Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

This chapter is a contribution to the debate on information resilience and national security from the perspective of countering violent Islamist extremism in the arc of instability. The narratives crafted by various violent Islamist extremists are a form of information resilience, but in this case, they act as counterforces, hindering state efforts to prepare for ...

The development of social media technologies has had a significant impact on individuals, organizations and societies. However, social media has not only affected people and communities, but also terrorist organizations have started to use social media platforms effectively. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( ISIS ) is one such group that actively utilizes social media. ...

ISIS has seemingly been successful in mobilizing advocates from heterogenous backgrounds. Such diversity is symptomatic of the organization’s heavy investment in strategic messaging and identity construction to gain legitimacy. This study examined the multimodal discursive properties of ISIS’s narrative in its communique, Dabiq. It undertook a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of the representation of in-group and ...

As the field of terrorism studies evolves, there continues to be increasing interest in how the Internet and social media platforms are impacting extremist groups, militant movements, and individual radicalisation to violence. Especially with the rise of the Islamic State, and the migration of tens of thousands of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq, there ...

Social media platforms play a key role in fostering the outreach of extremism by influencing the views, opinions, and perceptions of people. These platforms are increasingly exploited by extremist elements for spreading propaganda, radicalizing, and recruiting youth. Hence, research on extremism detection on social media platforms is essential to curb its influence and ill effects. ...

VOX-Pol Blog Post. ...

The Internet and online spaces have come to play a significant role in discussions over both terrorism and methods to counter it. Recent events have highlighted the role that such online spaces and networks can play in irregular violence. The growth of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria came with a canon of slick ...

This investigation employs the analytical framework established by Braddock and Horgan to conduct a comprehensive content analysis of 79 official English-language propaganda videos disseminated by ISIS, with the objective of quantifying the thematic composition and the evolutionary trajectory of ISIS’s international media operations and propaganda machinery from 2014 to 2017. The findings reveal that a ...

Scholars have increasingly sought commonalities among Islamist radical groups, such as ISIS and Boko Haram, despite their ideological differences. The purpose of this qualitative study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of both ISIS and Boko Haram’s digital campaigns to identify similarities and differences in the content of their digital messaging. Adopting reflexive thematic analysis ...

VOX-Pol Blog post. ...