The threat to peace posed by the Islamic State group has been described as “unprecedented in the modern age”, yet research on the rise and fall of an extremist group in 1980s Lebanon suggests that we may have seen this all before.
We can but hope, argue sociologist Dr Jeff Miley and Gates Scholar Johanna Riha, who here summarise some of their observations following a recent field visit to Rojava in northern Syria, and give a brief overview of the political and social ideologies underpinning the Kurdish revolution.
The exiled Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is preparing to exploit the current crisis in the country to make its return, but is unlikely to link up with the most extreme Islamic militants, according to a forthcoming book written by a Gates Cambridge Scholar.
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