The article explores the evolving role of Islamism in Russian national security discourse from post-Soviet conflicts North Caucasus to present engagement Syria. It traces development term “Wahhabi” as a shorthand for Islamist practices, including subversive and violent activity, how that label has come be replaced by an even more amorphous specter “international terrorists” main source such thr...

The article analyzes the main concepts of Islamism and features its generation in North Caucasus, forms manifestation, specific ways counteraction. is considered a religious political form extremism obscured by Islamic slogans, directed against historically established spiritual traditions existing government, directing followers towards creation global Islamist power structures. This project h...

It is for me a huge honor to be invited to deliver the counterbalancing view within this distinguished gathering of counter-terrorism experts. 1 Let me begin by emphasizing what I consider to be the " three strikes " or in international terms, the " side-out " of government counter-terrorism thinking today. STRIKE ONE: Terrorism is a symptom, not a root cause or threat. Going after Al Qaeda has...

It has long been argued that identity matters in international relations. Yet, how identity impacts enmity and conflict among states remains the subject of debate. The existing liter‐ ature asserts that differences in identity can be a source of conflict, whereas convergence and similarity lead to cooperation. Nevertheless, empirical evidence from the Middle East has long defied this hy...

one of the practices, particularly important in shi'ism is to pay khums.somesunnites believe there is merely one verse in quran concerning khums; thus itisnot so important. this single verse includes the spoils of war, not business profitand trade as shiites believe in it. but shiites criticize sunnites argument asfollows: 1- firstly, there is more than one quranic verse regarding it, seco...