The Experts below are selected from a list of 54393 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Daniel Byman - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Rolling Back the Islamic State
2017Co-Authors: Seth G. Jones, James Dobbins, Daniel Byman, Christopher S. Chivvis, Ben Connable, Jeffrey Martini, Eric Robinson, Nathan ChandlerAbstract:The Islamic State has lost substantial amounts of territory but continues to conduct and inspire attacks around the world. This report assesses the threat the Islamic State poses to the United States and examines strategies to counter the group and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State or other Salafi-jihadist groups.
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understanding the Islamic State a review essay
International Security, 2016Co-Authors: Daniel BymanAbstract:This article reviews several recent books on the Islamic State in order to understand its goals, motivations, strategy, and vulnerabilities. It argues that the Islamic State's ideology is powerful but also highly instrumental, offering the group legitimacy and recruiting appeal. Raison d'etat often dominates its decisionmaking. The Islamic State's strength is largely a consequence of the policies and weaknesses of its State adversaries. In addition, the group has many weaknesses of its own, notably its brutality, reliance on foreign fighters, and investment in a State as well as its tendency to seek out new enemies. The threat the Islamic State poses is most severe at the local and regional levels. The danger of terrorism to the West is real but mitigated by the Islamic State's continued prioritization of the Muslim world and the heightened focus of Western security forces on the terrorist threat. A high-quality military force could easily defeat Islamic State fighters, but there is no desire to deploy la...
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Understanding the Islamic State—A Review Essay
International Security, 2016Co-Authors: Daniel BymanAbstract:This article reviews several recent books on the Islamic State in order to understand its goals, motivations, strategy, and vulnerabilities. It argues that the Islamic State's ideology is powerful but also highly instrumental, offering the group legitimacy and recruiting appeal. Raison d'etat often dominates its decisionmaking. The Islamic State's strength is largely a consequence of the policies and weaknesses of its State adversaries. In addition, the group has many weaknesses of its own, notably its brutality, reliance on foreign fighters, and investment in a State as well as its tendency to seek out new enemies. The threat the Islamic State poses is most severe at the local and regional levels. The danger of terrorism to the West is real but mitigated by the Islamic State's continued prioritization of the Muslim world and the heightened focus of Western security forces on the terrorist threat. A high-quality military force could easily defeat Islamic State fighters, but there is no desire to deploy la...
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Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement - The Islamic State
Al Qaeda the Islamic State and the Global Jihadist Movement, 2015Co-Authors: Daniel BymanAbstract:The Islamic State is Al Qaeda’s most important progeny and its greatest nemesis. The Islamic State grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and both groups’ objectives, enemies, and tactics are all part of the broader jihadist movement that Al Qaeda so long sought...
Craig Whiteside - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Women in the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter focuses on a document published by supporters of the Islamic State in late January 2015. Entitled, ‘Women in the Islamic State: A manifesto and case study,’ the text was attributed to the outreach wing of the Khansa’ Brigade, an all-women policing unit operating inside the caliphate at the time. The first and only of its kind, the treatise clarified a number of issues regarding the role of women in the Islamic State that had hitherto been obscured by sensationalist media reportage and deliberate misinformation. The text is split into three sections. The first portion deals specifically with ‘modern’ preoccupations like feminism, education, and science, and sets out an Islamic response to these ‘corruptions’ and is featured in the below extract.
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Advice to the Leaders of the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter features and analyses a text published on 24 January 2018 via a social media group affiliated with the Islamic State’s central media office. The text, an e-book titled Advice for the leaders and soldiers of the Islamic State, was attributed to Abd al-Munim bin Izz al-Din al-Badawi, better known as Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, the former prime minister and minister of war for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). First officially published in Arabic and made available online by the organization’s printing press, the Himmah Library, in the Hijri year 1428 (which spanned the Gregorian year 2007), the volume has two sections, ‘Advice for the Leaders of the Islamic State’ and ‘Advice for the Soldiers of the Islamic State’, which offer thirty pieces of ‘advice’ to leaders and thirty-one to soldiers about how best to pursue the aims of the Islamic State’s insurgency. The first half is the subject of this chapter.
