Transnational Jihadism & Civil Wars

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Martha Crenshaw
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Domestic Terrorism ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
Power Centers ◽  
Soviet Invasion ◽  
Competing Power ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
The Relationship

When rebels also employ terrorism, civil wars can become more intractable. Since the 1980s, jihadism, a form of violent transnational activism, has mobilized civil war rebels, outside entrepreneurs, foreign fighters, and organizers of transnational as well as domestic terrorism. These activities are integral to the jihadist trend, representing overlapping and conjoined strands of the same ideological current, which in turn reflects internal division and dissatisfaction within the Arab world and within Islam. Jihadism, however, is neither unitary nor monolithic. It contains competing power centers and divergent ideological orthodoxies. Different jihadist actors emphasize different priorities and strategies. They disagree, for example, on whether the “near” or the “far” enemy should take precedence. The relationship between jihadist terrorism and civil war is far from uniform or constant. This essay traces the trajectory of this evolution, beginning in the 1980s in the context of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Terrorism, Civil War, and Insurgency

2019 ◽  
pp. 347-365
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Stanton
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Domestic Terrorism ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Much of the terrorism occurring worldwide is domestic terrorism carried out by rebel groups fighting in civil wars. However, many are reluctant to categorize domestic insurgencies as terrorist groups or to identify the tactics used by domestic insurgencies as terrorist tactics. Through a survey of the literature addressing the relationship between terrorism and civil war, I contend that research on the dynamics of violence in civil war would benefit from a more standardized definition of the concept of terrorism as well as greater consensus on how the concept of terrorism ought to be used in relation to the concept of civilian targeting. The lack of conceptual clarity in distinguishing between terrorism and civilian targeting makes it difficult to compare research findings, and thus to make progress as a field in our understanding of the causes of violence and its consequences. Despite the challenges associated with making comparisons across studies, this chapter attempts to do precisely this, drawing on research on terrorism as well as research on civilian targeting to develop insights on the causes and consequences of terrorist violence employed in the context of civil war.

Teaching from experience: foreign training and rebel success in civil War

2020 ◽  
pp. 073889422091297
Author(s):  
Eric Keels ◽  
Jay Benson ◽  
Michael Widmeier
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Intrastate Conflicts ◽  
War Outcomes ◽  
Conflict Outcomes ◽  
The Relationship

This paper addresses the relationship between rebel training from external sponsors and civil war outcomes. While past research has examined how foreign support, broadly, shapes the dynamics of civil wars, little attention has been paid to how foreign training of rebel fighters affects civil wars. We theorize that rebels that receive training from formerly successful rebels are more likely to experience favorable conflict outcomes than those with no training or with training from sponsors inexperienced with fighting a civil war. These propositions are tested with a quantitative analysis of all intrastate conflicts from 1975 to 2010, providing support for our hypothesis.

Terrorism and Civil War: A Spatial and Temporal Approach to a Conceptual Problem

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Findley ◽  
Joseph K. Young
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Event Data ◽  
Conceptual Problem ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Patterns ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Relationship

What is the relationship between civil war and terrorism? Most current research on these topics either explicitly or implicitly separates the two, in spite of compelling reasons to consider them together. In this paper, we examine the extent to which terrorism and civil war overlap and then unpack various temporal and spatial patterns. To accomplish this, we use newly geo-referenced terror event data to offer a global overview of where and when terrorist events happen and whether they occur inside or outside of civil war zones. Furthermore, we conduct an exploratory analysis of six separate cases that have elements of comparability but also occur in unique contexts, which illustrate some of the patterns in terrorism and civil war. The data show a high degree of overlap between terrorism and ongoing civil war and, further, indicate that a substantial amount of terrorism occurs prior to civil wars in Latin America, but yet follows civil war in other regions of the world. While the study of terrorism and of civil war mostly occurs in separate scholarly communities, we argue for more work that incorporates insights from each research program and we offer a possibility for future research by considering how geo-referenced terror and civil war data may be utilized together. More generally, we expect these results to apply to a wide variety of attitudes and behaviors in contentious politics.

Varieties of civil war and mass killing

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Krcmaric
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Why do some civil wars feature the mass killing of civilians while others do not? Recent research answers this question by adopting a ‘varieties of civil war’ approach that distinguishes between guerrilla and conventional civil wars. One particularly influential claim is that guerrilla wars feature more civilian victimization because mass killing is an attractive strategy for states attempting to eliminate the civilian support base of an insurgency. In this article, I suggest that there are two reasons to question this ‘draining the sea’ argument. First, the logic of ‘hearts and minds’ during guerrilla wars implies that protecting civilians – not killing them – is the key to success during counterinsurgency. Second, unpacking the nature of fighting in conventional wars gives compelling reasons to think that they could be particularly deadly for civilians caught in the war’s path. After deriving competing predictions on the relationship between civil war type and mass killing, I offer an empirical test by pairing a recently released dataset on the ‘technology of rebellion’ featured in civil wars with a more nuanced dataset of mass killing than those used in several previous studies. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I find that mass killing onset is more likely to occur during conventional wars than during guerrilla wars.

The Changing Geopolitics of the Middle East

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
Marina ◽  
David Ottaway
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
Power Centers ◽  
Political Turmoil

The 2011 uprisings had a profound impact on the geopolitics of the Middle East due to the vacuum created by the political turmoil consuming its three traditional power centers—Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Two old imperial rivals, Turkey and Iran, competed to fill the vacuum while an emerging new regional power, Saudi Arabia, made a bid for the leadership of the Arab world. At the same time, the United States, despite its efforts to disengage from Middle East conflicts, became more engaged than ever, first with Iran and then in civil wars underway in Syria and Iraq and against Islamic extremist groups. Meanwhile, Russia after two decades of absence, returned to quickly re-establish its influence there.

