Juan Carlos Antunez Moreno

The DAESH has been particularly successful in recruiting Western women. There are differences in their profile and motivation with their male counterparts. The DAESH offered an alternative to Western secularist feminism, substituting salvation for emancipation (empowerment without gender equality). DAESH´s Western women played different roles. They were wives of jihadists, mothers and educators of the next generation, recruiters and fundraisers for the organisation and workers in the segregated institutions of the Caliphate. They were also involved in violent actions when the time came, depending on the needs of the organisation. The analysis on DAESH Western women is often influenced by prejudices, stereotypes, and gender biases. Counterterrorism efforts need for the integration of the gender perspectives and needs for more women to detect radicalization as well as in prevention, de-radicalisation, and reintegration processes.

Abstract: Many national and international efforts have focused on countering violent extremism by military means. The current responses to religious radicalization have been mostly kinetic and they have been less effective than had been hoped, due to a variety of aspects including their often-negative reception by the local populations as well as a lack of adequate synergy between the organizations involved.  Combating radicalization in the Sahel is not just a question of fighting extremist groups but also reducing perceived marginalization as well as increasing economic opportunity in rural areas. Unless the drivers of violence are addressed, radicalization is expected to grow, often incorrectly attributed only to religion.

Terrorismo en la era del Covid-19: un análisis multidimensional global-strategy.org/terrorismo-en-la-era-del-covid-19-un-analisis-multidimensional/ Global Strategy Report, 7/2021 Resumen: Este artículo analiza los efectos del COVID-19 en el fenómeno del terrorismo desde un enfoque multidimensional, utilizando el concepto PMESII (Político, Militar, Económico, Social, Informativo y de Infraestructuras) como marco teórico. De esta forma se examinarán los efectos y consecuencias de la pandemia que pueden hacer que las diferentes sociedades sean más vulnerables a la radicalización y al terrorismo.

Aspectos socioculturales del desastre de Annual. El coronel Gabriel De Morales Mendicutía global-strategy.org/aspectos-socioculturales-desastre-de-annual-coronel-morales-mendicutia/ Global Strategy Report, 27/2021 Resumen: Este artículo analiza los aspectos socioculturales del área del Rif donde se desarrollaron las operaciones militares que se engloban en el conocido como Desastre de Annual, la política española en el Rif y el papel en dichas operaciones del coronel Gabriel de Morales, auténtico pionero del análisis sociocultural y un precursor de la integración de los aspectos humanos en el Entorno Operativo, ambos esenciales también en las operaciones de contrainsurgencia actuales. Finalmente, el artículo ofrece un análisis multidimensional de las causas y factores que contribuyeron a la sangrienta derrota española, de que se cumplen ahora cien años.

Aspectos socioculturales del desastre de Annual. El coronel Gabriel De Morales Mendicutía global-strategy.org/aspectos-socioculturales-desastre-de-annual-coronel-morales-mendicutia/ Global Strategy Report, 27/2021 Resumen: Este artículo analiza los aspectos socioculturales del área del Rif donde se desarrollaron las operaciones militares que se engloban en el conocido como Desastre de Annual, la política española en el Rif y el papel en dichas operaciones del coronel Gabriel de Morales, auténtico pionero del análisis sociocultural y un precursor de la integración de los aspectos humanos en el Entorno Operativo, ambos esenciales también en las operaciones de contrainsurgencia actuales. Finalmente, el artículo ofrece un análisis multidimensional de las causas y factores que contribuyeron a la sangrienta derrota española, de que se cumplen ahora cien años.

Resumen: Este articulo trata de analizar y contextualizar el creciente papel de los conversos musulmanes españoles en actividades relacionadas con organizaciones internacionales de terrorismo inspirado por una interpretación radical y violenta de la fe musulmana. Este estudio presta especial atención al perfil y motivaciones de esos conversos españoles, hombres y mujeres, que han sufrido un proceso de radicalización. Estos factores serán estudiados en un contexto social e identitario y se analizarán también los elementos contraculturales y la influencia de las nuevas tecnologías en los procesos de captación y radicalización.

Current military operations are essentially population centric and must be conducted in a way that influence the will and decisions of the main actors of the Operational Environment (OE), conditioning them to make their behaviour compatible with the objectives of the mission. The intricate and unstable characteristics of the constantly OE make it necessary to transform capabilities to adapt to the human environment. Recent military operations have shown that the cultural dimension is an essential element in an Area of Operations (AoO) and that the ability to identify the main actors and understand their motivations and interrelationships is vital when planning and executing any military operation. The need of operationalizing culture remains and even increases in the context of hybrid warfare. This article focuses on the importance and necessity of analysing the human factors of the OE that affect any military operation and integrating them in the planning and execution of the operations. It also includes a gender perspective and presents a case study of the analysis of the cultural factors: NATO Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts. Finally, the paper provides some conclusions and recommendations to better adapt military capabilities to the human-centric operations.

