The terror experts and the mainstream media: the expert nexus and its dominance in the news media
Academic writing on ‘terrorism’ and the availability to the mainstream media and policy-makers of terror ‘experts’ have increased exponentially since 11 September 2001. This paper examines the rise of terror expertise and its use in one particular public arena – the mainstream news media. ...
Explaining the variation and contestation of P/ CVE policies around the world: a public policy approach
In this article, I propose a theoretical framework that provides a new perspective on the variation and contestation of P/CVE (Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism) policies in the world. Drawing on the public policy literature, I argue that P/CVE emerged in response to the policy probl...
Sanctions and Stigma: Regional and Global Ordering in the Gulf Crisis
The Gulf Crisis (2017-21) witnessed Qatar facing sanctions by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain, selfproclaimed as the ‘Anti-Terror Quartet.’ Accusing Qatar of sponsoring Islamist terrorism, the Quartet broke diplomatic relations with Doha and imposed an embargo. In reac...
The construction of threats by intelligence agencies: analysing the language of official documents in Slovakia
Intelligence agencies play a prominent role in the production of knowledge about national security threats and their evaluation. This function is not just a value-neutral technical activity, but a social and political action. The purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which the Slovak Inf...
Whiteness as expertise in studies of the far right
This article addresses backlash from white academic gatekeepers to research on the white far right and white supremacist violence. Centrally, I interrogate how whiteness shapes the field’s response to a seeming shift in patterns of political violence towards white supremacist activity. Taking ...
Whiteness as expertise in studies of the far right
This article addresses backlash from white academic gatekeepers to research on the white far right and white supremacist violence. Centrally, I interrogate how whiteness shapes the field’s response to a seeming shift in patterns of political violence towards white supremacist activity. Taking ...
Reiteration or reinvention? Jihadi governance and gender practices in the Sahel
Can focusing on gender help us to better understand the mobilization capacity of jihadi insurgent groups and their social roots in the Sahel? A growing literature has explored the factors that motivate people to join such groups in Africa. The Sahel provides a salient case, but the prevalent foc...
Foreshadowing Terror: Exploring the Time of Online Manifestos Prior to Lone Wolf Attacks
Previous research has highlighted the prominent behavior of lone wolf terrorists to produce and share a manifesto publicly, outlining their frustrations and motivations for their eventual terrorist attack. This article aims to explore this phenomenon, focusing on the timelapse between when a terrori...
Does Sharia Act as both a mediator and moderator in Salafi radicalism?
Salafi extremism, embraced by organizations such as the Islamic State, is a global religion-invoking phenomenon whose primary cause is not clearly elucidated in the literature. Unlike most existing models or explanations of terrorism that attempt to explain stages or factors associated with the radi...
How authoritarian rulers seek to legitimize repression: framing mass killings in Egypt and Uzbekistan
How do authoritarian rulers legitimate repressive actions against their own citizens? Although most research depicts repression and legitimation as opposed strategies of political rule, justified coercion against some groups may generate legitimacy in the eyes of other parts of the population. Build...
Perceptions of pesantren leaders towards Islamic moderation approaches in combating radicalism and terrorism
islamic moderation has become a crucial response to radicalism and terrorism, reinforcing the understanding of islam as a religion that upholds justice, balance, and peace. this study explores the pivotal role of pesantren (islamic boarding school) leaders, who act as custodians of islamic texts...
The Forest of Reasons: Toward Contextualised Explanations of Gendercide Against Civilian Men and Boys in Conflict Settings
It is now established in conflict studies that, more than women and girls, civilian men and boys are often targeted for elimination in conflict settings. However, existing explanations of gendercide against noncombatant men and boys in conflict settings tend to propose a single cause – namely, tha...
Exploring the impacts of artificial intelligence on freedom of religion or belief online
Freedom of religion or belief is an essential right for building pluralistic and tolerant societies which can sustain a multiplicity of competing ideas. However, the opaqueness of artificial intelligence systems on the Internet represents a challenge to the protection and enjoyment of this and o...
Understanding the resurgence of the Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan
Since its major military operation “Rah-e-Rast” in Swat in 2009, Pakistan has achieved significant success reducing terrorist attacks despite the period between 2008 and 2014 being intense in terms of terrorist incidents in Pakistan. For example, there were 2,347 terrorism-related incidents reco...
Contested Narratives, Ambiguous Impacts and Democratic Dilemmas: The Western News Media and the “War on Terror”
Because the essence of terrorism is to produce a psychological impact far greater than its physical impact, the relationship of contemporary international terrorism with the news media has often been called symbiotic, with publicity described as the oxygen on which terrorism lives. Although this vie...
Constructing meaning of military failure: the Afghanistan war in Scandinavian public debates following withdrawal
In August 2021, Western troops withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. This article studies how the war was ascribed meaning in public debates in Norway, Sweden and Denmark and whether their self-image as do-gooders was disrupted in the immediate aftermath. An analysis of a selection of med...
Pragmatic persuasion in counterterrorism
This article approaches a hitherto understudied topic in counterterrorism discourse, namely argumentative speech, as it relates to measures impacting on human rights. Frame analysis is applied for the first time in this area to statements and other types of ‘public speech’ communicated by the...
