Mark Berlin
Biographic Data
| ID | 3947335 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Berlin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark |
| FAMILY NAME | Berlin |
| SIGNATURE | BERLIN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Washington University |
| ORCID | 0009-0004-4608-2790 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Commanders of the Mujahideen
Recent research has explored how militant leaders' backgrounds shape their decision-making while in power. However, existing studies primarily focus on leaders of rebel groups participating in civil wars, overlooking smaller, yet lethal and influential, armed groups that operate outside civil war contexts. To address this gap, we introduce the Jihadist Leaders Dataset (JLD), which provides original, systematic data on the backgrounds and prewar e…
Beyond Outbidding
Numerous jihadist organizations pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda (AQ) or the Islamic State (IS) in recent years. How do armed groups respond to competition from transnational jihadist rivals? A prominent strand of research argues that increased competition leads armed groups to outbid rivals through violent escalation. However, an alternative theory suggests that groups can restrain their violence to distinguish themselves from extremist rivals and…
A Call to Arms
Why do some rebel groups mobilize around diverse grievances, while others organize around a narrow set of issues? Rebels can widen their recruitment pool by appealing to broader segments of society. However, groups that represent multiple interests are often plagued by infighting and low cohesion, as members disagree about which issues to prioritize. We contend that radical Islamist groups are more likely to recruit with more diverse claims than …
We have nothing to do with it
Armed groups operating in conflicts around the world publish statements of denial to dissociate themselves from acts of violence. Existing research argues that armed groups publish denial statements to avoid public backlash, favorably frame the conduct of their campaigns, and distance themselves from unsanctioned actions conducted by rank‐and‐file members. However, the broader psychological impact of denial statements on public perceptions remain…
Go arm me
Over the last 50 years, civil conflicts have grown increasingly complex due to the proliferation of new armed groups and rebel fragmentation. Yet, existing research on external support for armed groups often ignores this multi-actor dimension, overlooking the unusual amount of discretion sponsors have in deciding whom to support in any given target state. This paper explores how multi-militant conflict environments impact foreign state sponsorshi…
Frame your friends close and your enemies closer
Armed groups are well-known for discussing their allies and adversaries in unitary actor terms. However, individuals also play an important part in the discourse of armed groups. Focusing on jihadist propaganda, we adopt a multi-method approach to examine the influence of individuals on militants’ diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. We do so by analyzing original data collected from 1250 articles in al-Masra, an Arabic language news…
The Middle East and North Africa in Political Science Scholarship
We examine publications on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in nine leading political science journals across three decades (1990–2019) to evaluate the scope of political science engagement with the region since the 1990s and analyze trends in research interests, developments in the use of empirical methods, and authorship patterns. Our data highlight significant gaps in the geographic and substantive scope of extant scholarship. Specifica…
Jihadist Journalism
Recent terrorism research has explored jihadist groups’ discourse surrounding different countries by exploring the content of various magazines. We build on existing literature by examining al-Masra, an Arabic-language newspaper linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). We created an original dataset from 1,250 articles in fifty-eight al-Masra editions, utilizing content analysis to code for each article’s main country of focus. Overall…
Who Studies International Law? Explaining Cross-national Variation in Compulsory International Legal Education
The compulsory study of international law is a universal component of legal education in some states but extremely uncommon or non-existent in others. This article uses global data and statistical methods to test a number of conceivable explanations for this puzzling feature of international society. In contrast to much of the empirical literature on state behaviour in relation to international law, we find that functionalist and socio-political …
The Middle East and North Africa in Political Science Scholarship
We examine publications on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in nine leading political science journals across three decades (1990–2019) to evaluate the scope of political science engagement with the region since the 1990s and analyze trends in research interests, developments in the use of empirical methods, and authorship patterns. Our data highlight significant gaps in the geographic and substantive scope of extant scholarship. Specifica…
Go arm me
