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This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) and its predecessor organisations. To keep up with rapidly changing events on the ground and in the jihadist online ecosystem, the most recent publications have been prioritised during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to broaden the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to its known name, many aspects of IS-Khorasan are shrouded in secrecy. The Taliban regime in Kabul claims that the subsidiary of ISIS-Core is an insignificant and irrelevant threat. On the other hand, international military and intelligence sources warn about its resurgence. Utilizing three types of sources of information (existing literature, the Taliban literature, and insights of local residents), this article offers a new perspective on IS-K. The dual organizational structure provides IS-K with flexibility and resilience for survival. Furthermore, its ideological convergence with the Taliban has assisted the core of the organization to remain protected. While its outer layer has been dismantled and dispersed in eastern Afghanistan, IS-K has more opportunities in the northern regions to transform into a regional and global threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Research Note provides findings from a systematic monitoring effort of visually documented extrajudicial executions perpetrated by the Islamic State terrorist group. Based on a data set covering 2,414 individuals killed between January 2015 and December 2020 (1,224 incidents) -- which was compiled for 'Perspectives on Terrorism' in the monitoring project 'Counting Lives Lost' (CLL) -- it presents results from long-term measures of roughly 20 incident- and victim level variables, including citizenship, gender, geographic location, execution method, and IS' justifying arguments for the killings. Accompanied by a supplementary statistics file featuring tabular and graphical representations of the data and the full data set, it highlights temporal trends, changing dynamics, and characteristic qualitative and quantitative patterns, providing unprecedented insights into the execution activities and victimization behavior of the terrorist organization. In contrast to earlier long-term studies, it includes local victims and is not geographically limited. The findings reveal a marked downward trend in incident and casualty numbers over time yet also make clear that IS executions have not come to a halt but continue to remain a persistent phenomenon. The data suggests that the group's territorial breakdown impacted its publicized execution activities. Patterns for conflict-related hostage killings and governance-linked Sharia executions differed significantly. More than 95% of the victims were local citizens from conflict nations (most of them Muslims), while foreigner killings were rare. Less than 1% of the victims were females. The IS' heartlands of Iraq and Syria constituted the main execution theater. Over time, execution activities relocated on a micro-level from urban to more rural areas (especially, within Syria and Iraq) and, on a macro-level, increasingly shifted to different regions (particularly West Africa). The IS named purported 'charges' of the captives as the reason for its violence. The bulk of these charges were related to the conflict between the group and its enemies, while accusations that were closely tied to its implementation of territorial governance had a much lower share. While the IS is often associated with transgressive execution methods, the majority of victims were killed by shooting, yet the group accounted for an unprecedented number of beheadings. Particular types of charges and execution techniques appeared to be associated with each other. Public executions before a physical audience varied for different killing styles and charges, and significantly decreased over time. In 52 execution incidents, the IS instrumentalized minors as executioners. While over 90% of the foreign hostages garnered coverage in Western news media, less than 10% of the locals were reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) and its predecessor organizations. To keep up with the rapidly changing political events, the most recent publications have been prioritized during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing through more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to broaden the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) and its predecessor organizations. To keep up with the rapidly changing political events, the most recent publications have been prioritized during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing through more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to broaden the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the transformation of Daesh in its post-state period. Having lost the territories in Iraq and Syria, the organization is now limited to a small enclave in the east of Syria and several other pockets in Iraq. However, various factors are helping the organization survive. Paradoxically, the loss of territory also led Daesh back to its terrorist essence. This article will show how in terms of ideology, operations, organization and manpower, Daesh at present is a small, Sunni Iraqi guerilla/terror organization. But unlike the prevailing assumption that Daesh might return to its former strength and that its existence is a sine qua non, this article concludes that the organization is neither invincible nor imperishable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) and its predecessor organizations. To keep up with the rapid changing political events, more recent publications have been prioritized during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to expand the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the Islamic State's cyber jihad, fully launched in 2014, is currently undergoing a regression that is demonstrated by the weakening of its quality, coverage and effectiveness. Comparing the character, major forms and popularity of Daesh's releases from 2014 and 2015 with its most up-to-date productions, one can notice evident alterations signaling the long-awaited, but limited as yet, impairment of the "Caliphate's" propaganda machine, composed of such specialized cells as the Amaq News Agency, al-Furqan Media, al-I'tisam Foundation, al-Himmah Library, or the al-Hayat Media Center. This transition is caused by a multitude of factors, with both offline and online origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The actual structures and motivations of terrorist organizations like Daesh (aka. IS, ISIS, ISIL) are often invisible to the general public, and given their clandestine nature, often opaque to all external actors (including governments, militaries, and others). For the general public, the 'picture' of terrorism and terrorist organizations is often painted by the media, with media framing having a direct influence on the American public's understanding of the global terrorist threat, and in turn on the policies and actions the public expects and wants in response. We argue that the central disconnect between the preferences of the American public and the actions of the current administration -- a disconnect that we argue did not exist in relation to al Qaeda -- can in part be explained by media framing of Daesh. We compare media representations of Daesh, and al Qaeda, with a specific focus on the time period between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2014 and find that Daesh has been framed as an existential threat, derivative of its framing as a singularly motivated militaristic group. Because of this framing, there is an inherent disconnect between public perceptions of the threat posed by Daesh and the response to Daesh being pursued by the Administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) and its predecessor organizations. To keep up with the rapid changing political events, more recent publications have been prioritized during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to expand the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliography contains journal articles, book chapters, books, edited volumes, theses, grey literature, bibliographies and other resources on the Islamic State (IS / ISIS / ISIL / Daesh) and its predecessor organizations. To keep up with the rapid changing political events, more recent publications have been prioritized during the selection process. The literature has been retrieved by manually browsing more than 200 core and periphery sources in the field of Terrorism Studies. Additionally, full-text and reference retrieval systems have been employed to expand the search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]