ABSTRACT: The DAESH has been particularly successful in recruiting Western women. There are differences in their profile and motivation with their male counterparts. The DAESH offered an alternative to Western secularist feminism, substituting salvation for emancipation (empowerment without gender equality). DAESH´s Western women played different roles. They were wives of jihadists, mothers and educators of the next generation, recruiters and fundraisers for the organisation and workers in the segregated institutions of the Caliphate. They were also involved in violent actions when the time came, depending on the needs of the organisation. The analysis on DAESH Western women is often influenced by prejudices, stereotypes, and gender biases. Counterterrorism efforts need for the integration of the gender perspectives and needs for more women to detect radicalization as well as in prevention, de-radicalisation, and reintegration processes. RESUMEN: El DAESH ha sido especialmente exitoso a la hora de reclutar mujeres occidentales. Hay diferencias en el perfil y la motivación de esas mujeres con respecto a sus correligionarios masculinos. El DAESH ha ofrecido una alternativa al feminismo secularista occidental, sustituyendo salvación por emancipación (empoderamiento sin igualdad de género). Las mujeres occidentales del DAESH han desempeñado diferentes labores. Ellas has sido esposas de los yihadistas, madres y educadoras de la siguiente generación, reclutadoras y recaudadoras de fondos para la organización y trabajadoras en las instituciones segregadas por géneros del Califato. También participaron en acciones violentas cuando llegó el momento, dependiendo de las necesidades de la organización. El análisis de las mujeres occidentales del DAESH se ve a menudo influido por prejuicios y estereotipos de género. La lucha contra el terrorismo necesita la inclusión de perspectivas de género y un mayor número de mujeres para detectar los procesos de radicalización, así como en los programas de prevención, desradicalización y reintegración.

The exponential increase of mainly Muslim asylum seekers to the European Union in 2014-2016 (which concurred with a dramatic intensification of religious inspired terrorist activities) raised numerous security concerns and countless questions about the link between refugees and terrorism and amplified xenophobic feelings and Islamophobia in some sectors of the European societies.

This article analyses the role of religion and moral values in the framework of Russian policies, the Kremlin intent to attract " people's hearts, minds and souls " in different places all over the world, and the moral dimension of Moscow hybrid warfare against the West.

Globalization has introduced rapid changes in the social, political and economic realms of life. It has provoked perturbing and turbulent effects and has challenged established and rooted notions of identity. Globalization has also changed the essence of religion and its role in international affairs. Religion is growing in countries with a wide variety of religious traditions and levels of economic development. Islam is also experiencing a genuine revival. Salafism is a primarily theological movement in Sunni Islam concerned with purifying the faith. Islamic Salafism, as other major religious movements of today, has become universal and less affiliated with any one territory, and more personal and private, increasingly embodying a spiritual search for self-fulfilment. Salafism has also evolved from being a non-political ideology to develop into a political force.

According to the 2010 census, ethnic Russians accounts for 77.7 percent of 142.3 million estimated Russian population. The image of Russia in the world is rarely associated with Islam and Islamic identity, in general. While Orthodox Christianity is the country’s predominant confession, not many know that Russia is home to as many as 20 million Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds. Russian leaders and politicians repeatedly stress the significance of Islam as integral to the political fabric of statehood, historically and in the contemporary era. Islam in Russia is a complex, transversal and multidimensional issue and its growing importance in Russia will shape the future of the country in at least five main directions: the overall demographic balance of the country; the strategy of ‘normalizing’ the regions of the North Caucasus; Russia’s migration policy; Russia’s positioning on the international scene; and the transformation of Russian national identity. This article examines the current role of Islam in Russian society, focusing on its role in Moscow internal and external policies and paying special attention to issues such as Muslims demographics, immigration, different streams in Russian Islam and the threat of terrorism.

DAESH is the richest and most violent terrorist group in modern history. It has evolved from a geographically contained insurgent group to a quasi-conventional army with global impact. DAESH has been able to capitalize Sunni Arab fears and resentment of Shite leadership in Iraq and Alawite leadership in Syria. Identity and sectarian polarization provided the perfect conditions for DAESH establishment in both countries. Part of DAESH strategy is to attract foreign fighters. Newspaper reports peg the number of foreign fighters in Syria in the thousands, noting that the inflow exceeds that which existed in Iraq at the time of peak conflict. At the end of December 2015, between 27,000 and 31,000 people had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and other violent extremist groups from at least 86 countries. 5,000 of them were coming from Western Europe countries. DAESH will continue calling Muslims to come to their Islamic State and continue to ask those within Western countries to attack within their own countries. This article is intended to dig into the DAESH ideology and the motivations and profiling of the European foreign fighters who are attracted by the group.

