Brynjar Lia

University of Oslo · Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages

One of the most puzzling developments since the watershed event of 9/11 and the onset of the U.S.-led Global War on Terror (GWOT) is the expansion of the jihadi movement in the Arab world. This has taken place despite serious efforts to prevent it from happening. Massive investments in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency by a U.S.-led internatio...

The Islamist Uprising in Syria between 1976 and 1982 remains understudied in view of the growing availability of new primary sources on the subject. The present article explores the unfolding of the Revolt, examining the causes for its eventual defeat and the long-term legacy of the Uprising. It argues that the Islamist Uprising in Syria failed for...

The rise of the self-proclaimed " Islamic State " in Iraq and Syria has ushered to the forefront the issue of territories governed by jihadi groups. This article offers an overview of previous and current " jihadi proto-states " , discusses their characteristics and common features, and explores ways of understanding their ultra-aggressive behaviou...

Scholars dealing with the rise of contemporary Islamism and the Muslim Brothers’ early history frequently turn to Ḥasan al-Bannā’s autobiography, Mudhakkirāt al-Daʿwah wa’l-Dāʿiyah (Memoirs of the Call and the Preacher) as one major source of information about the movement’s origin. Despite the centrality of this autobiography and the abundance of...

Det framkommer stadig oftere avsløringer om avvergete terroraksjoner i Europa der de mistenkte har en forhistorie som fremmedkrigere i Midtøsten. Europeiske sikkerhetstjenester frykter at denne trenden vil fortsette, og Norge, som har en stor fremmedkrigerkontingent kontrollert for folketall, synes å vaere mer utsatt enn før. Dette urovekkende trus...

This essay addresses the history of Usama bin Laden's al-Qaʿida and the U.S.'s global war on terror through the prism of two new books by leading experts in the field. Nelly Lahoud's book makes important use of new documents seized at bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. Peter Bergen explores the relationship between Pakistan, al-Qaʿida, and the Ame...

Since the 2010s, the Middle East and Africa have witnessed a sharp proliferation of insurgent proto-states-territorial enclaves controlled by insurgent groups. Gathering six ethnographic accounts from these regions, this volume seeks to answer the following: How do rebel governments and kin-based forms of socio-political organisation shape and infl...

The surprising ability of the jihadist organisation "the Islamic State" to capture and hold large territories in Syria and Iraq raises important questions regarding rebel governance in civil wars. One under-studied aspect in the growing literature on rebel rule is insurgents' relations to kinship organisations. This article offers a detailed empiri...

In contrast to common assumptions, jihadist movements’ view of Christian minorities in the Middle East has been neither unambiguous nor static. It changes according to the overall political conflict in the region and is characterized by specific, unpredictable struggles that arise locally. By studying the official statements of al-Qaeda and ISIS, t...

Initially construed as the vital link between Saddam Husayn’s Iraq and al-Qaida in the runup to the Iraq war, the Ansar al-Islam (AI) group formed in Iraqi Kurdistan in December 2001 has been the subject of intense debate and huge media coverage. In academic research, however, its history, evolution and affiliation have received surprisingly little...

Scholarship on political Islam suggests that support for early Islamist movements came from literate merchants, government officials, and professionals who lacked political representation. We test these claims with a unique tranche of microlevel data drawn from a Muslim Brotherhood petition campaign in interwar Egypt. Matching the occupations of ov...

The rise of ISIS has drawn scholarly attention to militant Islamist movements as quasi-state actors, embracing governance as a core area of legitimation. Due to their commitment to conservative, literalist interpretations of Sharī'a, jihādī movements have gained a reputation for being patriarchal, misogynist, and ultra-masculinist. This article see...

Jihadismens frammarsj som ideologi og global opprørsbevegelse er blant de mest fremtredende utviklingstrekkene i Midtøsten de siste 15 årene. Hvordan har jihadistbevegelsen kunnet vokse seg så mye sterkere i tidsrommet etter 11. september-angrepene, samtidig som usa og dets allierte i regionen har brukt enorme ressurser på nettopp å nedkjempe opprø...

Jihadism in Norway has witnessed a huge shift from consisting primarily of foreign ethnically homogenous networks with a low capacity for mobilization, to the current situation where a loose country-wide network of domestic extremists have demonstrated a considerable capacity for foreign fighter recruitment over the past four years. In this article...

Mange trodde den arabiske våren skulle bety slutten for jihadistbevegelsen. Men etter 2011 har den vunnet terreng i et omfang som de færreste kunne forestilt seg.

2001-2, has spent many years in the Middle East, and has been interviewed on terrorism issues by the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time Magazine, BBC, The Guardian, and a number of other international media outlets. Lia is the author of the following books: The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt 1928-42 (Ithaca Press, 1998), Globalisation and the...

Based on an in-depth review of jihadi discourse on terrorist training and preparation, this article finds considerable differences between leading jihadi theorists on issues such as how training should be defined, its ultimate purpose, and where and how to prepare jihadi fighters. However, they all agree on the importance of training, and that ideo...

Al-Qaeda online: understanding jihadist internet infrastructure • Key Points • The primary function of jihadist internet sites and forums is as a vehicle for propaganda, proselytising and indoctrination. • The spread of terrorist tradecraft using internet sites is increasing: the quality of audiovisual training aids is improving although these rema...

This new study is devoted to understanding how international terrorism is shaped, how it evolves and what we can expect in the future. Drawing upon research and methods outside the traditional focus, and by taking both a theoretical approach and a new practical predictive perspective, it delivers a fresh and fascinating contribution to terrorism st...

This article analyzes an Al Qaida strategy document about Iraq that received considerable attention after the Madrid bombings because of its references to the Spanish elections. The current article discusses the origin, content, and significance of the document and argues that it represents a hitherto unidentified genre in radical Islamist literatu...

The article gives a broad survey of recent trends in terrorism and briefly discusses the potential fur weapons of mass destruction terrorism. The report also touches upon the possible relationship between terrorism and participation in peace support operations, and the potential of sabotage by terrorist groups against the petroleum sector. In the l...

Challenges to European security emanating from the southern Mediterranean have had a marked influence on European security policies during the 1990s. This article identifies the main themes in the debate on Mediterranean security and the policy dilemmas which these security challenges raise for European states and their multilateral security organi...

The portrayal of Islamic fundamentalism (Islamism) as the new security threat to the West has coincided with a considerable build‐up of Western military capacity for humanitarian interventions and peacekeeping. Presumably, the juxtaposition of these trends adds to the legacy of Western domination and will affect negatively Western participation in...

The portrayal of Islamic fundamentalism (Islamism) as the new security threat to the West has coincided with a considerable build-up of Western military capacity for humanitarian interventions and peacekeeping. Presumably, the juxtaposition of these trends adds to the legacy of Western domination and will affect negatively Western participation in...