Marco Nilsson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3687836 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marco Nilsson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marco |
| FAMILY NAME | Nilsson |
| SIGNATURE | NILSSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Jönköping University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1240-4323 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Identity and Military Threats in Rojava
This study draws on elite interviews with 16 senior political and military actors within the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to analyze how Kurdish threat perceptions and strategies evolved from 2011 to 2025 in response to external threats from Damascus, ISIS, and Turkey. The article concludes that while scholarship on the security dilemma has traditionally focused on the military a…
Changing patterns of media consumption
This study analyses the media consumption of the Palestinian diaspora in Sweden and France before and after Hamas’s attack on 7 October. It investigates the types of media used, sharing patterns and comparisons between different media platforms. Although no significant differences were detected between the respondents who lived in France and Sweden, the study argues that there has been a trend towards an increasing use of social media and especia…
Hardship is Part of Jihad
Identity management by multiple identification – religious leaders and EU integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This research examines the identity management strategies among Bosnian religious leaders belonging to the three major religious groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), namely the Islamic Community, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vrhbosna. The research is based on 31 semi-structured interviews conducted with religious leaders from the aforementioned groups. It specifically focuses on how religious leaders manag…
Jihad and Heroic Hypermasculinity – Recruitment Strategies, Battlefield Experiences, and Returning Home
There is a gap in knowledge when it comes to jihadism and how it is associated with notions of masculinity.Especially empirical studies on masculinity that are based on interviews with active or former jihadists are lacking.This study seeks to analyze the role that notions of masculinity have played in different phases of jihadiship among Swedish jihadist foreign fighters, from recruitment to traveling to the conflict zone, and then eventually re…
Labour market integration of refugees in Sweden - Analysing the interactions of CSOs at different levels
There has been a gap in knowledge regarding how civil society organisations (CSOs) interact at different levels when working to integrate refugees into the labour market-its causes and limitations. To contribute to filling the gap, this study employs both a rational choice perspective and sociological institutionalism to analyse how and why CSOs in Jönköping municipality in Sweden interacted with other relevant actors, both other CSOs (horizontal…
Jihad After the Fall of Is – Reframing the Apocalyptic Narrative
This study analyzes the use of apocalyptic frames by jihadist groups and how they have been developing after the fall of IS. It contextualizes these developments in the history of Muslim apocalyptic though and literature. After describing the apocalyptic narrative in the hadith literature and in the Quran, as well as the differences between classical and modern apocalyptic literature, the study analyzes differences in how jihadist groups have use…
Female combat commanders of the YPJ and political agency - framing the fight on their own terms
Women have taken part in several insurgencies. Research shows that women resort to violence not only for private reasons but also as a means to achieve political goals. The aim of this study is to explore how high-ranking YPJ commanders’ frame their decision to first joint the PKK and their use of violence as founding members of the YPJ. This is done with the help of a thematic analysis of life history interviews with three YPJ commanders in the …
Jihadism in Scandinavia
Aren’t You Tired of Talking?” – Priming Men and Women into Violence through Gateway Organizations
Social movement approaches have explored how protest movements transition into terrorist organizations. However, there has been little academic work examining potential causal mechanisms that drive the movement of individuals from nonviolent organizations to violent ones. This study uses priming theory to explain how nonviolent organizations can function as inadvertent gateways that facilitate the movement of individuals into violent organization…
After the Caliphate
After the fall of the Islamic State’s self-declared Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, understanding how the Salafi-jihadist environments in the West mobilize in new ways has become urgent. This study is based on unique hard-to-reach data from qualitative interviews with returned Swedish ISIS fighters, previous members of the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, friends and acquaintances of persons engaged in the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, an…
The Magnitude of Warfare Revisited – System Polarity and War Duration
One of the intractable debates in the study of international conflict is the linkage between polarity and magnitude of interstate warfare. Speculations about the effects of the structure of the international system can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia. This article revisits this debate with a focus on war duration, which has received little attention in the literature, and presents the first theoretical discussion of the connection betw…
