May 7, 2019
The Center for Global Affairs (CGA) is excited to note the forthcoming publication of After the Caliphate by Colin Clarke, MSGA '07. Clarke - a terrorism expert who has held positions as a senior political scientist at the RAND corporation, lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, and a research associate at the International Centre for Counterterrorism-The Hague (ICCT) among others - takes stock of the Islamic State caliphate and examines the future of the global jihadist movement.
After the Caliphate examines the origins and evolution of IS up to the point in 2014 when it declared itself a caliphate and tracks the movement's defeats and expulsion from Syria and Iraq. As surviving IS fighters – many of whom were foreign recruits – retreat and disperse to new battlefields, Clarke argues, the future of the global jihadist movement will resemble its past, with groups of militants moving to new battlefields, from North Africa to Southeast Asia. In this fragmented and atomized form, Clarke cautions, IS could join existing civil wars, establish sanctuaries, and find new ways of attacking their opponents and recruiting new followers, thus becoming even more dangerous and challenging for counterterrorism forces.
After the Caliphate will be published June 24 by Polity Press.