The Jihadist War Economies Project

The project studies the connection between forms of territoriality and resource extraction, as well as the channels of financing amongst jihadi groups. It does also study the role of females in these financing networks, both as subjects and objects. It focus on the Levant, Afghanistan, Pakistan, West Africa, and the horn of Africa. So far the project have identified the different ways the jihadi organizations harness funds in Mali, Somalia , Syria and Pakistan in relations to changes in territoriality and territorial control. When the degree of territorial control increases, jihadist organizations become more similar to a state, and might tax individuals in the territories under their control. However, a such state might also occur under a so called semi-territorial condition, where security are not provided to the locals. The locals might be threatened into supporting jihadists if the central power is weakly represented. This will also influence how jihadists are organized and their mechanism created loyalty.The results where published as a book in May 2019, and has received good book reviews (https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/horn-sahel-and-rift/) The Project has also started to map smuggling routs in Sahara and East Africa, studying links to jihadism at a regional level. We have also conducted a detailed study of the Islamic States finances in Afghanistan, falsifying the hypothesis claiming that mineral extraction is a important as a source of finances for the State. From October 2018 to October 2019, the gathering of unique statistics from some of the worlds most challenging war zones, northern Nigeria, the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan and northern Iraq, has been finished. The data is being analyzed, primarily to look at the relationship between jihadists and local business in relation to potential mechanisms that creates support for jihadists, and so continue the discussion from the price awarded Jihad & Co, one of the project's previously published books (https://books.google.lk/books/about/Jihad_Co.html?id=MksrDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y). The data set has been put to other uses, and articles on rebel governance, disengagement, and the use of voilence have been published , or is scheduled to be published as a consequence of the data of the Project.

The Project also suggests that Income generating mechanisms varies according to the type of territorial presence the jihadists have, being more dependent on External support if they exist as clandestine networks, and more dependent on outright taxation if the entities enjoyed territorial or semi-territorial control. The Project has resulted in 19 peer reviewed articles and book Chapters, two books of which one has received prizes, one Anthology. Additionally, one article has been accepted for publication, one has been submitted to a journal, and three others are in the process of being written up, as is a book. Briefings have been held at the United Nations, Brookings Institute, Harvard University, Georgetown university, George Mason University, as well as for decisionmakers in UK, USA, Norway, Canada and others, as well as popular articles in magazines and web pages as Foreign Affairs and War on the Rocks

The JWE project seeks to connect the disparate literatures on civil war economies and state formation, in order to explain contemporary forms of jihadist governance and proto-state development. It proposes that illicit economic and political activity have a symbiotic relationship in these conflicts. With respect to the empirical work, the JWE research agenda will cover six diverse and networked jihadist organizations: 1) Taliban networks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, 2) the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, 3) Boko Haram in Nigeria, 4) MUJAO/Les Mirabouts in West Africa, and 5) Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Of these cases, four (Al Shabaab, Islamic State, Boko Haram, Taliban) are amongst the richest terror organizations, while MUJAO/Les Mirabouts play a critical role in profitable western African smuggling Networks The project asks the following six interrelated questions: 1) What is the difference between controlling territory and existing as a clandestine network for income generation. 2) How does the territorial control, and/or semi-territorial control influence the sources of income for terrorist organisations. 3) How do different resource endowments affect Sunni jihadist terrorist organization and behavior? 4) Why are some jihadist organizations able to build alliances with clandestine regional criminal networks, while other comparable insurgent groups fail to establish these elite pacts? 5) What role do women have in the relationships between business elites and jihadists, as both subjects and agents within these war economies. 6) And finally, in what way are female bodies actively and deliberately commoditized and territorialized in contemporary jihadist war economies?