Tribes and Global Jihadism

Across the Muslim world, from Iraq and Yemen, to Egypt and the Sahel, new alliances have been forged between the latest wave of violent Islamist groups ---- -including Islamic State and Boko Haram ---- -and local tribes. But can one now speak of a direct link between tribalism and jihadism, and how analytically useful might it be?
Tribes are traditionally thought to resist all encroachments upon their sovereignty, whether by the state or other local actors, from below; yet by joining global organizations such as Islamic State, are they not rejecting the idea of the state from above? This triangular relationship is key to understanding instances of mass 'radicalization', when entire communities forge alliances with jihadi groups, for reasons of self-interest, self-preservation or religious fervor. If Algeria's FIS or Turkey's AKP once represented the 'Islamization of nationalism', have we now entered a new era, the 'tribalization of globalization'?

Virginie Collombier is the Research Coordinator of the Middle East Directions Program at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, where her research focus is Libya. Olivier Roy is joint chair of the Robert Schuman Centre. He is one of the world's most renowned scholars of political Islam, five of whose books have been published by Hurst.

Introduction -- Olivier Roy 1. Iraqi Tribes In The Land Of Jihad -- Hosham Dawod 2. Kto Kovo: Tribes And Jihad In Pushtun Lands -- Mike Martin 3. Tribes And Political Islam In The Borderland Between Egypt And Libya - A (Trans-)Local Perspective -- Thomas Hüsken 4. Sufi Jihad And Salafi Jihadism In Egypt's Sinai: Tribal Generational Conflict -- Ismail Alexandrani 5. The Global And The Local: Al-Qaeda And Yemen's Tribes -- Marieke Brandt 6. Between The 'Kanuri' And The Others: Giving A Face To A Jihad With Neither Borders Nor Tribes In The Lake Chad Basin. -- Claude Mbowou Sirte's Tribes Under The Islamic State. From Civil War To Global Jihadism -- Virginie Collombier