December 2008

The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks

By Assaf Moghadam, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs

This groundbreaking volume examines the rise and spread of suicide attacks over the past decade. Sorting through 1,270 terror strikes between 1981 and 2007, Assaf Moghadam attributes their recent proliferation to the mutually related ascendance of al Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi Jihad, an extreme interpretation of Islam that rejects national boundaries and seeks to create a global Muslim community. This unflinching analysis provides new information about the relationship between ideology and suicide attacks and recommends policies focused on containing Salafi Jihadism.

October 2008

"Islamic Responses to Europe at the Dawn of Colonialism"

By Nelly Lahoud, Research Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program

"Whether Renan's views of Islam were defined by a predisposition to an ideological and systematic framework or not is difficult to say, but they did nevertheless grow into an ideological worldview. Despite the numerous flaws in his ideas and the subsequent scholarship that has since discredited him, Renan's ideas have survived to the present day."

AP Photo

2008

"Human Development and the Demography of Secularisation in Global Perspective"

Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, article 1, issue 4, volume 2008

By Eric Kaufmann, Research Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program

Initiative on Religion in International Affairs Fellow Eric Kaufmann argues in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion that "religious belief becomes deregulated and increasingly varied in modern societies as religiosity takes on a self-conscious, rather than taken-for-granted, character. The demographic advantage that religious populations have suggests that the future of secularization, far from confirming a secular teleology, remains indeterminate."

AP Photo

February 2008

"The Salafi-Jihad as a Religious Ideology"

CTC Sentinel, issue 3, volume 1

By Assaf Moghadam, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs

"To those who are disoriented by modernity, the Salafi-jihad provides a new sense of self-definition and belonging in the form of a membership to a supranational entity....the United States and its allies should grasp every opportunity to highlight the disastrous consequences that Salafi-jihadist violence has wrought on the everyday lives not only of Westerners, but first and foremost on Muslims themselves....It is a fact that al-Qa`ida and associated groups offer no vision for Muslims other than perennial jihad—hardly an appealing prospect."

AP Photo

June 2, 2008

"Why Islam Lies at the Heart of Iraq's Civil War"

Christian Science Monitor

By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

"...[N]ot until 2007 did the Pentagon acknowledge that Iraqi sectarian violence had crossed a threshold to become a civil war.

But policymakers still haven't come to terms with the implications of that fact. If they did, they'd see that a wisely executed withdrawal of US-led forces could well be the surest path to peace. That's because withdrawal is likely to transform the fighting in Iraq into a defensive struggle for power in a nation-state, as opposed to an offensive battle rooted in religion."

April 8, 2008

Monica Duffy Toft Named 2008 Carnegie Scholar

By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications

Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy and director of the Belfer Center’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, has been named a 2008 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Toft is one of 20 scholars to receive the prestigious Carnegie Scholar designation for 2008 "for compelling ideas and commitment to enriching the quality of the public dialogue on Islam."

October 1, 2007

"Why Myanmar’s Monks Mix Religion and Politics"

Agence Global

By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative

Why am I not surprised that the latest spontaneous popular revolt against an authoritarian government -- in Myanmar -- has been sparked and led on the streets by religious figures? Because men and women of organized faith have regularly taken the lead in populist movements for political change throughout the world in recent decades. Myanmar should help clarify parallels in the Middle East and other regions, where religious and political forces are at play simultaneously in society. The people and institutions of religion are usually the last resort available to ordinary men and women who find themselves degraded by their own autocratic systems or foreign oppression. Prominent examples in our lifetime include Martin Luther King and the American civil rights movement, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the end of the South African Apartheid regime, Jaime Cardinal Sin who helped overthrow the Marcos regime in the Philippines, Hamas and Hizbullah's challenge to the Palestinian and Lebanese authorities, respectively, the Muslim Brotherhood's challenge to the Egyptian regime, and the collective role of the Catholic Church in overthrowing repressive regimes throughout Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Spring 2007

"Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War"

International Security, issue 4, volume 31

By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

This article argues that overlapping historical, geographical and, in particular, structural factors together with an absence of an internecine religious war, the proximity of Islam’s holiest sites to Israel, large petroleum reserves, and jihad account for Islam’s higher representation in civil wars.

August 20, 2006

"Religion's Flame Burns Brighter Than Ever"

The Baltimore Sun

By Timothy Samuel Shah and Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

What happened to the world's transition to secularism?

yaznotjaz

July / August 2006

"Why God is Winning"

Foreign Policy

By Timothy Samuel Shah and Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

"Religion was supposed to fade away as globalization and freedom spread. Instead, it's booming around the world, often deciding who gets elected. And the divine intervention is just beginning. Democracy is giving people a voice, and more and more, they want to talk about God."

AP Photo

January-March 2006

"Issue Indivisibility and Time Horizons as Rationalist Explanations for War"

Security Studies, issue 1, volume 15

By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

This paper focuses on two rationalist explanations for war: issue indivisibility and time horizons. It argues that both types of bargaining problems have not only been undertheorized in the international relations literature, but that a non-trivial proportion of the violence witnessed since the end of the Cold War may be explained by these obstacles to non-violent conflict resolution. It uses the case of Russia's two most recent wars in Chechnya.

2003

The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory

By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy

This book addresses the crucial role of territory in explaining ethnic violence.  The theory of indivisible territory is explored in an attempt to explain why some conflicts turn violent and others do not.  The case studies consist of Russia in relation to the Chechens and Tartars and Georgia in relation to the Abkhaz and Ajars, roughly from 1990 to 1994.