This article talks about how the IS, the Islamic State, has accepted Nigeria's Boko Haram pledge to allegiance. This shows that IS's desire for a growing caliphite may be slowly becoming a reality. One of the spokesman for IS stated that "Our caliphate is resisting and it is advancing in the right direction. We are fighting the Crusaders and the rafidah (Shiites) and day by day the Islamic State is becoming strong".
I chose this article because it really ties in with the discussion we had on Transnational Organized crime and the state. Transnational criminal organizations such as IS are trying to expand and it calls into question whether the state really has the capacity to control these growing extremists groups. They are after all able to grow partly due to globalization. In my opinion, states need to take a page from these transnational criminal organizations book and continually band together to fight them off.
Is IS a criminal organization? Don't they have a political plan? The same could be said about Boko Haram. Of course this does not really get to your overall point...
ReplyDeleteOn that score, what would you say is stopping a larger coalition of states to combat IS?
I do believe that IS is a criminal organization. I believe that they specifically partake in racketeering. They are justifying their threat of violence as protection from western entities when they are mostly at fault for the violent military involvement that they have been subjected to. I don't know what is really preventing an international coalition to combat IS and Boko Haram but I think that it, like most things, has to do with interests. Those countries bordering Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin all have a reason to battle them. It is right at their borders. I think that there has been a new interest by other countries to combat these extremist organizations due to calls for humanitarian justice and also to the impact that Boko Haram has and may continue to have on oil. Really my point is that I think it is because countries did not have strong enough incentives to get involved.
ReplyDeleteSo IS is a criminal organization in the same way that many early states were and many states today may be? Interesting.
DeleteI do think its a matter of other countries not having incentives to fight Boko Haram or ISIS. National security is justification enough (or at least it has been so historically) for developed countries to get involved militarily. I think the apprehension from developed countries to fight terrorism today in the middle east or Africa stems from the aftermath of the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghan Wars. Developing countries' governments have shown the inability to create stability after foreign military withdraw, and the military campaign end up yielding no real change. Countries can no longer commit to wars which they view as inevitable failures.
DeleteI agree. ISIS is a criminal organization. Using religious and political reasons to gain territory for their own benefit to gain power. Also, military intervention in the middle east has had little effect to changing the stability of the region. The instability make it hard to invest time and resources. Although I do think eventually their public brutality and media displays will eventually bring in outside resources to stop the caliphate from becoming a legitimate state in the globalized world.
DeleteI believe that IS is a criminal organization but it still lacks the power to be able to keep control of groups that are pledging to support them but this may change. IS has continued their growth and as they become more legitimate it can be seen as almost a criminal organization that is becoming slightly imperial in the Middle East as well as developing countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree, IS is a criminal organization. It s not uncommon for criminal organizations to use the facade of religious or political betterment in order to justify their criminal actions. As they continue to grow and expand, their legitimacy also continues to increase. However, I highly believe that the world powers will intervene and put an end to them before that happens.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Angella is arguing here, not only that IS is an organization based in criminal actions with a background in religious and political ideology, but that as the caliphate grows so does the chance of world power intervention. While our current system is one of anarchy, I would not be surprised to see a coalition of Western/world powers intervene to fight and put a succinct end to the expansion and development of IS on the grounds that the organization infringes upon humanitarian rights.
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