Universal soldiers or parochial actors
Understanding jihadists as products of their environments
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4086444 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Tankel (School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 299-322 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-04 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Terrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09546553.2016.1219725 |
| OpenAlex | W2514900593 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Why did the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra (JN)—two groups that shared similar ideological preferences and were both initially part of the Al Qaeda network—take different paths in the Syrian conflict? Part of the answer lies in the fact that JN is primarily a Syrian organization, whereas Iraqis lead ISIS. A jihadist group’s relationship to its country of origin and domicile (the two are not always the same) helps to explain that organization’s ideological preferences and alliance behavior. Yet no method of categorization based on jihadist-state relations exists. I fill this gap by theorizing an explanatory typology based on a jihadist group’s relationship with its country of origin and/or domicile. This typology consists of two tiers. The first classifies jihadist organizations based on whether they are nationally homogeneous or heterogeneous, and whether they are based in their country of origin, exile, or multiple locations. The second tier categorizes groups based on the nature of their engagement—collaborative, belligerent, or neutral—with a state. This new typology enables the generation of multiple hypotheses and has practical implications given that most U.S. counterterrorism efforts require cooperation from partner nations
Computer security · Criminology · Epistemology · Political science · Sociology · Terrorism · Violent extremism · Computer Science · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |