintegration, whereas others send suicide bombers to collapse the emerging political order. Quantitative data and documentary evidence substantiate the finding t…
Rationality, Culture, and Structure in the Making of Suicide Bombers
Suicidal violence involves three levels of analysis: individual motivations, organizational strategies, and societal conflicts. Using rationalist, culturalist, and structuralist approaches to contentious politics, this article explores the intersection of rationality, norms, and conflict in the making of extreme violence. The case of Palestinian suicide bombers demonstrates the interdependence of the three approaches to explaining suicidal violen…
The Radicalization Puzzle
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1051375
Fratricide in rebel movements
Violent conflict among rebels is a common feature of civil wars and insurgencies. Yet, not all rebel groups are equally prone to such infighting. While previous research has focused on the systemic causes of violent conflict within rebel movements, this article explores the factors that affect the risk of conflict between pairs of rebel groups. We generate hypotheses concerning how differences in power, ideology, and state sponsors between rebel …
Networks of Cooperation
When rebels make alliances, what informs their choice of allies? Civil wars are rarely simple contests between rebels and incumbent regimes. Rather, rival militant networks provide the context in which these fragmented conflicts unfold. Alliances that emerge within this competitive landscape have the power to alter conflict trajectories and shape their outcomes. Yet patterns of interrebel cooperation are understudied. The existing scholarship on …
Do Targeted Assassinations Work? A Multivariate Analysis of Israel's Controversial Tactic during Al-Aqsa Uprising 1
We assess the impact of Israel's targeted assassinations policy on rates of Palestinian violence from September 2000, the beginning of Al-Aqsa uprising, through June 2004. Literature concerning the relationship between repression and rebellion suggests four plausible effects of targeted assassinations on insurgents: deterrence, backlash, disruption, and incapacitation. Using differenced and lagged time-series analysis, this article utilizes multi…
Rationality, Culture, and Structure in the Making of Suicide Bombers
Suicidal violence involves three levels of analysis: individual motivations, organizational strategies, and societal conflicts. Using rationalist, culturalist, and structuralist approaches to contentious politics, this article explores the intersection of rationality, norms, and conflict in the making of extreme violence. The case of Palestinian suicide bombers demonstrates the interdependence of the three approaches to explaining suicidal violen…
Fratricidal Rebels
Why do rebels kill each other? When confronting a formidable regime, rebels often descend into warring factionalism rather than forge unity across their ranks to reap the advantages of cooperation. This article tackles the puzzle of inter-rebel fratricide. It explores power and resource competition arguments, and contrasts them with ideological mechanisms that can drive inter-rebel violence. It argues that ideological extremity is central to rebe…
Martyrdom Mythology in Iraq
The jihadists in Iraq strategically deploy emotional narratives to construct the myth of heroic martyrdom, demonize their intended targets, and appeal to potential recruits from around the Muslim world. These culturally astute jihadists know well the themes that resonate with the wider Muslim public, and have done an extraordinary job in harnessing three narratives to mobilize for martyrdom: humiliation of Muslims at the hands of foreigners, impo…
Social Network Analysis of German Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
Why do Westerners become foreign fighters in civil conflicts? We explore this question through original data collection on German foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, and test three sets of hypotheses that revolve around socioeconomic integration, online radicalization, and social network mobilization. We conduct link analysis to map the network of German foreign fighters prior to their mobilization, and marshal evidence to assess the validity of …
Suicide Terrorism in Iraq
This preliminary assessment of suicide terrorism in Iraq sheds light on why some groups in the insurgency employ suicide attacks although others do not. The unequal utilization of suicide bombings corresponds to divergent strategies in the insurgency. Some groups fight to achieve system reintegration, whereas others send suicide bombers to collapse the emerging political order. Quantitative data and documentary evidence substantiate the finding t…
Jihad after Iraq
The defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq may generate new threats associated with the dispersal of its fighters in the region and around the world. Veterans of earlier insurgencies and civil wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya moved from one conflict zone to another, lending combatants valuable skills and networks of support. The flight of Iraq's irreconcilable insurgents is a greater threat to global security than the one posed by the Arab Afghans b…
Fratricidal Jihadists
Why do Islamists kill each other? In the last three decades, Islamist rebels enmeshed in civil wars have descended into internecine con icts that divided their ranks, alienated their sup- porters, and cost them their bid for power. From the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, to al-Qaeda in Iraq, to the Islamic State, each of these movements had perfect op- portunities to topple their regimes. Yet, in the midst of civil wars, they turned their guns o…
