Abstract:

Tracing the genealogy of jihadism, Dr Gerard Chaliand will analyze the strategies of chaos employed by various jihadist groups. While these strategies seek the destabilization of countries and regions, they have led nowhere in the current landscape.  Dr Gerard Chaliand will argue that jihadism is a “dead end”, but will probably cost the West two more decades of unrest, especially in Europe.  An example that Dr Chaliand will point at is Daesh’s current sharp decline in Syria and Iraq, from the high point of 2014. Its territorialisation – its main characteristic compared to other jihadist organisations – is on the verge of vanishing.  Nevertheless, to react against its shrinking control of the main battlefield, Daesh is leading an active campaign of terror in other places.

About the Speaker:

Dr Gerard Chaliand is a French Strategist and Political Scientist specialized on the study or Irregular Warfare (guerillas and terrorisms). He has been over the last decades a participant observer of many conflicts in the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa and Latin American. His books include guerillas, strategies, a global history of the world and history of terrorism. From antiquity to Daesh (with A. Blin) published by UC Press Berkeley. He has spent many years in Afghanistan and Iraq.