The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the lawfulness of the use of force by the United States of America against the so-called Islamic State in the territory of Syria, in terms of Ius ad bellum. For this purpose, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on assessing the subjectivity of the Islamic State. In particular, the subjectivity is examined with regard to the criteria arising from the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States and from professional experience. The Islamic State is assessed in terms of defined territory, permanent population, effective government, capacity to enter into relations with other states, independence and legitimacy. The second part deals with the legal regulation of the use of force in international relations. After the presentation of the historical development, the attention is paid especially to the UN Charter and the ensuing prohibition of the threat or use of force in international relations. In the context of the use of force against the Islamic State, legal exceptions to this prohibition, which could be used in the fight against the Islamic State, are presented. First, attention is paid to the exceptions resulting from the UN Charter, which are self-defense under Article 51 and actions under Chapter VII. Two types of...

Submitted by Ana Carolina Costa (karoll.costa2013@gmail.com) on 2018-10-14T12:40:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO - Versão repositório.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Lucilene Cordeiro da Silva Messias null (lubiblio@bauru.unesp.br) on 2018-10-15T19:16:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 costa_ac_me_bauru.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-15T19:16:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 costa_ac_me_bauru.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-30 / 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 repositório online mantido por Aaron Zelin, pesquisador do The Washington Institute For Near East Policy, eles atendem dois critérios principais: foram divulgados no período de ascensão do Estado Islâmico como personagem global (por isso sintetizam seus anseios e estratégias publicistas) e constituem uma rica amostra do hibridismo das peças audiovisuais do grupo destinadas à audiência ocidental, sustentando a hipótese de que elas fundem elementos da cultura audiovisual contemporânea e da cultura jihadista, neste caso fortemente representada pelo formato do vídeo nashīd. Nos propomos a identificar as características de cada produção e traçar pontos de conexão que nos permitem agrupá-las em grandes categorias, que chamamos de "marcas audiovisuais" e cujo objetivo é provar onde a propaganda do Estado Islâmico busca seu respaldo. Para tanto, propomos um método de análise baseado no esqueleto metodológico criado por Francis Vanoye e Anne Goliot-Lété (1994) para analisar os spots publicitários. Ele baseia-se em dois eixos centrais: estilo e discurso. O primeiro é composto por quatro diretrizes que nos ajudam a descrever a estrutura dos vídeos e determinar suas particularidades estilísticas: duração, matéria visual, característica dos planos e montagem. O segundo eixo procura determinar como a mensagem do grupo é articulada em cada vídeo. Para isso, propõe três locais de observação baseados na funcionalidade do "contrato de comunicação" proposto por Patrick Charaudeau (2006). A combinação desses dois polos nos permite comprovar que a propaganda do EI dispõe de lógicas construtivas e ferramentas de edição naturalizadas pela cultura audiovisual contemporânea, o que converte o arsenal simbólico do Estado Islâmico num exímio exemplar da nova face do terror. / 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 2014 and 2016. Available in the online repository by Aaron Zelin, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, they respond to two main criteria. One of them being the fact that they were released in the ascension period of the IS as global character (for this reason synthesizes its publicist longings and strategies) and constitute a rich sample of the hybridism of the group’s audiovisual pieces intended for the western audience. The other is the evidence that they sustain the hypothesis that they merge elements of contemporary audiovisual culture and jihadist culture, in this case strongly represented by the format of nashīd video. From the detailing of the videos, we propose to identify the characteristics of each production and draw points of connection between them to group them into large categories, which we call “audiovisual marks” and which the objective is to prove where the Islamic State propaganda seeks its backing. For this purpose, we propose a method of analysis based in the methodology framework developed by Francis Vanoye and Anne Goliot-Lété (1994) to scrutinize a genre that shares the genetic material of our object of study: the propaganda spots. It bases in two central axes: style and discourse. The first one consists of four guidelines that help us to describe the structure of the videos and determine their stylistics particularities: duration, visual material, characteristic of plans and assembly. The second axis seeks to determine how the group message articulates in each video. To this end, it proposes three observation spots based on the functionality of the “communication contract” proposed by Patrick Charaudeau (2006). The combination of these two poles allows us to proof that the IS propaganda has constructive logics and editing tools naturalized by the contemporary audiovisual culture, which turns the symbolic arsenal of the Islamic State into an eximious model of the new face of terror.