The Alchemy of Martyrdom
Consolidation of Nonstate Armed Actors in Fragmented Conflicts
How do armed groups consolidate power in conflict landscapes packed with rival factions, paramilitary militias, and local warlords? Extant scholarship has studied the causes and consequences of rebel fragmentation, but the reverse process in which power that is dispersed among many armed actors becomes concentrated among a handful of factions is underexplored. In this special issue, we bring together eight case studies to illustrate at least thre…
Radicalization in the Persian Gulf
Islamist militancy in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ebbs and flows, but it is a recurring phenomenon that has underlying regional, political, and cultural determinants. Successes against specific terrorist threats are negated in the long term by the failure of these countries to undertake political and institutional reforms that might undermine existing elite alignments and challenge entrenched interests. This article investigates the key fighting group…
Why Muslims Rebel
Rejecting theories of economic deprivation and psychological alienation, Mohammed Hafez offers a provocative analysis of the factors that contribute to protracted violence in the Muslim world today. Hafez combines a sophisticated theoretical approach and detailed case studies to show that the primary source of Islamist insurgencies lies in the repressive political environments within which the vast majority of Muslims find themselves. Highlightin…
Do Targeted Assassinations Work? A Multivariate Analysis of Israel's Controversial Tactic during Al-Aqsa Uprising 1
We assess the impact of Israel's targeted assassinations policy on rates of Palestinian violence from September 2000, the beginning of Al-Aqsa uprising, through June 2004. Literature concerning the relationship between repression and rebellion suggests four plausible effects of targeted assassinations on insurgents: deterrence, backlash, disruption, and incapacitation. Using differenced and lagged time-series analysis, this article utilizes multi…
Suicide Terrorism in Iraq
This preliminary assessment of suicide terrorism in Iraq sheds light on why some groups in the insurgency employ suicide attacks although others do not. The unequal utilization of suicide bombings corresponds to divergent strategies in the insurgency. Some groups fight to achieve system reintegration, whereas others send suicide bombers to collapse the emerging political order. Quantitative data and documentary evidence substantiate the finding t…
Rationality, Culture, and Structure in the Making of Suicide Bombers
Suicidal violence involves three levels of analysis: individual motivations, organizational strategies, and societal conflicts. Using rationalist, culturalist, and structuralist approaches to contentious politics, this article explores the intersection of rationality, norms, and conflict in the making of extreme violence. The case of Palestinian suicide bombers demonstrates the interdependence of the three approaches to explaining suicidal violen…
Martyrdom Mythology in Iraq
The jihadists in Iraq strategically deploy emotional narratives to construct the myth of heroic martyrdom, demonize their intended targets, and appeal to potential recruits from around the Muslim world. These culturally astute jihadists know well the themes that resonate with the wider Muslim public, and have done an extraordinary job in harnessing three narratives to mobilize for martyrdom: humiliation of Muslims at the hands of foreigners, impo…
Radicalization in the Persian Gulf
Islamist militancy in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ebbs and flows, but it is a recurring phenomenon that has underlying regional, political, and cultural determinants. Successes against specific terrorist threats are negated in the long term by the failure of these countries to undertake political and institutional reforms that might undermine existing elite alignments and challenge entrenched interests. This article investigates the key fighting group…
Looking backward and forward at the global war on terrorism
The Occupation of Iraq
Journal Article The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by Ali A. Allawi Get access The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peaceby Ali A. Allawi. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2007. 544pp. $28.00. Mohammed M. Hafez Mohammed M. Hafez University of Missouri, Kansas City Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 123, Issue 1, Spring 2008, Pages …
Jihad after Iraq
The defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq may generate new threats associated with the dispersal of its fighters in the region and around the world. Veterans of earlier insurgencies and civil wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya moved from one conflict zone to another, lending combatants valuable skills and networks of support. The flight of Iraq's irreconcilable insurgents is a greater threat to global security than the one posed by the Arab Afghans b…
The Alchemy of Martyrdom
Militant Islam
Journal Article Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes and ConsequencesBy Stephen Vertigans Get access Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes and ConsequencesBy Stephen Vertigans (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), 211 pp. Price HB $65.00. EAN 978–0415412469. Mohammed Hafez Mohammed Hafez Naval Postgraduate SchoolE-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Jo…
The Radicalization Puzzle
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1051375
Deterring Rational Fanatics