Hybridity and Friction in Organizational Politics: New Perspectives on the African Security Regime ComplexHybridity and Friction in Organizational Politics: New Perspectives on the African Security Regime Complex
Security governance in Africa constitutes a web of interactions between national, regional, and international organizations. This emerging ‘African security regime complex’ receives growing attention in International Relations debates on international organizations (IOs). Most analysis, howe...
Crossing Borders: Climate Change and the Policy Implications for Regional Security Cooperation in Africa
Climate change is increasingly recognised as a critical factor in shaping national security dynamics. Africa, despite having the lowest per capita green gas emissions, is highly vulnerable to climate-related risks. Existing studies have primarily focused on the impacts of climate change on food, wat...
Vulnerability to radicalisation in a general population: a psychometric network approach
A public health approach to countering the threat from extremism aims to manage vulnerability before behaviour escalates to require involvement from the criminal justice system. Fundamental to applying a public health approach is understanding how risk (and protective) factors can be modified, in ot...
Deferring substance: EU policy and the information threat
The article describes EU cross-sectoral policy work on online information threats, focusing on the intersection between values and 'referent objects'. Examining discussions on strategic communication, censorship, media literacy and media pluralism, two value-perspectives were identi f ...
Swedish intelligence, Russia and the war in Ukraine: anticipations, course, and future implications
As the sole plausible military threat facing Sweden, the Soviet Union and then Russia have consistently been at the top of Swedish intelligence collection priorities. In fact, understanding Russia and its military forces well is a source of pride and self-perceived comparative advantage of the S...
Mosaic; counter-insurgency approaches and the war against the Islamic state in Mozambique
Following the defeat in Afghanistan there have been several discussions over the failure of western and western allied counter-insurgency strategies. These discussions often assume that winning a counter-insurgency is dependent on choosing the right strategy to win, and ideal type strategies are...
Weaknesses of wickedness: a critical perspective on wickedness theory
It is attractive to frame societal challenges such as climate change, terrorism and migration as ‘wicked issues’. Wickedness theory in its various guises has become popular as it connects the uncertain and political nature of issues with hopeful strategies for strengthening networks, trust and l...
Leveraging social media intelligence (SOCMINT) in the African intelligence context
The development of social media has transformed human communication and altered the security landscape. Intelligence organisations must recognise this change an incorporate social media in collection and analysis. Social media’s inexpensiveness, ability to work across borders, and quick transmissi...
Musical negotiations of a ‘moderate’ versus a ‘radical’ Islam in Morocco: dissonance and the sonic among vocal performers of Islam-inspired music
This article explores how in Morocco, music is used to construct and subvert discourses on a ‘moderate’ vs. a ‘radical’ Islam. I focus on experiences and practices of vocal performers of Islam-inspired music, who operate in two different musical domains: state sponsored stages for Sufi mu...
Pushed to the edge: the consequences of the ‘Prevent Duty’ in de-radicalising pre-crime thought among British Muslim university students
This article reports on the results of a mixed-methods survey of 152 self-selecting Muslim university students sampled across a range of higher education institutions across the UK in late 2019. The study explores perceptions of the impact of the new Prevent Duty among UK Muslim students, especially...
The United States and Algeria: A New Strategic Partnership?
In contrast to the United States’ relations with neighboring Morocco and Tunisia, those with Algeria are quite complex. Although US-Algerian relations have never reached the level of hostility that characterized US dealings with Libya until 2003, they have been antagonistic from Algerian inde...
The containment of the Islamic State: A realist case to engage a hybrid actor
Next to military means, causing disruption and interdiction, Western and local powers also relied on policies of containment to halt the expansion of the Islamic State’s territorial strongholds. Yet, a Cold War state-based strategy of containment seems not apt to counter a transformed Islamic Stat...
Modelling the intelligence requirements and priorities process: the US response to the Rwandan genocide
In the US, national security outcomes tend to be categorised as either the responsibility of the intelligence or policy community. Few discuss sys temic outcomes emanating from the requirements and priorities (R&P) process, a top-level collaborative effort that determines national security o...
Strategic Theory and Practice: A Critical Analysis of the Planning Process for the Long War on Terror
The strategic performance of the United States and its allies in the Long War has been uneven over the past eight years. Important successes against al-Qaeda and other Salafist groups have been scored, but the overall approach adopted by the American government in its publicly available strategy doc...
Video games, terrorism, and ISIS’s Jihad 3.0
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In particular, the study attempts to under stand the way ISIS’s video game that is called “Salil al-Sawarem” (The Clanging of the Swords) has been received by the online Arab public. The article argues that the goal behind making and releasing the video game ...
European transnationalism between successes and shortcomings: threats, strategies and actors under the microscop
This article introduces the Special Issue ‘European transnationalism between successes and shortcomings: Threats, strategies and actors under the microscope’. Specifically, it focuses on transnationalism in terms of a key concept to be deployed while seeking to decode and evaluate EU political a...
