This article explores the relationship between masculinity and violent extremism, drawing on fiel... more This article explores the relationship between masculinity and violent extremism, drawing on fieldwork in Mali. It investigates the concept of manhood among Dogon and Fulani and analyzes how masculine ideology shapes attitudes and behaviors toward extremist violence. Acknowledging extremism not only leads to people becoming displaced from their traditional expectations. Challenging traditional practices, it emphasizes a shift to modern expectations, including the importance of financial means and materialistic assets as rites to manhood. The research suggests that joining extremist groups has become an option for vulnerable men to meet masculine expectations, provide protection, and secure coveted positions. These findings underscore the need to consider intersectional masculinity to understand and prevent extremism in Mali and in central Sahel, specifically in rural areas.
The 2014 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan has been defined by Jane's Defence Weekly as "the struggl... more The 2014 'War on Terror' in Afghanistan has been defined by Jane's Defence Weekly as "the struggle to suppress radical Sunni Islamists who seek to re-establish a transnational caliphate by using violence" 1 . This heavy military operation in South-West Asia by NATO troops intended to defeat the Taliban and ultimately leads to the critical question of whether the world has become a safer place? More precisely, this brings forward questions of whether that kind of multinational military commitment will be repeated in the near future. The change in warfare and military commitment by the International Community over the last thirteen years at the Hindu Kusch signals a new trend in many areas all over the world. -Regional limited asymmetric armed conflicts, the so called 'new wars', have become an immense threat to global security within the last two decades. The reason this has happened mainly in countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia or Afghanistan has national and regional roots. Nationalism and poverty, hunger and migration, corruption and religious fanaticism are just a couple of the trigger causes for those new dynamics. 2 This paper aims to examine one of those; the relationship between Islam and terrorism.
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Papers by Dominik Emil