Parte de la estrategia del DAESH es atraer a combatientes extranjeros que les proporcionan además de nuevos soldados, mano de obra y conocimientos y capacidades técnicas que necesita la organización a la hora de conseguir consolidar y extender su autodenominado Califato. Dicho Califato, presentado como una utopía neo-salafista, es del centro de gravedad de la organización y es la clave de su campaña para atraer a musulmanes de todo el mundo a los territorios conquistados en Oriente Medio. Este artículo pretende profundizar en la ideología que apoya la narrativa propagandista del DAESH, factor esencial en su labor de captación y posterior reclutamiento. También se hará un análisis de las motivaciones y los perfiles de los jóvenes de origen europeo que se han visto atraídos por este grupo terrorista. El estudio y conocimiento de estos factores es vital a la hora de diseñar una estrategia multidimensional para disminuir la capacidad de reclutamiento del DAESH, requisito imprescindible para conseguir su derrota.

The Human Aspects of the Operational Environment (HAOE) project has its roots in the challenges posed to current North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operations in Afghanistan. However it is obvious that focusing only on Afghanistan would not be enough since in the future NATO will be presumably involved more and more in operations outside its territory, and that the large majority of such operations will be represented by Non-Article 5 Crisis Response Operations (NA5CRO). The local population has been always one of the most important features of the operational environment, and as the conflict between the adversaries increasingly spreads among it, gaining local population’s support becomes the new centre of gravity of military operations. In NA5CRO NATO will have to interact directly with the local population that encompasses the entire range of ethnic groups and cultures and different actors from military/paramilitary, local governance, NGOs, criminality, security domains. Different environments require different capabilities. Therefore, a solid environmental understanding is vital during the operational planning and preparation phases, in order to ensure that appropriate capabilities are deployed. A thorough understanding of the local population is needed to comprehensively approach the operational environment, to enhance population support for NATO operations, and to improve the operational effectiveness and security.

Terms usurped and capitalised upon by Al-Qaeda and other similar terrorist and extremist organisations have a special place in Islamic culture and a particular resonance with Muslim populations. The aforementioned terrorist groups normally utilise these terms in order to further their objectives and gain, first, the support of larger audiences and, ultimately, legitimacy for their actions. At the same time, Western policy makers,
security agencies and, crucially, the media have also used and regurgitated the same terminology in an uncritical fashion. This article explains the semantic nuances behind
terms like “Islamic”, “Islamist”, “fundamentalist”, “Salafi”, “Wahhabi” and “jihadi terrorism”, and the potential that such use has for the alienation of moderate segments of the Muslim creed and the obstacles it raises for intercultural counter-radicalisation
efforts. The article then suggests the adoption of a more-nuanced term by Western circles – one that is equally embedded in Islamic culture and its value system and one that
is not as negligent or power-related as the ones that are currently used.

During and just after the war in BiH the financial support coming
from foreign Muslim countries undermined the power of the well organized and structured Bosnian Islamic community. The Islamic revival that began in Yugoslavia in the 70’s decade, which was developed in the framework of the local Muslim institutions and tradition, turned during and after the war to a different revitalization influenced by alien elements as some foreign fighters and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from the Middle East. The Official Islamic Community of BIH (IZ) has been taking control of Islam in BIH since the end of the 1992-95 war. However, the IZ has recognized the presence of religious
organizations outside its control, and that one of these organizations is an obstacle for the legitimate activities of the wider Islamic Community.
Besides efforts on behalf of the IZ to counter external influence,
ordinary believers are very often staunch opponents of Salafis and that might be the really insurmountable obstacle in front of Salafism in BIH. Since the end of the war the largely secular and European attitude among the Bosniaks has caused friction with foreign Islamic creeds. Different reports on incidents involving moderate and radical Muslims have shown
that Salafi communities are willing to use coercive methods to spread their radical ideas. Traditional Muslims have also demonstrated that they can use radical methods to counter the spread of the Salafi movement in BIH. Assessments show that, despite their efforts, the Salafi movement does not have many supporters in BIH. The general population is afraid of their fundamentalist approach towards religion. BIH Muslims want to maintain the local traditional and moderate version of Islam.
While the predominance of traditional ‘Bosnian’ Islam is widespread, the Salafi movement has established itself in some areas of BIH. Some radical groups have been determined in their efforts to publicly confront the role of the IZ and its control over Islamic religion in BIH, using their literal interpretation of the Koran. Their actions have drawn the attention of both local and international media and security services.
An element of the local media, that often shows nationalist or political bias, has tried to show the problem of Salafism in BIH as a growing threat against the safety and security within BIH and perhaps within the rest of Europe. This media element has used a theme that is similar to that used at the beginning of the 1990’s, in changing the term ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ to ‘Wahhabism’ or Salafism. To counter this, media close to the Bosniak establishment, have tried to ‘hide’ any evidence of
the Salafi presence in BIH or, at least, to downplay the significant of their influence.
Most of the information gathered until now about this topic is
based on the regurgitation of media or biased spread of rumours without further confirmation. This article, which is focused on the current situation of Salafism, intents to represent original thinking about the real picture of the Islamic community in the country and not a ‘regurgitation of open-source wisdom’. It is very important to defeat prejudices and misunderstandings that present obstacles to make a serious analysis on this issue.