Past Papers

Here are some papers I’ve written on security and foreign policy issues. More will be posted soon.

Title:
“In the Midst of the Swarm: Reconceptualizing the (Mislabeled) Global War on Terrorism” from March 2005

Abstract:
This is a conceptual paper which argues for a new theoretical framework for understanding the Global War on Terrorism (referred in this paper as World War IV). Borrowing from Thomas Barnett, this paper agrees that conflict and friction in the international system is caused by states that are relatively disconnected from the global economy.

While this explains the general cause of conflict in the international system, it is not specific enough to fully explain World War IV, as Western Europe – which is globally connected – is one of the main “fronts” for recruiting, organizing and carrying out attacks for Jihadi-Salafist groups.

This paper purposes a new framework of understanding World War IV by intersecting Barnett’s theory of connectedness and Huntington’s “Clash of Civilization”, but with an emphasis on a social level of analysis – emphasizing social groups, rather than just states. The aim is to emphasize culturally distinct and “disconnected” social groups rather than distinct “civilization blocks” or “disconnected” states as the source of Islamist terrorism.

This framework can help explain Jihadi-Salafists as part of a wider social movement and explains why the Muslim immigrant communities in Europe and in other “connected” states are “fronts” in this war.

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