Kurdish women and TV journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan
Few studies on female TV journalists in the Middle East have been conducted. Neither have Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts been used to analyse women journalists’ experiences of their professional practice and their strategies for navigating a male-dominated media world in the Middle East. For this unique study, ten Kurdish women journalists that work for six different TV stations in Iraqi Kurdistan were interviewed. Informed by different forms of…
Surviving Seemingly Endless Refugeeship—Social Representations and Strategies of Palestinian Refugees in Ein El Hilweh
Today, about 470,000 Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in Lebanon, with 45 per cent of them living in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps. Previous research identified several socio-economic problems facing the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The refugee camps have generally been very poor and relatively dangerous places to live. Moreover, all the Pal…
Hezbollah and the framing of resistance
Hezbollah is a holistic network whose social, political, military and cultural dimensions are all parts of a discourse of resistance. Conducting a qualitative frame analysis of speeches by Hezbollah’s General Secretary Nasrallah, supported by interviews with Hezbollah leadership privy to its ideology, this study analyses the construction of muqawama (resistance). It argues that resistance is a complex social phenomenon, which can be manifested, f…
Taking to the Streets
In wide-ranging attacks on academic freedom in Turkey in recent years, thousands of academics have lost their university positions. At the end of 2016 oppositional academics, many of whom were dismissed from their positions for having signed a peace petition, established a Street Academy as an alternative way to reach out to both students and the public in Ankara. In this study we analyse the experiences of these street academy lecturers from the…
Motivations for Jihad and Cognitive Dissonance – A Qualitative Analysis of Former Swedish Jihadists
This study is based on interviews with three former Swedish jihadists, and it uses cognitive dissonance theory to analyze how their motivations for jihad changed—from the early stages of radicalization to fighting as part of a jihadist group and finally leaving jihad. It argues that cognitive dissonance is a causal mechanism, alternative to empathy and collective relative deprivation, that can explain how individuals with collective identities ca…
Conflicts and Relative Deprivation in Ein El Hilweh
About 450,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon today. With the arrival of over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war started in 2011, Palestinians were no longer the largest refugee group in Lebanon, and many newcomers settled in Palestinian refugee camps. Previous research has considered how recipient societies relate to refugees; this study analyses inter-group competition and conflict among refugees from different…
Samhällsvetenskaperna och den akademiska friheten i Turkiet
Allvarliga kränkningar av den akademiska friheten förekommer idag i flera av Europarådets medlemsstater och det är ofta samhällsvetenskaperna som utgör måltavlan. Situationen är särskilt allvarlig i Turkiet där tusentals universitetslärare avskedats. Intervjuer med avskedade turkiska samhällsvetare och samhällsvetare som lever under hot om avsked ger en sammansatt bild: här finns både resignation och motstånd
Social scientists under threat
Attacks on academic freedom in Turkey have become increasingly systematic in recent years and thousands of academics have been dismissed. This study reflects on the effects of this worsening repression through interviews with academics in the social sciences, both those dismissed and those still active in their profession. Although the dismissed academics are socially in a very precarious position, they are continuing their scholarly activities i…
Jihadiship
Jihadism is a complex social phenomenon that changes people, but not always uniformly. This article argues that cognitive and behavioral radicalization can be seen as a discursive journey or jihadiship involving (e)merging ideas, problems, and solutions that change with encounters with new circumstances—both material and immaterial. The differences observed between various generations of jihadists are one manifestation of this complexity. Especia…
Kurdish women in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict – perceptions, experiences, and strategies
This study analyzes how Kurdish women experience the violence and other consequences of the armed conflict raging between the PKK and the Turkish state. Interviews conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir suggest that Kurdish women experience the conflict both as members of an oppressed minority and as women. The study first focuses on identifying sources of conflict related stress that are specific to women, such as the need to be silent to…
Primary Unit Cohesion Among the Peshmerga and Hezbollah
This study analyzes the creation of primary unit cohesion among the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fighting the Islamic State in northern Iraq and among Hezbollah fighters active in Syria. For this comparative study, Kurdish soldiers were interviewed on three fronts outside Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk in February 2015 and May 2016, and Hezbollah fighters were interviewed in Lebanon in March 2016. In contrast to many studies' depictions of unit cohesion …
Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State
