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"Islamic weapons"
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Weapon of the Strong? Government Support for Religion and Majoritarian Terrorism
This article addresses a puzzle in terrorism studies. That terrorism functions as a “weapon of the weak” is conventional wisdom among terrorism researchers. When it comes to religious communities, however, often it is those groups favored by the state—rather than repressed minority communities—that commit acts of terrorism. We argue that this is because official religious favoritism can empower and radicalize majority communities, leading them to commit more and more destructive terrorist attacks. We test this claim using a statistical analysis of Muslim-majority countries. Our findings support the idea that the combination of state support of religion and discrimination against minorities encourages terrorism from majority religious groups.
Journal Article
Islamic arms and armour
\"The Royal Armouries' collection of Islamic arms and armour is one of the finest in the world. This introductory book showcases the arms and armour of the medieval and early modern periods, where a rich and vibrant diversity of military cultures existed in the Ottoman Empire, Arabia, North Africa, Persia, Afghanistan, India and Indonesia.This book is part of a series of introductions to aspects of the Royal Armouries' collection of arms and armour.\" --Publisher description.
Book
Losing an enemy : Obama, Iran, and the triumph of diplomacy
The definitive book on President Obama's historic nuclear deal with Iran from the U.S. foreign policy expert and acclaimed author of Treacherous Alliance.
In Losing an Enemy, Middle East policy expert Trita Parsi examines President Obama's strategy toward Iran's nuclear program and reveals how the historic agreement of 2015 broke the persistent stalemate in negotiations that had blocked earlier efforts. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, accomplished two major feats in one stroke: it averted the threat of war with Iran and prevented the possibility of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
Parsi advised the Obama White House throughout the talks and had access to decision-makers and diplomats on the U.S. and Iranian sides alike. With his unique insight, he examines every facet of a triumph that could become as important and consequential as Nixon's rapprochement with China. Drawing from more than seventy-five in-depth interviews with key decision-makers, including Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, this is the first authoritative account of President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement.
\"A detailed and gripping account of the 22 months of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program that resulted in the 2015 deal.\"—John Waterbury, Foreign Affairs
eBook
Lessons not learned: Ten years of French military intervention in the Sahel
The end of Operation Barkhane in the Sahel in 2022 raises many questions about French foreign policy in Africa. Yet the government has stifled public debate by insisting on the urgency of other wars in the world. As for the Members of Parliament, they never demanded an inquiry into the setbacks of France’s biggest overseas military operation since the Algerian war. Clearly, lessons were not learned. This article reviews the arguments and the political, military, historical and cultural reasons that led the Elysée to conceal, or even deny, a failure that also resulted in a loss of influence in its Francophone ‘preserve’ and among European Union partners who had overestimated the former colonial power’s ability to solve crises south of the Sahara. Blaming others, conspiracy theories and complaints about a lack of resources or the restrictions of international mandates to fight a global war on terror’ were part of the rhetorical weapons used to counter criticism, while some claimed that the end of Operation Barkhane was only a political defeat but not a military one.
Journal Article
Crossing the red line
The use of chemical weapons in the armed conflict in Syria has attracted universal and widespread condemnation and has led to unified responses by various international bodies. This article examines the international community's responses to chemical weapons use in Syria from the perspective of international law. It also analyzes the potential options for accountability that are available for chemical weapons-related crimes. The intention is ultimately to make the case that the special status the international community has ascribed to chemical weapons crimes could be harnessed to create an accountability mechanism, such as an ad hoc tribunal, that could help pave the complex road towards a negotiated peace.
Journal Article
The persistence of organized crime in post-caliphate Iraq: a case of crime-terror convergence?
In the advancing understanding of the crime-terror nexus, organized crime and terrorist entities are increasingly seen as capable of pursuing multiple agendas simultaneously, with the potential to ultimately reach convergence. Applying Makarenko’s theoretical work on crime-terror convergence, this article sets out to explain the persistence of organized crime in Iraq after the fall of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Caliphate, based on a literature study and three expert interviews. The vacuum caused by the Caliphate’s fall led to fierce competition between remnants of ISIS and Iran-backed Shia factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and a rearrangement of control over ISIS’ criminal enterprise. The Iraq-Syria border is used as a hub for the smuggling of weapons, drugs, oil, and people by both the ISIS remnants and the Shia PMF factions, while the border areas and roads leading to Baghdad are focal points for imposing illicit taxation. We argue that in post-Caliphate Iraq, ISIS remnants can be seen as hybrid criminal-political entities, while the Shia PMF factions cannot be defined as such in a definite manner. In their competition for power, both actors exploit local idiosyncrasies to garner support among the local population. By strengthening both their criminal and ideological-political components, these actors continue to destabilize the already fragile Iraqi state. Moreover, because Iran-backed Shia PMF factions obtained legitimacy and state backing as liberators from ISIS and became embedded in the Iraqi state apparatus, the state itself became a crucial contributor to the crime-terror nexus in post-Caliphate Iraq.
Journal Article