Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate
September 18, 2023
Islamic State stunned the world when it overran an area the size of Britain on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border in a matter of weeks and proclaimed the birth of a new Caliphate. In this timely and important book, Abdel Bari Atwan draws on his unrivalled knowledge of the global jihadi movement and Middle ...
#FailedRevolutions: Using Twitter to study the antecedents of ISIS support
September 18, 2023
Lately, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has managed to control large parts of Syria and Iraq. To better understand the roots of support for ISIS, we present a study using Twitter data. We collected a large number of Arabic tweets referring to ISIS and classified them as pro-ISIS or anti-ISIS. We then ...
Boko Haram and the Discourse of Mimicry: a Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Explanations for Boko Haram’s Improved Video Propaganda Quality
September 18, 2023
The Nigeria-based violent non-state actor Boko Haram is increasingly reported on in the news media in relation to the Islamic State, another, more prominent, violent non-state actor. In particular, these comparisons have been drawn within the context of reports on Boko Haram’s recent improvement in video propaganda quality. While the associations with the Islamic State ...
Syria’s Electronic Armies
September 18, 2023
Over the last four years as the Syrian uprising has grown into a full-blown civil war, a sinister parallel conflict has been fought out in cyberspace, with combatants wielding bytes and software rather than guns as they have battled for supremacy on Syria’s internet frontline. But the consequences of this secret cyber war have been ...
#Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks
September 18, 2023
This is the first in a series of papers that draws on information from this database. It examines the question of how foreign fighters in Syria receive information about the conflict and who inspires them. ...
Response on Paris Attacks – with Charlie Winter
September 18, 2023
17 November: In the wake of November’s deadly attacks in Paris, Charlie Winter (Georgia State University) gives a preview of a forthcoming Legatum Institute report, of which he is co-author, that looks at the role of the internet in transforming disinformation and propaganda from groups such as ISIS. More information: http://www.li.com/events/propaganda-a… ...
EU Ministers of the Interior and/or Justice, Joint Statement
September 18, 2023
A joint statement issued following a meeting of the ministers of the interior in Paris regarding the Charlie Hebdo attacks. ...
The Web is a Terrorist’s Command-and-Control Network of Choice
September 18, 2023
People do not want social media platforms to facilitate murder, writes Robert Hannigan ...
Why Terrorists Weep: The Socio-Cultural Practices of Jihadi Militants
September 18, 2023
Paul Wilkinson Memorial Lecture, University of St. Andrews, 16 April 2015 ...
ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa
September 18, 2023
ƒWhile not as large as in many other Western countries, ISIS-related mobilization in the United States has been unprecedented. As of the fall of 2015, U.S. authorities speak of some 250 Americans who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria/Iraq to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and 900 active investigations ...