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The First Year of the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter presents four announcements from the pivotal first year of the newly formed Islamic State of Iraq, and a fifth from 2011 that looks back at these momentous events. The first source is a 2006 Statement from official spokesperson Muharib al-Jubouri, announcing the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq. The second source is the introductory speech of the Islamic State’s newly elected leader Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (Hamid Dawud Mohammed Khalil al-Zawi). The third source is an excerpt of a letter critical of the new leaders written by Chief Sharia Judge to al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. Next is an excerpt from Abu Umar’s fourth speech, commemorating the fourth anniversary of the jihad in Iraq since the US-led invasion. The fifth and final source is an excerpt from Islamic State spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s inaugural speech in 2011, as he reflects back on Abu Umar’s musings about the insurgency’s resiliency during a period of renewed growth for the movement.
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new masters of revolutionary warfare the Islamic State movement 2002 2016
Perspectives on terrorism, 2016Co-Authors: Craig WhitesideAbstract:The Islamic State, despite its longevity, prolific media enterprise, and high profile, escapes easy definition by policymakers, academics, and the media. An examination of the movement using Mao’s revolutionary warfare framework, particularly his three stages of conflict, provides a more holistic view of the organization for both understanding and action. As part of an exploration, Islamic State captured documents and press releases were examined to establish the innovations and breadth of its adaptation of Maoist principles of guerilla warfare and the evolution of the theoretical influences on the doctrine from previous Salafi-militant experiences and publications. This research provides valuable insight into the return of a powerful method of insurgency as well as a glimpse into the vast pseudo-clandestine insurgency that is the Islamic State movement.
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The Islamic State and the Return of Revolutionary Warfare
Small Wars & Insurgencies, 2016Co-Authors: Craig WhitesideAbstract:AbstractThe rise of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is not well understood at this point. This paper starts by comparing the Islamic State to the Vietnamese communists in a revolutionary warfare framework and makes a causal argument that the Islamic State’s defeat of the Sahwa (Awakening) movement in Iraq was the key to its successful establishment of control of most Sunni areas and the mobilization of its population for support. Islamic State operational summaries and captured documents are used to quantitatively establish the impact of the subversion campaign against the Sahwa and Iraqi government and trace the efforts of operatives in tribal outreach and recruiting. This research provides a valuable insight into the return of a powerful method of insurgency as well as a glimpse into the vast clandestine network that provides the strength of the Islamic State movement.
Scott Lucas - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Islamic State lexical battleground: US foreign policy and the abstraction of threat
International Affairs, 2016Co-Authors: Asaf Siniver, Scott LucasAbstract:This article suggests that President Obama's consistent references to the extremist Sunni group as ‘ISIL’ (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is not a trivial matter of nomenclature. Instead, the Obama administration's deliberate usage of the ISIL acronym (as opposed to other commonly-used terms such as ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ or ‘ISIS’, ‘Islamic State’, ‘IS’, ‘so-called Islamic State’ and ‘Daesh’) frames the public perception of the threat to avoid engagement with the requirements of strategy and operations. Both the labelling and the approach could be defended as a response to the unique challenge of a transnational group claiming religious and political legitimacy. However, we suggest that the labelling is an evasion of the necessary response, reflecting instead a lack of coherence in strategy and operations—in particular after the Islamic State's lightning offensive in Iraq and expansion in Syria in mid-2014. This tension between rhetoric, strategy and operations means that ‘ISIL’ does not provide a stable depiction of the Islamic State. While it may draw upon the post-9/11 depiction of ‘terrorism’, the tag leads to dissonance between official and media representations. The administration's depiction of a considered approach leading to victory has been undermined by the abstraction of ‘ISIL’, which in turn produced strategic ambiguity about the prospect of any political, economic or military challenge to the Islamic State.
