The purpose of the study was to contribute to the overall understanding of terrorist organizations' use of the Internet and to increase researchers' knowledge of Web site effectiveness. The methodological approach was evaluation of the perceived credibility of Web sites based on existing criteria derived from information users. The Web sites of four terrorist organizations were assessed: two secular nationalist groups, the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers); and two religious nationalist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. The findings of this analysis showed differences in perceived credibility factors among terrorist organizations' Web sites and positive levels of perceived credibility for the Web sites. These findings indicate the potential for positive impressions of the organizations' Web sites by information users, which would help empower the organizations with the capacity to reach their objectives. By using Web sites, these groups can effectively increase their support base through disseminating information, improving recruiting, and attracting monetary contributions, and can establish themselves as legitimate components of society.

This thesis aims to study how Hezbollah acted just or unjustly in the 2006 Lebanon War to conclude if their warfare was just or unjust. That leads to a better understanding of Hezbollah's warfare in the 2006 Lebanon War and if they thereby have culpability in the war. If Hezbollah want to be taken as a serious and legitimate force in war, they should be held accountable to the same standards of warfare as states and be shown that there are consequences for their actions. The theory that will be used in order to do so, is the Just War theory. It is divided into two categories: Jus ad Bellum, the right to go to war, and Jus in Bello, the right conduct in war. Hezbollah seemed to have failed to meet the criteria of Jus ad Bellum, by failing to fulfill the criteria just cause, right intention, the proportionality of ends, and a reasonable prospect of success. They only managed to fulfill the criterion of right authority and mostly the last resort criterion, due to their constitutional right to wage war and their prior intents of a prisoner exchange. The organization also failed to meet the criteria of Jus in Bello: proportionality of means and discrimination. They had no proportionality regarding the goal, nor did they differentiate between military goals and civilians. It was therefore concluded that Hezbollah acted unjustly in the 2006 Lebanon War, by not having the right to go to war, but also because the conduct in the war was unjust as well. That contributed to the more significant understanding of Hezbollah's warfare in the 2006 Lebanon War including its culpability, and the importance of holding them accountable for their actions in war. / Krishantering och säkerhet

This study examines the decision making process in Washington which led to the current non-existence of political and economic relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States. The study examines the U.S.-Iran relationship at three levels-of-analysis: the individual, state, and system levels. From a geopolitical perspective, Iran and the United States have often been natural allies that pursued similar policy goals. After 9/11, the U.S. entered Afghanistan and Iraq which further necessitated the reengagement of Tehran. Iranian regional clout would play a vital role in stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan and without Iran's assistance; peace will not likely be realized in those states. Amongst the most compelling reasons for Washington to engage in meaningful dialogue with Tehran are: terrorism, the war on drugs, the Iranian sponsorship of militant groups, and Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear program. The study concludes that rapprochement should occur in two phases. The first being cooperation in areas of mutual concern such as the war on drugs. The second phase promoting confidence building methods, which would lead to a strategic partnership based on mutual interests.

