RT Article
T1 Universal soldiers or parochial actors: understanding jihadists as products of their environments
JF Terrorism and political violence
VO 31
IS 2
SP 299
OP 322
A1 Tankel, Stephen
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1870234200
AB 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.
NO Gesehen am 14.11.2023
NO Published online: 07 Sep 2016
K1 Al Qaeda
K1 Counterterrorism
K1 Islamic State
K1 Jihadism
K1 Middle East
K1 South Asia
K1 Terrorism
K1 Typology
DO 10.1080/09546553.2016.1219725