Deferring substance: EU policy and the information threat
The article describes EU cross-sectoral policy work on online information threats, focusing on the intersection between values and 'referent objects'. Examining discussions on strategic communication, censorship, media literacy and media pluralism, two value-perspectives were identi f ...
Too Close for Comfort: Cyber Terrorism and Information Security across National Policies and International Diplomacy
This article analyses the evolution and interplay of national policies and international diplomacy on cyber terrorism within and across the UNSC’s permanent five members and the UN process on cyber norms (GGE and OEWG). First, it reveals how – through the extension of preemptive measures to ...
‘The Threat in the Hemisphere’: The Securitization Movement in the Triple Frontier and the Case of Hezbollah
In 1997, the US designated Hezbollah, a Lebanese political and armed actor, as a terrorist organization. The decision was shaped by political and economic factors and considered internationally non-consensual. Since the War on Terror began in 2001, the US has pressured Latin American countries to ad...
Populists’ struggle for epistemic hegemony and anti-gender attacks on higher education in authoritarian contexts: the case of Turkey
Focusing on the gendered modalities of the illiberal attacks on universities under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, this article explores the ways in which illiberal actors’ anti-gender ism and their quest for scientific authorization intersect in contem porary Turkey, leading to a...
The Fragility Dilemma and Divergent Security Complexes in the Sahel
Despite an exponential increase in international resources devoted to the Sahel, the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. This is largely due to the so-called “fragility dilemma”, faced by fragile states that are in critical need of external assistance, but have limited absorption c...
State responsibility and counterterrorism
It is widely thought that the international community, taken as a whole, is required to take action to prevent terrorism. Yet, what each state is required to do in this project is unclear and contested. This article examines a number of bases on which we might assign responsibilities to conduct ...
Impact of political uncertainty on stock market returns: the case of post-revolution Tunisia
This study examines whether and how political uncertainty affects the returns of the TUNINDEX index. The impact of the main political events is supported by parametric and non-parametric tests with an event-driven approach as well as regression analysis. These events are then classified into a ty...
Dogs and Cats Living Together? Explaining the Crime-Terror Nexus
Why do some terrorist groups cooperate with criminal organizations? This behavior is puzzling because there are reputational reasons for each of these kinds of groups to avoid the other, yet such cooperation seems to be increasingly common. The growing literature on the “crime-terror-nexus” exam...
After the resurgence of Talibanism theocracy: non-lethal intervention and the politics of non neutrality in Afghanistan
The 2021 Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan reversed two decades of uneven social and political progress achieved through state- building, raising critical questions about the effectiveness of international responses to authoritarian governance. This paper examines the potential of a non-lethal ...
The denying threat to national security and defense: Hezbollah’s presence in Colombia
This article critically examines Hezbollah’s presence in Colombia and evaluates whether it constitutes a strategic threat to the nation’s security and defense. Through qualitative documentary analysis, the study explores the convergence of international terrorism and transnational organized crim...
Empty Britain? Hegemony and ambiguity in British education policy
The role of schools in developing a sense of common British identity has taken centre stage in the face of ‘racialised’ accounts of violence during the twenty first century. In this paper, we argue that certain British education policy documents can be understood as hegemonic interventions seeki...
Explaining the vicious circle of political repression and islamic radicalism in Central Asia
Since gaining independence in 1991, the Central Asian Republics (CARs) have faced various political challenges, including the existence of political Islam and Islamic extremism. This issue has had a slight impact on the entire region, albeit to different extents. Various perspectives have been propo...
Toward a Strategy for Engaging a Resurgent Russia on Democracy, Human Rights, and Religious Liberty
Thepromotionofdemocracy, human rights, and religious liberty is a worthy cause. This is especially the case when a country has been identified as one of “Particular Concern.”1 However, when the regime you are engaging has invaded the territorial sovereignty of its neighbor (Ukraine, a US ...
White Jihad: How White Supremacists Adopt Jihadi Narratives, Aesthetics, and Tactics
This article explores the growing trend of “white jihad” by examining how white supremacists have incorporated jihadi language, motifs, and tactics into their ecosystem. Using observation and content analysis of various primary sources associated with the neo-Nazi movement, we highlight the core...
Implications of the New Taliban Government for the Biden Administration
The August 2021Taliban takeover of Kabul, and the prospect of Jihadi influxes from Afghanistan subject to Taliban government manipulation, elicit several international security challenges to the United States, and several international and domestic security challenges to several nation-states in clo...
The geography of pre-criminal space: epidemiological imaginations of radicalisation risk in the UK Prevent Strategy, 2007–2017
ABSTRACT This article explores geographical and epistemological shifts in the deployment of the UK Prevent strategy, 2007–2017. Counter-radicalisation policies of the Labour governments (2006–2010) focused heavily upon resilience-building activities in residential communities. They borrowed from...
The Impact of Pro-Government Militias on Human Rights Violations
New data show that between 1982 and 2007, in over 60 countries governments were linked to and cooperated with informal armed groups within their own borders. Given the prevalence of these linkages, we ask how such links between governments and infor mal armed groups influence the risk of repress...
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