Dans un essai qui aurait tout aussi bien pu s'intituler « L'islam chiite entre la politique et la religion, le cas du Liban », une analyse de l'islam politique demeure nécessaire pour mettre la lumière sur la différence entre islamisme et religion musulmane. Avec un peu moins de deux milliards de musulmans dans le monde, la religion musulmane est devenue la première religion pratiquée dans le monde actuel. Le dynamique de cette religion a permis la création d'un immense empire aux populations hétérogènes. Ainsi que, la coexistence entre religion et régime politique a provoquée de véritables luttes armées entre les grandes familles politico-religieuses, notamment le sunnisme et le chiisme. Le sunnisme ayant souvent l'étiquette d'orthodoxie a gardé cette aspect alors que le chiisme devint autres chose ce qu'il était à l'origine, lorsqu'on y voyait seulement le parti qui s'était rassemblé autour d'Ali ibn Abî Tâlib, cousin et gendre du prophète Mohammad. Dans ses quelques traitements de la doctrine islamique nous constatons que ces familles politico-religieuses, tant sunnites que chiites, proliférèrent les unes à côté des autres en même temps qu'elles se combattirent et souvent se condamnèrent réciproquement. Ceci est dû au fait qu'en l'islam, il n'y a jamais eu de pouvoir interprétatif qualifié, individuel ou collégial capable de s'imposer sans conteste.L'effondrement de l'Empire Ottoman donna l'occasion à la France et la Grande-Bretagne de partager le monde arabe sur la base des fameux accords Sykes-picot. La France va restructurer les territoires syrien et libanais, elle établit la structure constitutionnelle confessionnelle complexe du Liban, faisant du pays de Cèdre le plus grand laboratoire du communautarisme. Dans le Liban d'après-guerre, le communautarisme va de soi, il reflète l'état de la société et celle de la conciliation entre spécificités confessionnelle et principe fondamental de l'Etat nation. Le communautarisme libanais va évoluer à travers des mutations économiques, sociales et politiques, notamment chez la communauté chiite. Nous présenterons l'évolution de la communauté chiite dans cet environnement, ainsi que le rôle fondamental joué par Moussa el-Sadr dans la libération de la communauté chiite. Son objectif étant une réaction à la conscience politique du «Metwali». Sa première action était la lutte contre les inégalités sociales et devait s'engager avec l'Etat libanais dans une série d'affrontements qui couvraient souvent un aspect spectaculaire: grève générale en 1970, avertissement au gouvernement et à la réunion de 1974 à Baalbeck que Moussa-El -Sadr a annoncé la naissance du mouvement AMAL. Ce mouvement joue un rôle essentiel dans la vie politique libanaise. Enfin, nous consacrons une partie de ce travail à l'émergence d'une milice radicale pro-iranienne chiite, le Hezbollah, qui a pénétré le système politique libanais. Sa place est privilégiée à cause de ses succès dans la résistance contre Israël, de ses actions sociales et humaines et de ses organisations. La timide participation du « parti de Dieu » au parlement libanais constituait un premier pas vers la « libanisation » du parti. En 2012, le parti chiite annonce sa participation aux combats en Syrie à côté de l'armée de Bachar el-Assad, freinant ainsi le processus de libanisation. Le Hezbollah devient un des acteurs incontournables de la géopolitique du Moyen Orient et retourne en force sur la scène politique libanaise pour s'inscrire dans le cadre d'un chiisme politique international. / In an essay that might as well have been entitled "Shia Islam between politics and religion, the case of Lebanon", an analysis of political Islam remains necessary to shed light on the difference between Islamism and religion Muslim. With just under two billion Muslims in the world, the Muslim religion has become the first religion practiced in the world today.The dynamics of this religion allowed the creation of an immense empire with heterogeneous populations. As well as, the coexistence between religion and political regime provoked real armed struggles between the big politico-religious families, notably Sunnism and Shiism.Sunnism often had the label of orthodoxy, but Shiism became something else that it was originally when one saw only the party that had gathered around Ali ibn Abi. Tâlib, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Mohammad. In his few treatments of Islamic doctrine we find that these politico-religious families, both Sunni and Shiite, proliferated alongside each other at the same time that they fought each other and often condemned each other. This is due to the fact that in Islam there has never been a qualified, individual or collegiate interpretative power capable of imposing itself unquestionably.The collapse of the Ottoman Empire gave France and Britain the opportunity to share the Arab world on the basis of the famous Sykes-picot agreements. France will restructure the Syrian and Lebanese territories, it establishes the complex confessional constitutional structure of Lebanon, making the country of Cedar the largest laboratory of communitarianism. In post-war Lebanon, communitarianism is self-evident, reflecting the state of society and the reconciliation of confessional specificities with the fundamental principle of the nation-state. Lebanese communitarianism will evolve through economic, social and political changes, especially among the Shia community.We will present the evolution of the Shiite community in this environment, as well as the fundamental role played by Moussa el-Sadr in the liberation of the Shia community. His goal is a reaction to the political conscience of "Metwali". Its first action was the fight against social inequalities and was to engage with the Lebanese State in a series of clashes that often covered a spectacular aspect: general strike in 1970, warning to the government and to the 1974 meeting in Baalbeck that Moussa-El -Sadr announced the birth of the AMAL movement. This movement plays a vital role in Lebanese politics. Finally, we devote part of this work to the emergence of a radical pro-Iranian Shiite militia, Hezbollah, which has penetrated the Lebanese political system. His place is privileged because of his successes in the resistance against Israel, his social and human actions and his organizations. The timid participation of the "party of God" in the Lebanese parliament was a first step towards the "libanization" of the party. In 2012, the Shiite party announced its participation in the fighting in Syria next to the army of Bashar al-Assad, thus curbing the process of Lebanization. Hezbollah becomes one of the key players in the geopolitics of the Middle East and returns in force on the Lebanese political scene to be part of an international political Shiism.

