The Treachery of Images: Visualizing “Statehood” as a Tactic for the Legitimization of Non-State Actors
This article establishes that visual displays of sovereignty were central to the escalation and projected legitimacy of a violent non-state actor. Contrary to conventional perspectives, it details that the unprecedented appeal of the so-called Islamic State was tied to a visual projection of stateho...
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2021
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| In: |
Terrorism and political violence
Jahr: 2021, Band: 33, Heft: 4, Seiten: 720-742 |
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Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Zusammenfassung: | This article establishes that visual displays of sovereignty were central to the escalation and projected legitimacy of a violent non-state actor. Contrary to conventional perspectives, it details that the unprecedented appeal of the so-called Islamic State was tied to a visual projection of statehood. Through an innovative methodology, this study conducts a qualitative, affordance-driven analysis of the global visual politics of Dabiq. It details how photographs taken by Islamic State militants and downloaded from a variety of sources online were strategically utilized as “evidence” of the constitutive criteria of statehood: of a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. It demonstrates that this violent non-state actor utilized the affordances of digital visualizing technologies in order to position itself as a viable and competitive alternative to existing nation-states—as both a destination for migration and a legitimate threat to the established political order. This realization has implications for terrorism studies as well as for the visual politics of non-state actors operating in an era of intense mediatization. |
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| ISSN: | 1556-1836 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09546553.2019.1585818 |