This study analyzes the experiences and identities of Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq as part of the Peshmerga Army. The case is especially interesting because these women have engaged in ground combat and because there is an empirical gap in knowledge, especially concerning Muslim women's experiences as soldiers. Wars bring great destruction but can also catalyze social change. While seeking balance between their i…
The logic of suicide terrorism
Pape [2005. Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. New York: Random House] famously argued that suicide terrorism is specifically designed to coerce democracies. However, also several autocracies have been targeted. This article argues that suicide attacks as a strategy of coercion rely on a general expectation of being able to raise the cost of conflict for the target state. Raising costs may require attacking different types of…
Foreign Fighters and the Radicalization of Local Jihad
Modern jihadism has experienced two distinct crises. The present study analyzes recent developments in jihadism, which can be seen in connection with efforts to solve the latest recruitment crisis of global jihad, and is based on comparative interviews with eight Swedish jihadists defined as foreign fighters. The study identifies three new trends evident in the interviews comparing jihadists active in Syria with those who fought in Afghanistan an…
Primary Unit Cohesion Among the Peshmerga and Hezbollah
This study analyzes the creation of primary unit cohesion among the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fighting the Islamic State in northern Iraq and among Hezbollah fighters active in Syria. For this comparative study, Kurdish soldiers were interviewed on three fronts outside Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk in February 2015 and May 2016, and Hezbollah fighters were interviewed in Lebanon in March 2016. In contrast to many studies' depictions of unit cohesion …
Conflicts and Relative Deprivation in Ein El Hilweh
About 450,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon today. With the arrival of over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war started in 2011, Palestinians were no longer the largest refugee group in Lebanon, and many newcomers settled in Palestinian refugee camps. Previous research has considered how recipient societies relate to refugees; this study analyses inter-group competition and conflict among refugees from different…
Social scientists under threat
Attacks on academic freedom in Turkey have become increasingly systematic in recent years and thousands of academics have been dismissed. This study reflects on the effects of this worsening repression through interviews with academics in the social sciences, both those dismissed and those still active in their profession. Although the dismissed academics are socially in a very precarious position, they are continuing their scholarly activities i…
Kurdish women in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict – perceptions, experiences, and strategies
This study analyzes how Kurdish women experience the violence and other consequences of the armed conflict raging between the PKK and the Turkish state. Interviews conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir suggest that Kurdish women experience the conflict both as members of an oppressed minority and as women. The study first focuses on identifying sources of conflict related stress that are specific to women, such as the need to be silent to…
Interviewing Jihadists
The field of terrorism research has arguably long been characterized by a separation of the scholars from their subject of inquiry. Interviews can be used to bridge this chasm, but making contact with potential interviewees, conducting interviews, and analyzing the data pose unique challenges when conducting research into jihadists, especially active ones. This article focuses on the author's experience of interviewing both former and active jiha…
Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State
This study analyzes the experiences and identities of Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq as part of the Peshmerga Army. The case is especially interesting because these women have engaged in ground combat and because there is an empirical gap in knowledge, especially concerning Muslim women's experiences as soldiers. Wars bring great destruction but can also catalyze social change. While seeking balance between their i…
Hezbollah and the framing of resistance
Hezbollah is a holistic network whose social, political, military and cultural dimensions are all parts of a discourse of resistance. Conducting a qualitative frame analysis of speeches by Hezbollah’s General Secretary Nasrallah, supported by interviews with Hezbollah leadership privy to its ideology, this study analyses the construction of muqawama (resistance). It argues that resistance is a complex social phenomenon, which can be manifested, f…
Muslims Opposing Violent Radicalism and Extremism
Europe has seen the development of a new research agenda in response to Islamist terror attacks of recent years. Researchers are not only trying to solve the “radicalization puzzle” in order to understand the reasons why young Muslims in Western countries are attracted to extremism, but they are also making proposals for de-radicalizing extremists and creating relationships of trust with Muslim communities. Directly or indirectly, Europe’s Muslim…
Mental Strategies for Fighting the Is