This study examines the motivation factors that make some individuals (terrorists) confidential informants. The study is based on the assumptions of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theories. Accordingly, main assumption of the present study is that some individuals with unsatisfied needs in religion-abusing terrorist (RAT) networks choose to become confidential informants to satisfy their predominant needs. The main hypothesis for the purpose of this study is “The individuals’ decision-making processes to cooperate with law enforcement intelligence (LEI) as a confidential informant is affected by some motivation factors during recruitment process.” The present study tests 27 hypotheses in order to answer two main research questions. To meet its objectives the present study uses quantitative research methodology, constructs a cross-sectional research design, and employs secondary data analysis to test the hypotheses of the research questions. A dataset was formed based on official records of Turkish National Police by including all confidential informants within eight different RAT networks in Turkey. First, individual effect of each motivation factor on being a confidential informant is tested and discussed in detail. Then two group specific multivariate models for being an informant in Al-Qaeda and Turkish-Hezbollah are illustrated, compared and contrasted. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses not only revealed the extent of individual effects of motivations among RAT groups, but also helped us to build fitting multivariate models that explain the probability of being informants in certain RAT networks. By doing so, the present study aims to make contributions to the literature and practice on this relatively unexplored phenomenon. Findings indicate that while some motivation factors are common among all RAT networks, the strength and direction of their effects vary among different RAT networks.

The terrorist label became recently so widely used. It strongly influenced the language of media, politicians and society. The security discourse is seemingly dominated by the counter-terrorism policy. Both the national and international legal systems introduced laws to avert the terrorist actions. Ironically, no universal definition of terrorism has been found yet so the use of the terrorist label depends mainly on own interpretation. The thesis aims to critically analyse the terrorist label and to determine if it prevents the conflict between so called terrorists and the rest of the society from peaceful resolution. The first chapter introduces theoretical and methodological framework of the research. It is followed by the analysis of the EU's designation of Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist organization in the second chapter. A special attention is paid to the Israeli diplomatic pressure on the EU to blacklist Hezbollah which was selected as an appropriate example of the terrorist labelling.

No description available.

