Competitive Jihadism: Understanding the Survival Strategies of Jihadist De Facto States

Abstract

The debates dealing with ISIS address the questions of how ISIS is conceptualized, what its aim is, and how it has successfully retained a core sovereignty zone. This study attempts to answer these questions by proposing that ISIS is a de facto state and uses jihadism as a survival strategy. The term ‘competitive jihadism’ is used to argue that ISIS competes with its metropole states, Syria and Iraq, on the basis of jihadism. This is a deliberate strategy, which aims to attract Muslims inclined to radicalization as well as to recruit foreign fighters by showing the jihadist deficits of the metropole states. As the research shows, ISIS is successful at this game and has become a magnet for foreign fighters. Thus, it is able to increase its military capabilities and continue to survive.

Keywords

• De facto states,competitive jihadism,ISIS,foreign fighters

References

1. Barrett, Richard. Foreign Fighters: An Updated Assessment of the Flow of Foreign Fighters into Syria and Iraq. New York: The Soufan Group, 2015.
2. Bloom, Mia. Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
3. Bunzel, Cole. “From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State.” Analysis Paper No. 19, The Brooking Project on U.S. Relations With the Islamic World, Washington DC, 2015.
4. Caspersen, Nina. Unrecognized States. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012.
5. Cronin, Audrey K. “How al-Qaida Ends: The Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups.” International Security 31, no.1 (2006): 7-48.
6. Cronin, Audrey K. “ISIS Is Not a Terrorist Group: Why Counterterrorism won't Stop the Latest Jihadist Threat.” Foreign Affairs 94, no. 2 (2015): 87-90.
7. Dodwell, Brian, Daniel Milton, and Don Rassler. “Caliphate’s Global Workforce: An inside Look at the Islamic State’s Foreign Fighter Paper Trail.” CTS Reports, Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, Zurich, April 2016.
8. Dunning, Tristan. Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy. London: Routledge, 2016.

9. Engel, Pamela. “ISIS has Found a Huge Moneymaking Method That's Impervious to Sanctions and Air Raids.” Business Insider, December 2, 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-taxation-extortion-system-2015-12.
10. Fedorov, Egor. “The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham: The Group’s Nation-Building Project through the Instrumental Use of Violence.” McGill Journal of Political Studies 7 (2016): 32-9.
11. Feldman, Nadan. “How ISIS Became the World’s Richest Terror Group.” Haaretz, November 10, 2015. Accessed April 23, 2017. http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/isis/1.686287.
12. Hashim, Ahmed S. “The Islamic State: From al-Qaeda Affiliate to Caliphate: The Evolution of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).” Middle East Policy Journal 11, no. 4 (2014): 69-83.
13. Kingston, Paul, “States within States: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives.” In States within States: Incipient Political Entities in the Post-Cold War Era, edited by Paul Kingston and Ian Spears, 1-13. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
14. Kirdar, M. J. “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Case Study Number 1, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, June 2011.
15. Krasner, Stephen. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
16. Kolstø, Pål. “The Sustainability and Future of Unrecognized Quasi-States.” Journal of Peace Research 43, no. 6 (2006): 723-40.
17. Kydd, Andrew H., and Barbara F. Walter. “The Strategies of Terrorism.” International Security 31, no.1 (2006): 49-80.
18. Margvelashvili, Kristine, and Aslı Elitsoy. “Regional Implications of the Al-Qaeda-ISIL Struggle." Turkish Policy Quarterly 14, no. 3 (2015): 81-90.
19. Moghadam, Assaf. “Strategy, not Ideology, Differentiates ISIS from Al-Qaida.” The Jerusalem Post, February 12, 2016. Accessed June 15, 2017. http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Strategy-not-Ideology-Differentiates-ISIS-from-Al-Qaida-444710.
20. Nemeth, Stephen. “The Effect of Competition on Terrorist Group Operations.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58, no. 2 (2014): 336-62.
21. Özpek, Burak Bilgehan. “The Role of Democracy in the Recognition of De Facto States.” Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations 20, no. 4 (2014): 585-99.
22. Pegg, Scott. International Society and the De Facto State. Brookfield: Ashgate, 1998.
23. Rane Halim. “Reformulating Jihad in the Context of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: A Theoretical Framework.” Global Change, Peace & Security 19, no. 2 (2007): 127-47.
24. Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital and the European States: AD 990-1992. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
25. Young, Joseph K., and Laura Dugan. “Survival of the Fittest: Why Terrorist Groups Endure.” Perspectives on Terrorism 8, no. 2 (2014).