Violence and Security

Think Tank Essay Gives Chilling Narration of Origins and Rise of IS's Supreme Commander

September 04, 2015

A newly released essay on the biography of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ruler of the Islamic State ("IS"), is a chilling narrative window into the totalitarian worldview, brutal alliance-making, and lethal military approach of the self-styled caliph's successful strategy for building a global Islamist caliphate centered in Iraq and Syria.
Islamic State's Totalitarianism on Display in Social Media Posts on Chemical Weapons and Candy

September 04, 2015

The Islamic State's ("IS") online propaganda machine reflects the totalitarian ideology and practices of the group's approach to building a transnational sharia caliphate, with recent social media proclamations running the surreal gamut from justification (and admissions) of the use of chemical weapons in the war in Syria to instructions on candies permissible according to Islamic law.
IS Uses Economic Persecution to Expand Caliphate

September 04, 2015

On-the-ground reports from Iraq and Syria detail how Islamic State ("IS") militants are using economic persecution, including dual price structures and access to basic foodstuffs and jobs, as a population-control mechanism, a wealth-extraction policy, and a coercive recruitment tool to expand the resources and territory of their Islamic caliphate.
Militant Islamists Strike African Union Peacekeepers in Somalia

September 02, 2015

In their ongoing guerrilla war to spread sharia rule throughout Somalia and beyond, to all of East Africa, militants from al-Shabaab struck an African Union ("AU") peacekeeping base in Southern Somalia and forced a tactical retreat by the peacekeepers.
Islamic State Continues Cultural and Religious Cleansing of Syrian Sites

September 02, 2015

UN satellite imagery has confirmed that Islamic State ("IS") forces continued their cleansing rampage against Syria's religious and cultural antiquities, with the destruction of the 1st-century Roman Temple of Bel in the captured city of Palmyra the latest episode in IS's use of antiquities eradication, looting, and black-marketeering to support the expansion of the radical Islamist caliphate.
Boko Haram Pushes Caliphate War Toward Nigeria's Capital

August 31, 2015

In the wake of another lethal attack against civilian villagers in the Nigerian southern region by Boko Haram in its war to impose sharia law throughout the country, Nigerian government officials are warning that the Islamist extremist group, which has pledged allegiance to the caliphate of the Islamic State ("IS"), is beginning a push toward the country's capital.
Architect of IS Suicide Bombings Warns of Expanding Caliphate

August 31, 2015

The now-imprisoned mastermind of the Islamic State's ("IS") unrelenting campaign of suicide bombers in Iraq's capital of Baghdad warned in an interview with British media that the globalization of the Islamic caliphate "is coming" and that the last year's advances of IS cannot be undone because "the caliphate is a reality.”
Thwarted French Train Attack Points to Challenges in Understanding Tipping Points in Islamist Radicalization

August 31, 2015

Information released by Spain's intelligence agencies about the Moroccan origins and Islamist mosque visits of the perpetrator in last week's attempted terrorist attack on a French train underscores the threat assessment challenges involved in analyzing the causal connections between criminalization, socioeconomic marginalization, and radicalization amongst Spain's Muslim communities.
IS Child Brutality Aims to Make Child Jihadis

August 31, 2015

Reports from survivors and eyewitnesses are describing the Islamic State's ("IS") systematic use of torture, amputations, and brainwashing to forcibly conscript young boys in Syria and Iraq into an army of child jihadis committed to "true Islam."
Egyptian Government Crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood Reveals Radicalization of Islamist Base

August 26, 2015

Although the leadership in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") has sharply disagreed over how to respond to the al-Sisi government's crackdown against the MB, the organization's hyper-radicalized base is pressuring the leadership to endorse a strategy for the violent overthrow of the government as part of the jihadi project of creating a transnational caliphate.