This study investigates Hizb'allah's successful but competing dual development as an extra-institutional Shi'a social movement and an institutional political party. Hizb'allah has traditionally been studied from the perspective of one of its many natures, such as a social movement, Islamic movement, resistance, or political party, each perspective bringing with it limitations and differing interpretations of its identity, motivations, and success. The motivation behind this research was to seek an interpretation of the movement's development and success that would encompass these multiple natures. Through an interpretation of social movement ‘life-cycles', a social movement ‘development model' is proposed that accounts for contradicting theories on the ‘success' of social movements, interpreting success instead as an ability to exhibit simultaneous institutional and extra-institutional natures. The hypothesis provided in this work is that it is an ability to simultaneously exhibit institutional and extra-institutional natures that can be a source of strength and success for a movement, drawing capital from both while avoiding accountability that typically accompanies institutional politics. This challenges traditional theoretical approaches in terms of linear life-cycles with few paths for the social movement to choose from. In turn, questions arise regarding notions of social movement life-cycles being uni-directional, continuously progressing towards ‘institutionalization' or demise. Ideas of an ‘end-date' or ‘inevitable outcome' of social movements are also confronted. This interdisciplinary study is conducted by means of media, archival, and empirical research (participant observation, interviews, and surveys), focusing on changing constituent perceptions of the movement between 1985 and 2013. It is also argued that Hizb'allah's strength is its ability to draw from both extra-institutional and institutional resources while simultaneously avoiding accountability. However, it was also found that, by forming the 2011 governing coalition, the movement upset this balance by subjecting itself to accountability inherent in governance, in turn leading to ‘schizophrenic behaviour' as Hizb'allah sought to serve conflicting constituent and state interests. The significance of this research is that it not only provides an explanation for Hizb'allah's success, but also provides an interpretation of social movement development that accounts for multi-natured movements.

Depuis les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, le galvaudage intensif du concept d’« islamisme » par les sphères médiatiques et politiques a eu pour effet de catégoriser de manière simpliste et illusoire des phénomènes sociaux très différents de par le monde, dans le registre du terrorisme. Dans ce contexte, le Hezbollah libanais -pourtant chiite et farouchement opposé à Al-Qaïda- a acquis un statut particulier dans la mesure où le Secrétariat d’Etat américain l’a désigné comme la principale menace terroriste dès 2002. Nous proposons ici une recherche casuistique sur le « Parti de Dieu ». Etude longitudinale retraçant l’évolution de ce mouvement milicien devenu parti politique, notre travail vise à mieux cerner ce « fait social » et à situer celui-ci au sein du vaste spectre des islams politiques. Nous synthétisons ici les phases de maturation idéologique que celui-ci a connues depuis son émergence et retraçons l’évolution structurelle de ce parti politique avant tout caractérisé par son projet de « société résistante ». Chacun de ces deux volets (idéologique et structurel) laisse entrevoir les interactions bilatérales qui se sont créées, dans la diachronie, entre le religieux et le politique au sein du Hezbollah, mais illustre surtout la soumission polymorphe de l’un comme de l’autre à la cause inébranlable de la résistance face à Israël. L’élément fondamentalement nouveau que nous apportons à la littérature scientifique spécialisée est une grille d’interprétation du cheminement global d’une grande partie de la communauté chiite du Liban. Celle-ci a pour point de départ le concept -initialement psychologique- de « résilience », et propose la transposition de ce dernier dans le champ sociopolitique. L’analyse qui en découle met en perspective l’« idéologie résiliente » et la « structure résiliente » que le Hezbollah a progressivement développées dans une optique stratégique. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La question moyenne-orientale est dans l'actualité depuis 1948. C'est en cette année que se crée l'Etat d'Israël sur les décombres du mandat britannique en Palestine. Dès le commencement, la guerre va commencer à fixer les frontières entre Israël et ses voisins arabes. Cependant, après 1967, une nouvelle question va apparaître, celle des relations avec les Territoires occupés. En conséquence, l'Etat d'Israël aura deux questions frontalières à gérer : la question interétatique classique et la question interne avec les Palestiniens. Cette recherche tente de démontrer les voies employées par les différents acteurs régionaux et internationaux pour trouver une solution à cette question juridique qui cause l'instabilité régionale. On s'appuiera sur le droit, l'Histoire, la science politique (en particulier, l'étude des idéologies sioniste et arabiste) et les relations internationales pour trouver une cohérence aux réussites et aux échecs qui ont émaillé l'histoire du Moyen-Orient depuis 1948 et le fait qu'Israël n'ait encore que deux frontières internationalement reconnues, une avec l'Egypte et l'autre avec le royaume de Jordanie.