This study is about the so called Islamic States’ use of Islamic religious traditions in their propaganda magazine Dabiq. The purpose of the study is to find out how ISIS use history as a blueprint to perceive and interpret current events and occurrences. The theories of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Capital, and sociopsychologist Hjalmar Sundén’s Role theory is used to analyze how the different religious traditions and stories are used by ISIS and what these represent in the Muslim’s religious frame of perception. The results of this study show that the religious traditions are being used in order to legitimize, justify and establish their so-called Caliphate according to the stories of old. The results also show that not only religious matters are used to emphasize their claim in the Middle East but profane examples as well.

This is a suggestive thesis that aims to investigate the potential within boredom literature to supplement explanations of interaction patterns with jihadist propaganda from the so-called Islamic State (IS). The media strategy of IS has benefited from a comprehensive narrative, and an inclusive approach to production and dissemination of propaganda, which has seen a heavy emphasis on the grass root participation within a loosely structured digital network. The thesis builds on the precept that boredom has been associated with lack of agency, meaning and excitement – three attributes that features prominently in IS propaganda. Through a scoping literature review of published articles on boredom, certain thematic elements was perceived to have an analytical potential with regards to the jihadist propaganda – including boredom proneness, boredom and meaning-seeking, boredom and excitement, and boredom’s relation to violent agency. The study showed a potential for boredom as a concept, via the respective theoretical and methodological frameworks, to broaden our understanding of the interaction with IS propaganda. By investigating boredom as a driving force in the interaction process, it is possible to highlight several aspects of how and why people relate positively to the propaganda – most importantly the connection between boredom and central human emotions, needs and characteristics.

Magister Legum - LLM / The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a jihadist militant group. The members of this militant group have committed criminal acts of unspeakable cruelty. These staggering criminal conducts are documented by the United Nations, international human rights organisations, and media. Besides, the group itself gives first-hand information through social media and its magazine. Having witnessed the atrocities committed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the United Nations Security Council affirmed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s conduct in Syria and Iraq is a threat to international peace and security. Therefore, the media and various role players have called for the intervention of International Criminal Court. This research paper analyses whether the International Criminal Court is a viable prosecutorial option to account the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members for their crimes. For the Court to be a viable prosecutorial avenue, it must have a jurisdiction. Accordingly, this research paper critically examines whether the International Criminal Court has subject matter, personal and/or territorial jurisdictions to try the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant perpetrators. The study concludes that although the criminal conducts by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members constitute crimes under the Rome Statute, the Court, however, has limited jurisdictional reach over the perpetrators. It is submitted that with a limited and fragmented territorial and personal jurisdictional reach over the perpetrators, the Court is not a viable prosecutorial avenue. / German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The Islamic State (IS) infamously carried out brutal acts of terrorism against the west. These acts of terrorism in Europe and the USA does, however, not make up most of the violence instigated by the Islamic State. This majority of violence took place in Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State conquered large territories. The forces that the IS battled in the Iraqi-Syrian theatre of war consisted largely of individuals identifying as Muslim. In some cases, the Islamic State fought other Islamist militias. In this context the concept of Takfir, i.e. excommunication within Islam, is central in the rhetoric of persecution. This paper analyses the Islamic State’s beliefs and practices on Takfir, as it is shown in the propaganda magazine Dabiq. Following a qualitative content analysis of Dabiq's articles relevant to Takfir and defining true Muslims, central themes were identified.  The bulk of the apostasy arguments found in Dabiq is targeted against ethnicities and sects that the Islamic State is at war with. Several arguments for the apostasy of the IS's enemies are explored, and an internal logic is presented throughout Dabiq. Neither the criteria’s nor the process that leads to the proclamation of Takfir, outside fighting the Islamic State, are explained in Dabiq. While examples of such Takfiri declarations are found in Dabiq, they are considerably less common than war-aligned claims of apostasy. What motivates the Islamic State’s practice of Takfir is open ended, as it can be both considered a result of their religious doctrine and a justification for the conflicts which they have partaken in.

