Resolving Jihadist Conflicts? Religion, Civil War, and Prospects for Peace

How does different governing strategies by Salafi-Jihadi rebel groups affect civil resistance? In the project's latest publication in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence, Matthew Bamber and Isak Svensson compare three Salafi-Jihadi groups in the Syrian civil war, IS, HTS, and Ahrar al-Sham, and the civil resistance against their rule by the local population.

The authors find that depending on the level of rebel collaboration, civilian inclusion, alliance structure, and repression, different political opportunities are available to the population. A mid-range type of governance across these four platforms provide the most space for civil resistance,

You can find the full article available though open access by visiting https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2021.2019023

Our team member, Matthew Bamber, has published an empirical article on IS civilian employees in the CTC Sentinel. “Without Us, There Would Be No Islamic State” examines the role civilians played in the Caliphate. Through interviews it sheds light on different categories of employees; their positions, benefits and how they joined and left their employment.

“Without Us, There Would Be No Islamic State:” The Role of Civilian Employees in the Caliphate – Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Abstract: In its state-building project, the Islamic State had to rely extensively on civilian employees to staff its governing institutions. But despite the importance of these civilian employees to the Islamic State, there has been relatively little scholarship published on their role, and there h...

“Religion, Conflict and Global Society – A Festschrift Celebrating Mark Juergensmeyer”, edited by project leader Isak Svensson and core group member Mona Kanwal Sheikh, is now out! 22 leading scholars have contributed to the book, and it is available for free to anyone and everyonehttps://pure.diis.dk/ws/files/4345452/Religion_Conflict_and_Global_Society_Festschrift_DIIS_Book_May_21.pdf

The official book-launch will take place online on May 27th, welcome to join us at: https://www.diis.dk/en/event/book-launch-festschrift-mark-juergensmeyer

Core group member Mark Juergensmeyer is a world-renowned scholar, who has been a pioneer within the fields of global studies, conflict research and religious studies and whose methods have inspired integrated and multidisciplinary approaches to understanding globalization, peace and conflict as well as religious violence.
On the occasion of Mark retirement, the Danish Institute for International Studies and Uppsala University have come together to create a festschrift in cooperation with twenty-two leading scholars from around the globe. “Religion, Conflict and Global Society – A Festschrift Celebrating Mark Juergensmeyer”, edited by Mona Kanwal Sheikh and Isak Svensson, is launched on Thursday 27 May, 18.00-19.30, online via Zoom.

Book-launch: Festschrift for Mark Juergensmeyer This webinar launches the publication “Religion, Conflict and Global Society – A Festschrift Celebrating Mark Juergensmeyer” edited by Mona Kanwal Sheikh and Isak Svensson. Some of the distinguished contributors and Mark Juergensmeyer will address the themes that the book takes up, such as con...

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To acknowledge this, project leader Professor Isak Svensson hosts a podcasts, Researching Peace, where he together with guests discusses various topics of conflict research. In the second episode, he is joined by core group member Mimmi Söderberg-Kovacs and Govinda Clayton, on the topic of the divide between research and policy - and how it can be bridged. The podcast is also available on Apple Podcast and Google Podcasts.

Bridging the Gap: Research & Policy Listen to this episode from Researching Peace - a podcast from Uppsala University on Spotify. Is there a divide between research and policy? If so, how does this gap manifest itself? In this episode, Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs -Head of Research at the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA)- and Govinda Clayton...

“What kind of peace has emerged in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines after the 2014 peace agreement?” Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs (Folke Bernadotte Academy), Mélida Jiménez (Folke Bernadotte Academy) and Kristine Höglund’s (Uppsala University) article on the prospects of sustainable peace and development in the Bangsamoro Region is now published and available online.

Autonomous Peace? The Bangsamoro Region in the Philippines Beyond the 2014 Agreement - Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs, Kristine Höglund, Mélida Jiménez, 2021 What kind of peace has emerged in the Bangsamoro region in the Philippines after the 2014 peace agreement? And how does it matter for the prospects of sustainab...