Civil War and Religion: Salafi-Jihadist Groups

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Aslan Souleimanov
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Conflict Intensity

Reflecting on the recent rise of Salafi groups and their impact on civil war, the academic literature on Salafi radicalization, mobilization, and recruitment has burgeoned in the recent decade and a half. Yet little consensus exists as to the relative power of three major causes: grievances, ideology, and radical milieu and support structures as causes of violent radicalization. Even less is known about how jihadist foreign fighters affect civil wars in terms of conflict intensity and resolution. In both fields, key debates are identified in the recent scholarship, explain the major shortcomings and gaps, and suggest avenues of future research. For instance, it is important—and hardly avoidable—that epistemological and ontological obstacles lay in the way of establishing the causes of (violent) radicalization, because the processes relating to the change of human perception and behavior are extremely difficult to trace. Another point is the frequent—deliberate or unintended—distortion of the testimonies of former combatants, not least Salafi-jihadists, which makes the task of establishing the causes of (violent) radicalization and recruitment harder. Identifying avenues of further research, there is a lack of quality first-hand data in the current research on Salafi-inspired radicalization, mobilization, and recruitment. More methodological plurality—particularly in-depth ethnographic studies and quantitative work—is needed, as well as more research on virtual social networks and non-verbal contents.

Ethnic Defection in Civil War

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1043-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stathis N. Kalyvas
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Identity Shift ◽  
Behavioral Expression ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

The study of ethnicity is dominated by constructivist approaches, yet empirical studies of civil war have been oblivious to their insights. In this article, the author examines the relationship between ethnic identity and civil war and points to several empirical instances of fluidity in the behavioral expression of ethnic identities within civil war. The author identifies two processes that are consistent with constructivist theorizing: identity shift and ethnic defection. The author provides several empirical illustrations along with a micro-level test of the determinants of ethnic defection. At the micro level, ethnic defection is best predicted by the extent of territorial control exercised by the incumbent political actor and the level of prior insurgent violence. The author also hypothesizes that at the macro level, ethnic defection is a function of the resources available to incumbent actors and conclude by stressing the need to take seriously the endogenous dynamics of civil wars.

Third-party regime type and civil war duration

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332097581
Author(s):  
Sara Norrevik ◽  
Mehwish Sarwari
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Selection Effects ◽  
Intrastate Conflicts ◽  
Party Support ◽  
Conflict Outcomes ◽  
The Relationship

Does the regime type of a foreign intervener influence the duration of civil wars? Existing research has shown that third-party support affects the outcome of a conflict. Moreover, studies show that the type of support offered to conflict actors can determine how a war ends. While this research has offered significant implications on conflict dynamics, extant works have overlooked the importance of characteristics of foreign supporters and how their attributes can impact conflict outcomes. Focusing on foreign troop support and quantities, this article examines the relationship between the regime type of a foreign supporter and the outcome of an armed conflict. We argue that regime type of an external troop sponsor can influence war duration based on two dynamics: selection effects and signaling effects. Specifically, troop assistance provided to warring parties by democracies decreases the length of civil wars and increases the likelihood for a one-sided victory for the supported faction. The empirical findings for all intrastate conflicts during the period 1975–2012 provide evidence for our claims that the regime type of an external intervener influences the outcome of a conflict.

Of Frames and Cultures - A Cross-Cultural Comparison of TV Newscasts

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Senokozlieva ◽  
Oliver Fischer ◽  
Gary Bente ◽  
Nicole Krämer
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Explorative Study ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Tv News ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. TV news are essentially cultural phenomena. Previous research suggests that the often-overlooked formal and implicit characteristics of newscasts may be systematically related to culture-specific characteristics. Investigating these characteristics by means of a frame-by-frame content analysis is identified as a particularly promising methodological approach. To examine the relationship between culture and selected formal characteristics of newscasts, we present an explorative study that compares material from the USA, the Arab world, and Germany. Results indicate that there are many significant differences, some of which are in line with expectations derived from cultural specifics. Specifically, we argue that the number of persons presented as well as the context in which they are presented can be interpreted as indicators of Individualism/Collectivism. The conclusions underline the validity of the chosen methodological approach, but also demonstrate the need for more comprehensive and theory-driven category schemes.

Through the prism of Spain. Socio-economic causes of different outcomes of Russian and Spanish civil wars

2017 ◽  
pp. 142-155
Author(s):  
I. Rozinskiy ◽  
N. Rozinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
World War I ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
World War ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Economic Well Being

The article examines the socio-economic causes of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1936), which, as opposed to the Russian Civil War, resulted in the victory of the “Whites”. Choice of Spain as the object of comparison with Russia is justified not only by similarity of civil wars occurred in the two countries in the XX century, but also by a large number of common features in their history. Based on statistical data on the changes in economic well-being of different strata of Spanish population during several decades before the civil war, the authors formulate the hypothesis according to which the increase of real incomes of Spaniards engaged in agriculture is “responsible” for their conservative political sympathies. As a result, contrary to the situation in Russia, where the peasantry did not support the Whites, in Spain the peasants’ position predetermined the outcome of the confrontation resulting in the victory of the Spanish analogue of the Whites. According to the authors, the possibility of stable increase of Spanish peasants’ incomes was caused by the nation’s non-involvement in World War I and also by more limited, compared to Russia and some other countries, spending on creation of heavy (primarily military-related) industry in Spain.

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