This study analyzes the war against the Islamic State (IS), specifically on the front in northern Iraq, and the mental strategies that the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers use to maintain their combat motivation. For this field study, dozens of soldiers of various ranks were interviewed and observed on three fronts outside of Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk in February 2014. While some mental strategies are nearly universal, others depend on the characteristi…
Offense–Defense Balance, War Duration, and the Security Dilemma
The systemic offense–defense theory argues that the security dilemma and the risk of war become doubly severe in offense-dominant eras in the state system. However, the theory assumes in support of its main argument that wars are shorter when offense has the advantage. This article empirically tests the expected connection between the systemic offense–defense balance and war duration. A statistical analysis of wars 1817–1992 disconfirms the theor…
Jihad and Heroic Hypermasculinity – Recruitment Strategies, Battlefield Experiences, and Returning Home
There is a gap in knowledge when it comes to jihadism and how it is associated with notions of masculinity.Especially empirical studies on masculinity that are based on interviews with active or former jihadists are lacking.This study seeks to analyze the role that notions of masculinity have played in different phases of jihadiship among Swedish jihadist foreign fighters, from recruitment to traveling to the conflict zone, and then eventually re…
Motivations for Jihad and Cognitive Dissonance – A Qualitative Analysis of Former Swedish Jihadists
This study is based on interviews with three former Swedish jihadists, and it uses cognitive dissonance theory to analyze how their motivations for jihad changed—from the early stages of radicalization to fighting as part of a jihadist group and finally leaving jihad. It argues that cognitive dissonance is a causal mechanism, alternative to empathy and collective relative deprivation, that can explain how individuals with collective identities ca…
Hard and soft targets
Identity management by multiple identification – religious leaders and EU integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This research examines the identity management strategies among Bosnian religious leaders belonging to the three major religious groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), namely the Islamic Community, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vrhbosna. The research is based on 31 semi-structured interviews conducted with religious leaders from the aforementioned groups. It specifically focuses on how religious leaders manag…
Female combat commanders of the YPJ and political agency - framing the fight on their own terms
Women have taken part in several insurgencies. Research shows that women resort to violence not only for private reasons but also as a means to achieve political goals. The aim of this study is to explore how high-ranking YPJ commanders’ frame their decision to first joint the PKK and their use of violence as founding members of the YPJ. This is done with the help of a thematic analysis of life history interviews with three YPJ commanders in the …
After the Caliphate
After the fall of the Islamic State’s self-declared Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, understanding how the Salafi-jihadist environments in the West mobilize in new ways has become urgent. This study is based on unique hard-to-reach data from qualitative interviews with returned Swedish ISIS fighters, previous members of the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, friends and acquaintances of persons engaged in the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, an…
Kurdish women and TV journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan
Few studies on female TV journalists in the Middle East have been conducted. Neither have Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts been used to analyse women journalists’ experiences of their professional practice and their strategies for navigating a male-dominated media world in the Middle East. For this unique study, ten Kurdish women journalists that work for six different TV stations in Iraqi Kurdistan were interviewed. Informed by different forms of…
Jihadiship
Jihadism is a complex social phenomenon that changes people, but not always uniformly. This article argues that cognitive and behavioral radicalization can be seen as a discursive journey or jihadiship involving (e)merging ideas, problems, and solutions that change with encounters with new circumstances—both material and immaterial. The differences observed between various generations of jihadists are one manifestation of this complexity. Especia…
Causal beliefs and war termination
This article analyzes the length of interstate wars and the process of reaching a mutually acceptable bargaining solution. Rational choice scholarship has mainly sought to explain long wars in terms of commitment problems and private information. This article complements these rational choice perspectives by arguing that causal beliefs – a variable not considered by previous research – can also prolong wars by increasing expectations of battlefie…
Offense–Defense Balance, War Duration, and the Security Dilemma
The systemic offense–defense theory argues that the security dilemma and the risk of war become doubly severe in offense-dominant eras in the state system. However, the theory assumes in support of its main argument that wars are shorter when offense has the advantage. This article empirically tests the expected connection between the systemic offense–defense balance and war duration. A statistical analysis of wars 1817–1992 disconfirms the theor…
Hard and soft targets
Foreign Fighters and the Radicalization of Local Jihad
