Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S. in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy)--Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2006. / "14 April 2006." Electronic version of original print document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-77).

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "December 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-87). Also available online.

The Kingdom of Thailand currently faces internal and transnational Islamic insurgent threats that have the potential to disrupt Southeast Asian regional stability. As a Major Non-NATO Ally and the signatory of several bilateral and multilateral security arrangements with the US, Thailand has solidified itself as a security alliance partner whose stability and influence in Southeast Asia has become increasingly more important to the US and its War on Terror. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a history and analysis of the Islamic insurgency and transnational terrorist operations that exist in Thailand today. Secondly, this thesis will highlight current Thai, US, and regional security initiatives and underscore policy deficiencies. Finally, this thesis will recommend a solution strategy necessary for the purge of radical Islamic insurgency and transnational terrorism in Thailand. By accepting current policy deficiencies and implementing the courses of action recommended in this thesis, the US and Thailand will both contribute to a greater Southeast Asian security.

Political solutions have been found for several longstanding conflicts in Africa in 2003 - in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Burundi. The political arrangements in these countries may not necessarily usher in permanent peace and stability, but they at least afford an opportunity to work toward such goals. Unfortunately, this is not the case for Somalia, where anarchy, violence and chaos have prevailed for over 15 years. A national reconciliation conference - the 14th of its kind â sat in Nairobi for two years and finally formed a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in August, 2004. As usual, the outcome of the conference was not welcomed, either by warlords or later on by Islamic clerics in Somalia. Nonetheless, despite institutional obstacles, the Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) has continued to press their intention to send peacekeepers to Somalia to reinstall the fragile transitional government against the wishes of the Islamic Courts Council (ICC). This thesis examines the possible strategies that IGAD should consider using in its intended mission of supporting the restoration of the Transitional Inter Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) has continued to press their intention to send peacekeepers to Somalia to reinstall the fragile transitional government against the wishes of the Islamic Courts Council (ICC). This thesis examines the possible strategies that IGAD should consider using in its intended mission of supporting the restoration of the Transitional Federal Government.

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / The stance of the Balkans towards global Islamic extremism has been much discussed, but little subject to substantive comparative inquiry. In this thesis I utilize social movement theory to analyze the relation between Islamic revivalism and the global Salafi jihad in the Balkans. Comparing Bosnia and Bulgaria, I not only demonstrate the various manifestations of these phenomena but also argue for a differentiated case-by-case approach when implementing the suggested analytical framework. I effectively show that the process of Islamic revivalism is mainly an imported phenomena maintained through the financial and ideological support from the Middle East. I also prove that there is no causal relationship between the Islamic revivalism and global Salafi jihad. Yet, the findings of the case studies caution against the possibility of structural and ideological convergence of the two phenomena that could effectively lead to the emergence of permissive environment for the spread of global Salafi jihad. I also argue that the current Islamic revival poses security threat to the region due to its potential of developing into viable Islamic movements on the ground. I conclude that to counter such security implications, the Balkan governments need to revisit their policies and adopt a proactive approach qualitatively different from the US Global War on Terror strategic framework.

The thesis examines the phenomenon of organised political violence in Nigeria exploring its root cause(s) and sustaining factor(s), using the extreme terrorist activities of the Boko Haram sect as a case study. The severe negative impact of this sect on the fabric of Nigerian society has led to a burgeoning scholarly literature investigating the sect and the phenomenon of organised political violence which, for the most part, concentrates on the gamut of political, economic and social ills that are held to drive violence in the country. The thesis contends that, whilst these variables are symptoms or outcomes of political violence, it is the tacit political culture adopted by Nigeria’s political elite that is the core cause of recurring periods of political violence and the groups that use violence. Elements of elite political culture such as zero sum politics, political elite manipulation of social cleavages and identity politics, themselves enabled by elite involvement in governance, leads to mis-governance by the elite in power and the concomitant emergence of social movements or groups to convey the grievances of sections of the country’s diverse population. These movements are, in turn, co-opted by individuals within the elite who use the movements’ muscle and influence to coerce the electorate, notably during election periods. This results in the social movements’ transformation into organised political violent groups. When the alliance with the movement ceases to benefit the elite and/or the level of violence becomes counter-productive, as was the case the northern political elite and Boko Haram, the elite reverses its rhetoric, recasting the movement, its creation, as the enemy.

Orientador: Arlindo Rebechi Junior / Banca: Laan Mendes de Barros / Banca: Eliza Bachega Casadei / Resumo: Esta pesquisa se propõe a investigar as marcas da cultura audiovisual contemporânea inscritas nas propagandas produzidas pela Al Hayat Media Center, braço midiático do Estado Islâmico (EI) especializado na produção de conteúdos em inglês e idiomas europeus. A investigação cerca-se de um repertório teórico que procura elucidar os motivos por trás das escolhas discursivas e técnicas que dão forma a essas produções, o que nos conduz a três etapas iniciais de trabalho. A primeira é o mapeamento do processo de ascensão dos movimentos fundamentalistas islâmicos modernos, o que nos dá um vislumbre da narrativa que influenciou o pensamento dos ideólogos criadores do Islamismo no século XX, cujas ideias servem como base para a construção do discurso do EI. O passo seguinte é desvelar as práticas midiáticas do movimento do qual o grupo deriva, mostrando como elas evoluíram paralelamente ao processo de globalização e disseminação de novas tecnologias da comunicação. Reflexões sobre os processos constitutivos da cultura e os impactos dos novos sistemas de informação e comunicação sobre eles, sob o viés da midiatização, completam a apreensão do fenômeno, assim como os parâmetros da cultural audiovisual contemporânea que nos ajudam a situar as ações do Estado Islâmico numa sociedade permanentemente "atacada" por bombas de imagens que reavivam o poder do realismo. A partir dessa base teórica, analisamos 10 vídeos lançados pela Al Hayat Media Center entre 2014 e 2016. Disponibilizados no rep... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This study aims to investigate the marks of the contemporary audiovisual culture inscribed in the propaganda produced by Al Hayat Media Center, a media arm of the Islamic State (IS), specialized in the production of content in English and European languages. The investigation bases on a theoretical repertoire, which seeks to clarify the motives behind the discursive and technical choices that shape these productions, leading us to three initial stages of work. The first is the mapping of the ascension process of modern Islamic fundamentalist movements, which gives us a glimpse of the narrative that influenced the thinking of the ideologists who created Islamism in the 20th century and whose ideas serve as the basis for the construction of the IS discourse. The next step is to unveil the media practices of the movement from which the group derives, showing how they evolved in parallel to the process of globalization and dissemination of new communication technologies. Reflections on the constitutive processes of culture and the impacts of the new information and communication systems on them, under the mediatization bias, complete the apprehension of the phenomenon. In addition, the parameters of contemporary audiovisual culture help us situate the actions of the Islamic State in a society permanently "attacked" by bombs of images that revive the power of the realism. It is the background, which supports the analysis of 10 videos released by the Al Hayat Media Center between 2... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Lyman Miller, Donald Abenheim. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-103). Also available online.