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Got a couple more for you. Apologies for the length and review-y-ness; I'm in essay season and had my notes to hand :)


Abdel Bari Atwan. (2015). Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate. London. Saqi Books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Islamic-State-Caliphate-Abdel-Bari-Atwan/dp/0863561349/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452127827&sr=8-1&keywords=islamic+state+digital+caliphate

Significance: One of the few journalists to have secured interviews with Osama bin Laden, Atwan draws on a wealth of exposure to, and sources within, the global jihadist movement. As his title suggests, Atwan's main assertion is that IS could not have achieved its successes on the ground without its 'mastery of the internet'. However, only one chapter—a slim 15 pages—is dedicated to the group's online functions. For internet-savvy redditors, little of this brief description of TOR, DDOS strikes, Twitter storms, etc. is likely to prove groundbreaking.

The real significance of Atwan's book is in his detailed yet accessible explanation of the rise of IS and of how the group functions on the ground—all placed within decades of research and interviews. He dedicates a chapter to IS' adherence to Abu Bakr Naji's strategy 'the management of savagery'. In another, he explains succinctly how foreign fighters are radicalised/recruited via propaganda distributed online, and what happens thereafter.

Essentially, Atwan provides a history of the Islamic State that contrasts its hyper-modern trappings with its anachronistic ideology and long-established organisational origins—both Ba'athist and transnational. Best of all, it is written by a veteran journalist and, as such, with a highly accessible brevity and clarity that is absent in some of the loftier texts above (and indeed this suggestion).


Marc Sageman. (2008). Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leaderless-Jihad-Networks-Twenty-first-Century/dp/0812240650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452127855&sr=1-1&keywords=leaderless+jihad

Significance: As /u/PM_ME_UR_ATGMS rightly notes above, Sageman is among the most noteworthy of contributors to the field of radicalisation. Leaderless Jihad draws on further case studies (500 in total) to revise his previous conclusions and further emphasise the bottom-up nature of jihadi social mobility. He repeats his calls for a more scientific methodology of understanding radicalisation, and again rails against discussions of 'root causes' or individual terrorist psychopathologies. He provides compelling answers in the form of social interactionism and his 'Bunches of Guys' theory—models that are used by intelligence and security agencies. For Sageman, Al-Qaeda became by 2008 ‘a multitude of informal groups’ that differed from the previously ‘structured group’.

Another key aspect of Leaderless Jihad is his clarification of a four-stage (but non-linear) model of radicalisation, consisting of: moral outrage, perceiving Islam as being ‘under threat’ (especially by ‘the West’), frame resonance (i.e. identifying moral outrage with personal experiences), and mobilisation.

Notably, Sageman’s revisions followed the emergence of ‘Web 2.0’ and the altered terrain that new technologies brought with them. In his 2004 book, he described fears of online radicalisation as ‘overblown’; 4 years later he asserts that the internet is ‘the virtual glue holding the global jihadist movement together’. At 8 years old it is outdated in terms of social media usage, etc., but his understanding of the psycho-social dynamics at play stands the test of time and can be transplanted easily to contemporary cases of the foreign fighter phenomenon.

Here's an interview I did with Orton where he goes into more depth about the Faith Campaign

http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2015/11/what-role-do-iraqi-baathists-play-in.html

Another interview I did with Prof Amatzia Baram about the Faith Campaign

http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/2015/11/saddams-faith-campaign-iraqs-tribes-two.html

Baram's book Saddam Hussayn and Islam

http://www.amazon.com/Saddam-Husayn-Islam-1968-2003-Secularism/dp/1421415828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448430426&sr=8-1&keywords=amatzia+baram+-+books

All good starting points.

I've got two book recommendations -

Book: Warriors of God

Author: Nicholas Blanford

Significance: Blanford, a journalist who spent many years as a correspondent in Lebanon, provides a detailed and readable account of Hezbollah's history, structure, and strategy.


Book: The Looming Tower

Author: Lawrence Wright

Significance: The Looming Tower provides an excellent and comprehensive history of Salafi Jihadism and how it relates to Al-Qaeda's development.

I would like to recommend: "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror" by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan (2015)


http://www.amazon.co.uk/ISIS-Inside-Terror-Michael-Weiss/dp/1941393578


My synopsis:

Weiss and Hassan detail how Iraq was politically destabilised all-the-while explaining how the jihad movement arrived, spread, and took root in Iraq. Great detail is given on Zarqawi, it's organisations, their role in destabilising Iraq, and how they laid the foundations for Daesh. They also detail how Syria was politically destabilised, how the jihadi movement arrived in Syria, and how Jabhat al-Nusra and Daesh have different ideologies which explains the current situation in Syria.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0DRTSK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_jj0kyb233RNJB

available with Amazon prime. looking to make a torrent for it rn.

edit: looks like they have a lot of DRM protection. not sure how to extract the video file, unless anyone has any ideas.

I want to recommend, Ali H. Soufan's The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda.

My brief synopsis,
The book provides a fantastic history of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Ali Soufan was an FBI criminal investigator who worked on peicing together the U.S.S. Cole bombing in Oct of 2000. He explained the operations and logistics of how the jihadist group conducted its terrorist attack. Ali was an opponent to harsh interogations and a master at seducing captured al-Qaeda memebers to revealing information.

Book: The Foundations of Modern Terrorism: State, Society and the Dynamics of Political Violence

Author: Martin A. Miller

Significance: This was the course textbook for my History of Terrorism class. This book is a nice introduction to the concept of terrorism and terrorism study. The author chronologically traces the origins and evolution of terrorism, laying the foundations to understanding the phenomenon. Unlike many who have tried to find a concrete definition and have often narrowed it down to Non State Actors, Martin A. Miller comes at this from the angel of Power. He frames the concept of terrorism as an interactive process between State Actors and non State Actors and the use of and struggle for power. I think this book would be great for any Student or enthusiast of the Subject.

 

Official Book Description: "Why is it that terrorism has become such a central factor in our lives despite all the efforts to eradicate it? Ranging from early modern Europe to the contemporary Middle East, Martin Miller reveals the foundations of modern terrorism. He argues that the French Revolution was a watershed moment as it was then that ordinary citizens first claimed the right to govern. The traditional notion of state legitimacy was forever altered and terrorism became part of a violent contest over control of state power between officials in government and insurgents in society. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries terrorism evolved into a way of seeing the world and a way of life for both insurgents and state security forces with the two sides drawn ever closer in their behaviour and tactics. This is a groundbreaking history of terrorism which, for the first time, integrates the violence of governments and insurgencies."

 

More Info: https://youtu.be/rLsHthrG4m4