Modern jihadism has experienced two distinct crises. The present study analyzes recent developments in jihadism, which can be seen in connection with efforts to solve the latest recruitment crisis of global jihad, and is based on comparative interviews with eight Swedish jihadists defined as foreign fighters. The study identifies three new trends evident in the interviews comparing jihadists active in Syria with those who fought in Afghanistan an…
Mental Strategies for Fighting the Is
This study analyzes the war against the Islamic State (IS), specifically on the front in northern Iraq, and the mental strategies that the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers use to maintain their combat motivation. For this field study, dozens of soldiers of various ranks were interviewed and observed on three fronts outside of Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk in February 2014. While some mental strategies are nearly universal, others depend on the characteristi…
The logic of suicide terrorism
Pape [2005. Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. New York: Random House] famously argued that suicide terrorism is specifically designed to coerce democracies. However, also several autocracies have been targeted. This article argues that suicide attacks as a strategy of coercion rely on a general expectation of being able to raise the cost of conflict for the target state. Raising costs may require attacking different types of…
Interviewing Jihadists
The field of terrorism research has arguably long been characterized by a separation of the scholars from their subject of inquiry. Interviews can be used to bridge this chasm, but making contact with potential interviewees, conducting interviews, and analyzing the data pose unique challenges when conducting research into jihadists, especially active ones. This article focuses on the author's experience of interviewing both former and active jiha…
Causal beliefs and war termination
This article analyzes the length of interstate wars and the process of reaching a mutually acceptable bargaining solution. Rational choice scholarship has mainly sought to explain long wars in terms of commitment problems and private information. This article complements these rational choice perspectives by arguing that causal beliefs – a variable not considered by previous research – can also prolong wars by increasing expectations of battlefie…
Muslims Opposing Violent Radicalism and Extremism
Europe has seen the development of a new research agenda in response to Islamist terror attacks of recent years. Researchers are not only trying to solve the “radicalization puzzle” in order to understand the reasons why young Muslims in Western countries are attracted to extremism, but they are also making proposals for de-radicalizing extremists and creating relationships of trust with Muslim communities. Directly or indirectly, Europe’s Muslim…
Jihadiship
Jihadism is a complex social phenomenon that changes people, but not always uniformly. This article argues that cognitive and behavioral radicalization can be seen as a discursive journey or jihadiship involving (e)merging ideas, problems, and solutions that change with encounters with new circumstances—both material and immaterial. The differences observed between various generations of jihadists are one manifestation of this complexity. Especia…
Kurdish women in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict – perceptions, experiences, and strategies
This study analyzes how Kurdish women experience the violence and other consequences of the armed conflict raging between the PKK and the Turkish state. Interviews conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir suggest that Kurdish women experience the conflict both as members of an oppressed minority and as women. The study first focuses on identifying sources of conflict related stress that are specific to women, such as the need to be silent to…
Primary Unit Cohesion Among the Peshmerga and Hezbollah
This study analyzes the creation of primary unit cohesion among the Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fighting the Islamic State in northern Iraq and among Hezbollah fighters active in Syria. For this comparative study, Kurdish soldiers were interviewed on three fronts outside Mosul, Erbil, and Kirkuk in February 2015 and May 2016, and Hezbollah fighters were interviewed in Lebanon in March 2016. In contrast to many studies' depictions of unit cohesion …
Muslim Mothers in Ground Combat Against the Islamic State
This study analyzes the experiences and identities of Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq as part of the Peshmerga Army. The case is especially interesting because these women have engaged in ground combat and because there is an empirical gap in knowledge, especially concerning Muslim women's experiences as soldiers. Wars bring great destruction but can also catalyze social change. While seeking balance between their i…
Motivations for Jihad and Cognitive Dissonance – A Qualitative Analysis of Former Swedish Jihadists
This study is based on interviews with three former Swedish jihadists, and it uses cognitive dissonance theory to analyze how their motivations for jihad changed—from the early stages of radicalization to fighting as part of a jihadist group and finally leaving jihad. It argues that cognitive dissonance is a causal mechanism, alternative to empathy and collective relative deprivation, that can explain how individuals with collective identities ca…
Conflicts and Relative Deprivation in Ein El Hilweh