Charlie Winter - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Advice to the Leaders of the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter features and analyses a text published on 24 January 2018 via a social media group affiliated with the Islamic State’s central media office. The text, an e-book titled Advice for the leaders and soldiers of the Islamic State, was attributed to Abd al-Munim bin Izz al-Din al-Badawi, better known as Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, the former prime minister and minister of war for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). First officially published in Arabic and made available online by the organization’s printing press, the Himmah Library, in the Hijri year 1428 (which spanned the Gregorian year 2007), the volume has two sections, ‘Advice for the Leaders of the Islamic State’ and ‘Advice for the Soldiers of the Islamic State’, which offer thirty pieces of ‘advice’ to leaders and thirty-one to soldiers about how best to pursue the aims of the Islamic State’s insurgency. The first half is the subject of this chapter.
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Women in the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter focuses on a document published by supporters of the Islamic State in late January 2015. Entitled, ‘Women in the Islamic State: A manifesto and case study,’ the text was attributed to the outreach wing of the Khansa’ Brigade, an all-women policing unit operating inside the caliphate at the time. The first and only of its kind, the treatise clarified a number of issues regarding the role of women in the Islamic State that had hitherto been obscured by sensationalist media reportage and deliberate misinformation. The text is split into three sections. The first portion deals specifically with ‘modern’ preoccupations like feminism, education, and science, and sets out an Islamic response to these ‘corruptions’ and is featured in the below extract.
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The First Year of the Islamic State
The ISIS Reader, 2020Co-Authors: Haroro Ingram, Craig Whiteside, Charlie WinterAbstract:This chapter presents four announcements from the pivotal first year of the newly formed Islamic State of Iraq, and a fifth from 2011 that looks back at these momentous events. The first source is a 2006 Statement from official spokesperson Muharib al-Jubouri, announcing the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq. The second source is the introductory speech of the Islamic State’s newly elected leader Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (Hamid Dawud Mohammed Khalil al-Zawi). The third source is an excerpt of a letter critical of the new leaders written by Chief Sharia Judge to al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. Next is an excerpt from Abu Umar’s fourth speech, commemorating the fourth anniversary of the jihad in Iraq since the US-led invasion. The fifth and final source is an excerpt from Islamic State spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s inaugural speech in 2011, as he reflects back on Abu Umar’s musings about the insurgency’s resiliency during a period of renewed growth for the movement.
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How does the Islamic State recruitment process work
2016Co-Authors: Fran Kelly, Charlie WinterAbstract:Overview Melbourne teenager Jake Bilardi left his suburban home in August 2014 to join Islamic State. He died last year during a suicide attack in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. He was 18. Jake was one of the youngest people ever recruited by Islamic State from a Western nation, but he was also one of tens of thousands of people Islamic State has managed to attract from as many as 86 countries. A new report out today, An integrated approach to Islamic State recruitment, investigates the Islamic State recruitment process.
Asaf Siniver - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Islamic State lexical battleground: US foreign policy and the abstraction of threat
International Affairs, 2016Co-Authors: Asaf Siniver, Scott LucasAbstract:This article suggests that President Obama's consistent references to the extremist Sunni group as ‘ISIL’ (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is not a trivial matter of nomenclature. Instead, the Obama administration's deliberate usage of the ISIL acronym (as opposed to other commonly-used terms such as ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ or ‘ISIS’, ‘Islamic State’, ‘IS’, ‘so-called Islamic State’ and ‘Daesh’) frames the public perception of the threat to avoid engagement with the requirements of strategy and operations. Both the labelling and the approach could be defended as a response to the unique challenge of a transnational group claiming religious and political legitimacy. However, we suggest that the labelling is an evasion of the necessary response, reflecting instead a lack of coherence in strategy and operations—in particular after the Islamic State's lightning offensive in Iraq and expansion in Syria in mid-2014. This tension between rhetoric, strategy and operations means that ‘ISIL’ does not provide a stable depiction of the Islamic State. While it may draw upon the post-9/11 depiction of ‘terrorism’, the tag leads to dissonance between official and media representations. The administration's depiction of a considered approach leading to victory has been undermined by the abstraction of ‘ISIL’, which in turn produced strategic ambiguity about the prospect of any political, economic or military challenge to the Islamic State.
