The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters
This thesis critically examines the role of the Islamic State’s foreign fighter. It argues that the projection in propaganda of reflexive, foreign fighters and migrants operates as a recruitment device. This evidence challenges current assumptions of foreign fighters, who are often tautologically co...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/59731/ |
| _version_ | 1848799667620413440 |
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| author | Al-Dayel, Nadia |
| author_facet | Al-Dayel, Nadia |
| author_sort | Al-Dayel, Nadia |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This thesis critically examines the role of the Islamic State’s foreign fighter. It argues that the projection in propaganda of reflexive, foreign fighters and migrants operates as a recruitment device. This evidence challenges current assumptions of foreign fighters, who are often tautologically confined to “religious ideological” motivations in a group pre-determined as religiously ideological. It reveals that the Islamic State is acutely aware of its salience as a competitive political actor, attempting to provoke a sense of political agency through an articulation of the fragile conditions in the citizen-state relationship.
This thesis is organised around three articles. The introduction contextualises the relevance of the Islamic State, followed by a literature review. Article one is a conceptual article, entitled “Articulating Political Agency: Foreign Fighters and the Dynamics of Authority”. It critically evaluates the ideological categorisation of the Islamic State and its foreign fighters before presenting an alternative consideration of membership through authority recognition. Article two, entitled, “‘Now is the Time to Wake up’: Islamic State Narratives of Political Awareness”, applies an innovative, blended methodology to foreign fighter recruitment material. It proves that narratives of political awareness in citizen-state relations scaffold religious themes. The final article is entitled, “Sexual Suppression and Political Agency: Evoking a Woman’s Support for the Islamic State”. It scrutinises an exclusive, “state” sanctioned, woman-authored advice column of the Islamic State. It first contextualises the salience of the column before exhibiting how the narratives provoke support through a multi- pronged approach at challenging state and patriarchal authority. The conclusion presents the implications of this thesis, detailing how the findings evidence that new conceptual and methodological approaches are necessary to understand the recruitment devices in contemporary religious terrorist organisations that compete for transnational support. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:39:19Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-59731 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:39:19Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-597312025-02-28T14:45:22Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/59731/ The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters Al-Dayel, Nadia This thesis critically examines the role of the Islamic State’s foreign fighter. It argues that the projection in propaganda of reflexive, foreign fighters and migrants operates as a recruitment device. This evidence challenges current assumptions of foreign fighters, who are often tautologically confined to “religious ideological” motivations in a group pre-determined as religiously ideological. It reveals that the Islamic State is acutely aware of its salience as a competitive political actor, attempting to provoke a sense of political agency through an articulation of the fragile conditions in the citizen-state relationship. This thesis is organised around three articles. The introduction contextualises the relevance of the Islamic State, followed by a literature review. Article one is a conceptual article, entitled “Articulating Political Agency: Foreign Fighters and the Dynamics of Authority”. It critically evaluates the ideological categorisation of the Islamic State and its foreign fighters before presenting an alternative consideration of membership through authority recognition. Article two, entitled, “‘Now is the Time to Wake up’: Islamic State Narratives of Political Awareness”, applies an innovative, blended methodology to foreign fighter recruitment material. It proves that narratives of political awareness in citizen-state relations scaffold religious themes. The final article is entitled, “Sexual Suppression and Political Agency: Evoking a Woman’s Support for the Islamic State”. It scrutinises an exclusive, “state” sanctioned, woman-authored advice column of the Islamic State. It first contextualises the salience of the column before exhibiting how the narratives provoke support through a multi- pronged approach at challenging state and patriarchal authority. The conclusion presents the implications of this thesis, detailing how the findings evidence that new conceptual and methodological approaches are necessary to understand the recruitment devices in contemporary religious terrorist organisations that compete for transnational support. 2020-03-15 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/59731/1/Nadia%20Al-Dayel.Thesis.pdf Al-Dayel, Nadia (2020) The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. terrorism Islamic State ISIS recruitment foreign fighters Dabiq |
| spellingShingle | terrorism Islamic State ISIS recruitment foreign fighters Dabiq Al-Dayel, Nadia The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title | The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title_full | The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title_fullStr | The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title_full_unstemmed | The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title_short | The citizen challenging the state: Islamic State and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| title_sort | citizen challenging the state: islamic state and the recruitment of foreign fighters |
| topic | terrorism Islamic State ISIS recruitment foreign fighters Dabiq |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/59731/ |