Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram and Forms of Rebellion in the 21st Century in the Vacuum of Ottoman Soviet 'Collapse'
36 Pages Posted: 14 Sep 2014 Last revised: 6 Apr 2015
Date Written: September 9, 2014
Abstract
Today around the world, from the uprisings in India by traditional peoples against the Vedanta mining & development schemes (Anon, 2014), in Panama the Ngobe-Bugle Indian tribe, to the massacre in the Amazonas Province of Peru, Native people are striving to protect their lands from resource extraction and environmental pollution (Létourneau, 2014). No ideology unites them, no international organization can protect them from armies and corporate militias and death squads. National governments call those who resist “terrorists” and so class any actions of self-defense. We have entered an era of global conflict between traditional peoples and corporations where one way of life is being exterminated. While it is in general a continuation of the assault of western colonialism, today’s indigenous rebels instead of being considered devil worshipers are now seen as minions of terror. At the same time international confrontations and competition for resources are escalating. The defeat of the USSR is often described as a “collapse” of authority and transition to a new civil entity, Russia, but like the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, it has resulted in a dismemberment of the Soviet Empire. Where the Middle East remains unstable 100 years after the Ottoman defeat, the Russian periphery has become unstable in both independence movements along its southern borders as well as those flanking Europe. The demise of both empires threatens the stability of the world today.
Keywords: al-Qaeda, ISIS, terrorism, repression, Boko Haram, Iraq, Afghanistan
JEL Classification: C70, I30, J15, N30, N40, O30, P00, Z10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation