42 Items

La Djihad et La Mort, Olivier Roy, Seuil Publishers

Seuil Publishers

News

Event Podcast: Olivier Roy "Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of the Islamic State"

    Author:
  • Olivier Roy
| February 2, 2017

Audio recording of a February 2, 2017 MEI Book Talk with Dr. Olivier Roy, Joint Chair Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies, Chair in Mediterranean Studies, European University Institute on his most recent book Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of the Islamic State.

Smoke rises as Daesh's hand made bombs are being detonated in Jarabulus, Syria.

Getty Images/Anadolu Agency

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Statecraft lessons from Northern Syria

| August 31, 2016

"The unprecedented combination of political chaos, cross-cutting military confrontations, and strategic contradictions in northern Syria reached a record-setting point two days ago. That was when Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, and the Department of Defense (DoD) said, 'we call on all armed actors to stand down and take appropriate measures to deconflict and open channels of communication.'"

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Popular Mobilisation units pose with a Islamic State (IS) group flag on March 3, 2016, during an operation in the desert of Samarra aimed at retaking areas from IS jihadists.

Getty Images/Ahmad Al-Rubaye

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Anticipate a globalized Islamist virtual gangster cult

| June 8, 2016

"The challenge of identifying and containing IS members in Europe or elsewhere who may be planning terror attacks is much more difficult today than was the (ongoing) counter-terrorism fight against Al-Qaeda during the past quarter century, for two main reasons. Deteriorating economic and political conditions in dozens of countries expands the pool of recruits, and, thousands of European recruits who have been thoroughly trained, indoctrinated, and given battlefield experience in the “Islamic State” return home with greater capabilities than earlier waves of terrorists..."

A fighter belonging to Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army) runs to take cover near the frontline on March 14, 2016 in the neighbourhood of Jobar, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Getty Images / Amer Almohibany

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Russia, Palmyra, and the Syrian kaleidoscope

| March 30, 2016

"The most useful analogy to describe the situation in Syria that keeps changing by the week is that of a kaleidoscope. With every turn, the elements comprising the image within the kaleidoscope change shape, place, and color— but they always end up in some kind of balanced relationship that gives the whole image integrity, symmetry and some temporary permanence. This is Syria today with its dozens of major political and military elements that change positions but always result in some kind of temporary balance of power..."

People hold up a banner as a mark of solidarity at the Place de la Bourse following attacks on March 22, 2016 in Brussels, Belgium.

Getty Images / Carl Court

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

The painful lessons of Brussels seem hard to learn, so they continue

| March 29, 2016

"Hundreds of thousands of desperate and dehumanized individuals transform their former local grumblings or security-forced passivity into a growing global network of terrorists and anarchists whose numbers are beyond the capacity of any intelligence system’s ability to monitor, arrest, prevent, or shut down."

Iraqi security forces stand next to their vehicles as they clear al-Sajarya district on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, on January 17, 2016, a few weeks after declaring victory against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Getty Images/M. Al-Dulaimi

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Think again, guys…’bomb away’ is not an effective policy

| January 16, 2016

"The main problem is that foreign military actions tend to achieve exactly the opposite of the intended goals. Military assaults against terror groups, resistance movements, and just plain old civilian demonstrators or non-violent rebels — whether carried out by local governments or foreign powers, or both — tend to harden and expand the resolve of those who challenge the states in question..."

Audio

Podcast: "Security States, Failed States, Islamic States: The Causes and Consequences of the Crisis of Arab Statehood" with Rami Khouri

| December 22, 2015

An audio recording of a public talk by Rami Khouri, MEI Non-Resident Senior Fellow; Senior Fellow, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy, American University of Beirut; Syndicated Columnist.

Report - Middle East Initiative, Belfer Center

The Crisis of the Arab State

August 11, 2015

During the spring 2015 semester, Professor Michael C. Hudson assembled eight leading Middle East scholars under the auspices of the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to participate in a study group titled Rethinking the Arab State: the Collapse of Legitimacy in Arab Politics. Over the course of the semester these experts used a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to  analyze the crisis of legitimacy of the Arab state in the wake of the 2011 uprisings.