Periodic Reporting for period 3 - TRANSJIHAD (Explaining Transnational Jihad - Patterns of Escalation and Containment)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-02-29
This ERC research project has to two main objectives:
1. To empirically investigate how jihadist conflicts become transnational and under what circumstances they can be contained.
2. To theoretically synthesize relevant approaches from Religious Studies, Security Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies in order to investigate different dimensions of transnationalization of jihadist conflicts. This implies combining quantitative data and qualitative methods.
In various regions of the world, we continue to see a rapid spillover of jihadist violence from one country to a neighboring country, often attracting both foreign state intervention and foreign fighters from different parts of the world. These contemporary trends point at the urgent need to understand the dynamics behind the transnational “potential” of jihadist conflicts, and ways to derail or even prevent escalation.
1. To empirically investigate how jihadist conflicts become transnational and under what circumstances they can be contained.
2. To theoretically synthesize relevant approaches from Religious Studies, Security Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies in order to investigate different dimensions of transnationalization of jihadist conflicts. This implies combining quantitative data and qualitative methods.
In various regions of the world, we continue to see a rapid spillover of jihadist violence from one country to a neighboring country, often attracting both foreign state intervention and foreign fighters from different parts of the world. These contemporary trends point at the urgent need to understand the dynamics behind the transnational “potential” of jihadist conflicts, and ways to derail or even prevent escalation.
The project team has focused on:
- examining the quantitative aspects of transnationalized jihadist conflicts, identifying trends across conflict zones
- theological aspects of transnational jihad
- theory-development on jihadism as a conflict-constellation
- theory-development on worldview-analysis in relation to jihadist conflicts.
The project team has collaborations with researchers and projects at Global Studies at University of California Santa Barbara, the Divinity School at Harvard University, The Peace and Conflict Studies Department at Uppsala University, Political Science at Aarhus University, and PRIO in Oslo.
- examining the quantitative aspects of transnationalized jihadist conflicts, identifying trends across conflict zones
- theological aspects of transnational jihad
- theory-development on jihadism as a conflict-constellation
- theory-development on worldview-analysis in relation to jihadist conflicts.
The project team has collaborations with researchers and projects at Global Studies at University of California Santa Barbara, the Divinity School at Harvard University, The Peace and Conflict Studies Department at Uppsala University, Political Science at Aarhus University, and PRIO in Oslo.
We expect the transdiciplinary approach to be fruitful for the new avenues for containment thinking that we are trying to cultivate. Our ambition for the rest of the research period is to work on generating common results based on the work we have done on transnationalization trends, theological trends, and the novel frameworks for thinking about jihadism as a particular form of conflict constellation and worldview. Our close dialogue with practitioners within the fields of mediation, defence and P/CVE we expect will strengthen the research impact of our findings and improve the practical relevance of our research focus.