Islam, IS and the Fragmented State

Anoushiravan Ehteshami is Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. He is the Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations and Director of the HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security. He is, further, Director of the Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies (IMEIS) at Durham, one of the oldest and noted centres of excellence in Middle Eastern studies in Europe. He acts as Co-director (2016-2021) of the £3.9 million AHRC-funded Open Worlds Initiative entitled Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community. Juline Beaujouan received her PhD from Durham University where she was awarded an al-Sabah doctoral fellowship and acted as a member of the AHRC-funded Open Worlds Initiative entitled Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community. She is now a member of the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP), based at the University of Edinburgh, where she researches trust-building between ethnical and religious communities in Iraq and Lebanon. Juline is the co-editor and contributor to the volume Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees - Voices from Jordan and Lebanon (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2020). Amjed Rasheed is a Research Fellow in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, and a member of the AHRC-funded Open Worlds Initiative entitled Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community. He is also a senior researcher and a board member of Open Think Tank (OTT) in Iraqi Kurdistan. Amjed is the co-editor and contributor to the volume Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees - Voices from Jordan and Lebanon (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2020).

Introduction; 1 De-regionalization of the Regional Order; 2 The Erosion of State Power; 3 Political Islam – Reactive and/or Proactive? The Case of the Islamic State; 4 The (Re)-establishment of the Caliphate; 5 The Narrative of the Islamic State; 6 The State Fights Back; 7 Political Islam on the Run; Conclusion; Select Bibliography; Notes