Following the fall of the Islamic State, thousands of former IS fighters took refuge with their children in the camps of Al-Hol and Al-Roj where they have since been detained in degrading conditions by local authorities. In the camps are there about 27,500 children of foreign nationalities. Like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, these children are left unclaimed as their respective countries hesitate to repatriate them. As such, the traditional understanding of children as innocent and in need of protection is defied. Drawing on the Copenhagen School of security studies and Edward Said’s theory of orientalism and employing a method of double reading, this essay examines how the political discourse in France on the Other enables the securitization of children by association with IS fighters. The analysis finds that the securitization theory can establish that the children are securitised, but it is insufficient in explaining how association facilitates the securitization process. By deconstructing the discourse through orientalism, the force of the association driving the securitization is understood through structures of power, defining the children as future threats to the republic as barbaric Others.

This diploma thesis examines the prospects of the Islamic State's expansion to Libya. Using the method of process tracing, the author assesses the campaign of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and establishes 6 factors he calls ‚enablers' that played key roles in facilitating its success - the ideology, exploitation of state breakdown and governance, funding, combat know-how, propaganda, and sectarianism. He dedicates special attention to the problematics of sectarianism and the way the Islamic State made instrumental use of it in both of these countries. The author then proceeds to assess the viability of the IS enterprise in Libya, examining whether the conditions and circumstances in the country are conducive for an IS unsurgency. He identifies 8 structural conditions that underpinned the relevant enablers in Syria and assesses their relevance in Libya. Comparison of the two cases shows that except for sectarianism all the structural conditions are relevantly present in Libya which, according to J. S. Mill's method of a difference of J. S. Mill's method of a difference, should explain the stalling campaign of IS in Libya. The author proceeds to confirm this hypothesis by assessing the actual campaign of the Islamic State in Libya. He contends the Islamic State tried to follow the successful...

The thesis aims to analyze the role of women in the Islamic State and Al Qaeda and determine which factors can account for the differences in their perception of women. Although the phenomenon of terrorism has been the focus of many researchers in the field of international relations, the amount of attention paid to women as perpetrators of terrorist violence is significantly smaller. Both of the studied terrorist organizations follow the radical interpretation of Islam which results in many shared views concerning female roles in society in general and in jihad in particular. However, it is possible to find differences in their opinions of women, especially in relation to a more active involvement in the groups' combat and martyrdom operations. In regards to methodology, comparative case study was chosen as the best possible method to explain these differences. The results of the analysis show that it is the worsening security context and increasing threats to the group's survival that are able to account for the acceptance of female combatants in the case of the Islamic State. On the other hand, Al Qaeda's relatively strong position does not create similar pressure for the group to change its position regarding women. Keywords Terrorism, Role of Women, Islamic State, Al Qaeda

How to respond to ongoing genocide? How to punish her perpetrators? In 2014, world witnessed another modern genocide, the eradication of the whole ethnicity - the so-called Islamic State attacked an area in northern Iraq for centuries inhabited by members of a small but distinct ethnical group of Yazidi people. This diploma thesis deals with the establishment of discourse of Yazidi genocide, the process of recognition of events as genocide at the international level. In this work I investigate the definition of victims and aggressors and the international response to genocide, both in the media and political sphere. For the discourse of the Yazidi genocide was crucial to differentiate victims and violence against them from other events. Similarly, it was important to accurately name the perpetrators of genocide and treat them as a potential geopolitical threat, but as the cause of one of the worst crimes known to mankind. The discourse of the Yazidi genocide was largely determined by politicians - and, as I show in my work, the political dimension of events has pushed the humanitarian and legal ones behind. These all aspects take on the formation and maintenance of a given discourse.