About 450,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon today. With the arrival of over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war started in 2011, Palestinians were no longer the largest refugee group in Lebanon, and many newcomers settled in Palestinian refugee camps. Previous research has considered how recipient societies relate to refugees; this study analyses inter-group competition and conflict among refugees from different…
Samhällsvetenskaperna och den akademiska friheten i Turkiet
Allvarliga kränkningar av den akademiska friheten förekommer idag i flera av Europarådets medlemsstater och det är ofta samhällsvetenskaperna som utgör måltavlan. Situationen är särskilt allvarlig i Turkiet där tusentals universitetslärare avskedats. Intervjuer med avskedade turkiska samhällsvetare och samhällsvetare som lever under hot om avsked ger en sammansatt bild: här finns både resignation och motstånd
Social scientists under threat
Attacks on academic freedom in Turkey have become increasingly systematic in recent years and thousands of academics have been dismissed. This study reflects on the effects of this worsening repression through interviews with academics in the social sciences, both those dismissed and those still active in their profession. Although the dismissed academics are socially in a very precarious position, they are continuing their scholarly activities i…
Surviving Seemingly Endless Refugeeship—Social Representations and Strategies of Palestinian Refugees in Ein El Hilweh
Today, about 470,000 Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in Lebanon, with 45 per cent of them living in the 12 official Palestinian refugee camps. Previous research identified several socio-economic problems facing the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The refugee camps have generally been very poor and relatively dangerous places to live. Moreover, all the Pal…
Hezbollah and the framing of resistance
Hezbollah is a holistic network whose social, political, military and cultural dimensions are all parts of a discourse of resistance. Conducting a qualitative frame analysis of speeches by Hezbollah’s General Secretary Nasrallah, supported by interviews with Hezbollah leadership privy to its ideology, this study analyses the construction of muqawama (resistance). It argues that resistance is a complex social phenomenon, which can be manifested, f…
Taking to the Streets
In wide-ranging attacks on academic freedom in Turkey in recent years, thousands of academics have lost their university positions. At the end of 2016 oppositional academics, many of whom were dismissed from their positions for having signed a peace petition, established a Street Academy as an alternative way to reach out to both students and the public in Ankara. In this study we analyse the experiences of these street academy lecturers from the…
The Magnitude of Warfare Revisited – System Polarity and War Duration
One of the intractable debates in the study of international conflict is the linkage between polarity and magnitude of interstate warfare. Speculations about the effects of the structure of the international system can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia. This article revisits this debate with a focus on war duration, which has received little attention in the literature, and presents the first theoretical discussion of the connection betw…
Kurdish women and TV journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan
Few studies on female TV journalists in the Middle East have been conducted. Neither have Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts been used to analyse women journalists’ experiences of their professional practice and their strategies for navigating a male-dominated media world in the Middle East. For this unique study, ten Kurdish women journalists that work for six different TV stations in Iraqi Kurdistan were interviewed. Informed by different forms of…
Jihadism in Scandinavia
Aren’t You Tired of Talking?” – Priming Men and Women into Violence through Gateway Organizations
Social movement approaches have explored how protest movements transition into terrorist organizations. However, there has been little academic work examining potential causal mechanisms that drive the movement of individuals from nonviolent organizations to violent ones. This study uses priming theory to explain how nonviolent organizations can function as inadvertent gateways that facilitate the movement of individuals into violent organization…
After the Caliphate
After the fall of the Islamic State’s self-declared Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, understanding how the Salafi-jihadist environments in the West mobilize in new ways has become urgent. This study is based on unique hard-to-reach data from qualitative interviews with returned Swedish ISIS fighters, previous members of the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, friends and acquaintances of persons engaged in the Swedish Salafi-jihadist environment, an…
Jihad After the Fall of Is – Reframing the Apocalyptic Narrative
This study analyzes the use of apocalyptic frames by jihadist groups and how they have been developing after the fall of IS. It contextualizes these developments in the history of Muslim apocalyptic though and literature. After describing the apocalyptic narrative in the hadith literature and in the Quran, as well as the differences between classical and modern apocalyptic literature, the study analyzes differences in how jihadist groups have use…
Political science (29 works) · Law (23 works) · Law (22 works) · Sociology (21 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Politics (15 works) · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (15 works) · History (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · History (9 works)