UNDERSTANDING THE ISIS PHENOMENON

28 July 2015
Beirut, Lebanon
The meteoric expansion of the ISIS movement in Iraq, Syria and beyond during the past year has led to numerous, often conflicting interpretations of this phenomenon and its seeming success, as well as divergent perspectives on its prospects and future. 

The workshop, “Understanding the ISIS Phenomenon," jointly convened by the Arab Studies Institute and the Issam Faris Center of the American University of Beirut on 28 July 2015, sought to promote and provide a multi-dimensional, inter-disciplinary examination of its subject.  

The purpose of this workshop was to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the Islamic State phenomenon, both in terms of the contextual factors that have produced it; its territorial, organizational, political, socio-economic, and religious-theological features; the extent of continuity and change with respect to other Islamist and particularly other radical Jihadi movements; and informed discussion on its further trajectory. 
 

Highlights

Organizers
Bassam Haddad
Mouin Rabbani

Papers & Presentations
Opening Speakers
Mouin Rabbani, Arab Studies Institute
ISIS Research & Policy Agenda

Bassam Haddad, Arab Studies Institute & George Mason University
How Not to Study ISIS

As'ad Abu-Khalil, University of California-Stanislaus
The Study of ISIS and the Role of Islam

Panel I
Yezid Sayig, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
​Cloning Saddam:Understanding ISIS

Oraib Rantawi, Al-Quds Center for Political Studies
The Development of Organized Salafi Jihadism, its Deployment in Regional Struggles, and the Failure of the Contemporary Arab Nation State: Three Entry Points to Understanding the Emergence of ISIS

Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi
ISIS and the Virtual War on Social Media

Panel II
Zaid Ali, Princeton University
ISIS in Takrit: Invasion, Occupation, and Legacy

Maher Esber, Developmental Interaction Network
How Islamist Discourse Penetrated the Syrian Uprising: Understanding the Emergence of ISIS

Rim Turkmani, London School of Economics
ISIS and the War Economy in Syria

Panel III
Rami Khoury, American University of Beirut
Battalions of Discontent, Despair, and Directionlessness: The Many Motivations for Joining or Backing ISIS

Yasar Qatarneh, The Arab Initiative for Conflict Transformation
ISIS: Positioning Radicalism on the Map of Contemporary Ideologies, or Positioning Ideology on the Map of Contemporary Radicalism?

Nabih Boulous, Los Angeles Times
ISIS's Bureaucratic and Administrative Trappings

Basileus Zeno, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
More than Mere Stones: Archaeological Sites Under ISIS