Over the last 50 years, civil conflicts have grown increasingly complex due to the proliferation of new armed groups and rebel fragmentation. Yet, existing research on external support for armed groups often ignores this multi-actor dimension, overlooking the unusual amount of discretion sponsors have in deciding whom to support in any given target state. This paper explores how multi-militant conflict environments impact foreign state sponsorshi…
Frame your friends close and your enemies closer
Armed groups are well-known for discussing their allies and adversaries in unitary actor terms. However, individuals also play an important part in the discourse of armed groups. Focusing on jihadist propaganda, we adopt a multi-method approach to examine the influence of individuals on militants’ diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. We do so by analyzing original data collected from 1250 articles in al-Masra, an Arabic language news…
Who Studies International Law? Explaining Cross-national Variation in Compulsory International Legal Education
The compulsory study of international law is a universal component of legal education in some states but extremely uncommon or non-existent in others. This article uses global data and statistical methods to test a number of conceivable explanations for this puzzling feature of international society. In contrast to much of the empirical literature on state behaviour in relation to international law, we find that functionalist and socio-political …
The Middle East and North Africa in Political Science Scholarship
We examine publications on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in nine leading political science journals across three decades (1990–2019) to evaluate the scope of political science engagement with the region since the 1990s and analyze trends in research interests, developments in the use of empirical methods, and authorship patterns. Our data highlight significant gaps in the geographic and substantive scope of extant scholarship. Specifica…
Jihadist Journalism
Recent terrorism research has explored jihadist groups’ discourse surrounding different countries by exploring the content of various magazines. We build on existing literature by examining al-Masra, an Arabic-language newspaper linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). We created an original dataset from 1,250 articles in fifty-eight al-Masra editions, utilizing content analysis to code for each article’s main country of focus. Overall…
Go arm me
Over the last 50 years, civil conflicts have grown increasingly complex due to the proliferation of new armed groups and rebel fragmentation. Yet, existing research on external support for armed groups often ignores this multi-actor dimension, overlooking the unusual amount of discretion sponsors have in deciding whom to support in any given target state. This paper explores how multi-militant conflict environments impact foreign state sponsorshi…
Frame your friends close and your enemies closer
Armed groups are well-known for discussing their allies and adversaries in unitary actor terms. However, individuals also play an important part in the discourse of armed groups. Focusing on jihadist propaganda, we adopt a multi-method approach to examine the influence of individuals on militants’ diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. We do so by analyzing original data collected from 1250 articles in al-Masra, an Arabic language news…
A Call to Arms
Why do some rebel groups mobilize around diverse grievances, while others organize around a narrow set of issues? Rebels can widen their recruitment pool by appealing to broader segments of society. However, groups that represent multiple interests are often plagued by infighting and low cohesion, as members disagree about which issues to prioritize. We contend that radical Islamist groups are more likely to recruit with more diverse claims than …
We have nothing to do with it
Armed groups operating in conflicts around the world publish statements of denial to dissociate themselves from acts of violence. Existing research argues that armed groups publish denial statements to avoid public backlash, favorably frame the conduct of their campaigns, and distance themselves from unsanctioned actions conducted by rank‐and‐file members. However, the broader psychological impact of denial statements on public perceptions remain…
Commanders of the Mujahideen
Recent research has explored how militant leaders' backgrounds shape their decision-making while in power. However, existing studies primarily focus on leaders of rebel groups participating in civil wars, overlooking smaller, yet lethal and influential, armed groups that operate outside civil war contexts. To address this gap, we introduce the Jihadist Leaders Dataset (JLD), which provides original, systematic data on the backgrounds and prewar e…
Beyond Outbidding
Numerous jihadist organizations pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda (AQ) or the Islamic State (IS) in recent years. How do armed groups respond to competition from transnational jihadist rivals? A prominent strand of research argues that increased competition leads armed groups to outbid rivals through violent escalation. However, an alternative theory suggests that groups can restrain their violence to distinguish themselves from extremist rivals and…
Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Law (3 works) · Political economy (3 works) · Terrorism (3 works) · Framing (construction (2 works)