More than a decade since the U.S.-led war on al Qaeda and its affiliate terrorist networks, we are nowhere near defeating this vexing adversary. On the contrary, the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and America’s renewed engagement with countering radicalization at home and abroad demonstrate the failure of earlier strategies to contain, delegitimize, and defeat violent extremists. After two major wars, extensive security assist…
Apologia for Suicide
Suicide attacks have become a conventional tactic in the arsenal of militant Islamists. Yet suicide is strictly prohibited in the Islamic heritage. Radical Salafists have succeeded in framing suicide attacks as religiously permissible, indeed venerable, by elevating human intentionality above textual forms of authority, and by euphemistically labeling such acts as martyrdom. They have also inferred a normative paradigm from Islam’s formative gene…
Fratricidal Jihadists
Why do Islamists kill each other? In the last three decades, Islamist rebels enmeshed in civil wars have descended into internecine con icts that divided their ranks, alienated their sup- porters, and cost them their bid for power. From the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, to al-Qaeda in Iraq, to the Islamic State, each of these movements had perfect op- portunities to topple their regimes. Yet, in the midst of civil wars, they turned their guns o…
Not My Brother’s Keeper
Islamists in civil wars often prioritize their factional conflicts above the collective goals of their movements. They end up fighting and killing each other despite having mutual state adversaries and shared normative commitments. This reality raises an intriguing puzzle. How can Islamists justify fratricidal practices given the ubiquity of Quranic scripture and prophetic traditions that prevail upon them to unite and refrain from infighting. Th…
Caravan of Martyrs
Networks of Cooperation
When rebels make alliances, what informs their choice of allies? Civil wars are rarely simple contests between rebels and incumbent regimes. Rather, rival militant networks provide the context in which these fragmented conflicts unfold. Alliances that emerge within this competitive landscape have the power to alter conflict trajectories and shape their outcomes. Yet patterns of interrebel cooperation are understudied. The existing scholarship on …
Fratricide in rebel movements
Violent conflict among rebels is a common feature of civil wars and insurgencies. Yet, not all rebel groups are equally prone to such infighting. While previous research has focused on the systemic causes of violent conflict within rebel movements, this article explores the factors that affect the risk of conflict between pairs of rebel groups. We generate hypotheses concerning how differences in power, ideology, and state sponsors between rebel …
Social Network Analysis of German Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq
Why do Westerners become foreign fighters in civil conflicts? We explore this question through original data collection on German foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, and test three sets of hypotheses that revolve around socioeconomic integration, online radicalization, and social network mobilization. We conduct link analysis to map the network of German foreign fighters prior to their mobilization, and marshal evidence to assess the validity of …
Fratricidal Rebels
Why do rebels kill each other? When confronting a formidable regime, rebels often descend into warring factionalism rather than forge unity across their ranks to reap the advantages of cooperation. This article tackles the puzzle of inter-rebel fratricide. It explores power and resource competition arguments, and contrasts them with ideological mechanisms that can drive inter-rebel violence. It argues that ideological extremity is central to rebe…
Consolidation of Nonstate Armed Actors in Fragmented Conflicts
How do armed groups consolidate power in conflict landscapes packed with rival factions, paramilitary militias, and local warlords? Extant scholarship has studied the causes and consequences of rebel fragmentation, but the reverse process in which power that is dispersed among many armed actors becomes concentrated among a handful of factions is underexplored. In this special issue, we bring together eight case studies to illustrate at least thre…
The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War
This Companion offers a global, comparative history of the interplay between religion and war from ancient times to the present. Moving beyond sensationalist theories that seek to explain why 'religion causes war,' the volume takes a thoughtful look at the connection between religion and war through a variety of lenses - historical, literary, and sociological-as well as the particular features of religious war. The twenty-three carefully nuanced …
Choosing Sides in Forever Wars
Al-Shabaab’s Financial Fortitude
Al-Shabaab poses a serious threat to regional stability and security. Its financial resilience is notable, as the group has maintained its operational capabilities despite increased global counter-terrorism efforts. The ongoing political instability in Somalia, combined with weak governance structures, has created an environment that allows the group to survive and adapt. Theoretical frameworks such as the Reach Theory, the Terror-Crime Nexus Mod…
Political science (24 works) · Law (21 works) · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (21 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Politics (17 works) · Criminology (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Political economy (11 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works)