As one of his final acts on foreign policy, president Trump placed the Houthi movement on the list of designated terrorist groups. Read Professor Isak Svensson and Associate Professor Magnus Lundgren’s analysis on how this move may affect the prospects for peace in Yemen.

Trump’s Legacy in Yemen: Why Terrorist Listing May Jeopardize Peace Talks – Political Violence at a Glance Trump’s Legacy in Yemen: Why Terrorist Listing May Jeopardize Peace Talks Houthis protest against airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Sana’a in September 2015. Photo courtesy of Henry Ridgwell via VOA. BypoliticalviolenceataglanceJanuary 25, 2021 By Isak Svensson and guest contributor Magnu...

“It is a frequent characteristic of terrorist acts to choose a time and place of significance.” Read core group member Professor Mark Juergensmeyer’s take on the assault on the US capitol, and why it was an act of terrorism.
http://juergensmeyer.org/why-the-capitol-assault-was-terrorism/

Project leader Prof. Isak Svensson and Daniel Finnbogason’s article “Confronting the caliphate? Explaining civil resistance in jihadist proto-states” has now been published and is available in Open Access. The article is a contribution to the growing research on civil resistance and rebel governance, now also incorporating research on terrorism. In this comparative analysis of three jihadist proto-states, the authors argue that civil resistance is dependent on the jihadists’ governing strategies and the social structures for mobilization. To download the article, please, follow this link:

Confronting the caliphate? Explaining civil resistance in jihadist proto-states - Isak Svensson, Daniel Finnbogason, 2020 Research has shown the potential of nonviolent civil resistance in challenging autocratic state regimes (e.g. Sharp, 1973; Chenoweth and Stephan, 2011). Yet, li...

Today we are happy to celebrate our core group member, Professor Mark Juergensmeyer, who turns 80. A pioneer in the study of religion, conflict and global society, Professor Juergensmeyer has inspired researchers for decades, and continues to do so today. We celebrate Professor Juergensmeyer with a forthcoming festschrift, published at DISS, which is an edited volume with leading scholars writing on religion, conflict and global society.
https://pure.diis.dk/ws/files/3789018/Abstract_DIIS_Book_Festschrift_Mark_Juergensmeyer_Nov_2020.pdf

Please also read the interview with Mona Kanwal Sheikh giving a portrait over Mark Juergensmeyer.

Tribute to a pioneer of the academic fields of religious violence and Global Studies: Mark Juergensmeyer turns 80 Mark Juergensmeyer seemed to stumble on to one of the most important research fields today: religious violence. 27 years after publishing a groundbreaking book on religion, secularism and violence, his work, and not least his approach, has influenced many researchers, including DIIS researcher Mona....

“The surprising decline of international mediation in armed conflicts”. In this new publication, Dr. Magnus Lundgren and our project leader, Professor Isak Svensson, identify and investigate a fundamental puzzle in contemporary mediation of armed conflicts: while the capacity to mediate has increased over the last years, the number of mediated conflicts has actually decreased. In particular, they argue that this decline can be explained by a mismatch between supply and demand in the international mediation ‘market’. The publication is available in Open Access. To download the article, please, follow this link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2053168020917243

Today, we had the honor to welcome Dr. Ibrahim Fraihat to the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, where he presented his new book “Iran and Saudi Arabia: Taming a Chaotic Conflict”. The book argues that, in contrast to conventional wisdom that the rift between the two countries is primordial, inevitable and driven by sectarian tension, rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran is possible and it sets out a realistic agenda for managing their intractable conflict. His research shows that effective peacebuilding would be achievable if the participating countries integrated their diplomatic efforts on three levels: government, Track Two and grassroots. We would like to express our gratitude to Ibrahim for the interesting presentation and the discussion on this important topic.