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In this research article, we examined who, how, and in what ways Islamic State magazines are being shared online. We used Babel Street software (an open-source intelligence company) and data analytics to collect publicly available information Irom 27 platforms using 12 magazines as the keywords. Our data revealed accounts sharing the most content to be discussing the topic Irom a neutral standpoint. Most (53%) discussions were intended to spread news or share academic resources (28%) about the content provided in the 12 Islamic State magazines. Approximately 6% of the 433 discussions, however, were intended to recruit for the Islamic State with 2% shared to brag to an opposing audience. Research and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relies on the academic literature on rebel movements and armed rebellions to better the insurrection presently underway in the Egyptian provinces of the Sinai. The paper seeks to understand the implications for counter-insurgency policies, asking why the insurgency has proven so resilient, and at times expanded. The military capabilities and resources available to the militants will also be scrutinized, along with the Egyptian Army's blundering attempts at counterinsurgency and the prevailing political environment. The paper then moves to studying the tactical patterns and the overall strategy of the ISIL affiliated group active in the Sinai. The author concludes that the failure of counterinsurgency efforts, the continued absence of national reconciliation, the failure to review and revise counterinsurgency policies serve to make the Sinai region fertile ground for insurgents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we tell what state the laws of war are in today, and whether they face exceptional pressures? Standard accounts of the condition of this body of law focus on problems of compliance and effectiveness. In particular, there is a dominant international legal diagnosis that most non-compliance is accounted for by the prevalence of non-state belligerents in irregular or asymmetric conflicts. We propose that any such diagnosis is partial at best. A focus on compliance and effectiveness tells us nothing about the reasons for actor behaviour, or about its impact on the regime. We advance a different conceptual framework, exploring the complex connections between compliance, effectiveness and legitimacy. We propose an alternative diagnostic model that places legitimacy at the heart of the analysis, treating it as causal, not simply symptomatic. This highlights when violations result in legitimacy costs for the individual actor, as opposed to reaching a tipping point when violations cumulatively impose legitimacy costs on the regime itself. We argue for the need to move beyond discussions framed by compliance and effectiveness, and towards the forms, reasons and reception of non-compliant behaviour, as this provides a truly social measure of the state of the law. In order to illustrate this, we examine three distinct types of challengers — Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the US and Russia — and present them as, respectively, revisionist, rejectionist and denialist threats to the regime. Unusually, the laws of war today face challenges on all three fronts simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is an increasing degree of networking and interconnection of risks and threats. Therefore, state institutions and international organizations face difficulties in terms of anticipation, prevention and combating. The new threat is dynamic, nonlinear, it is subject to rules, it is difficult to predict, and its effects are difficult to quantify. In order to capture and describe the characteristics of the new type of conflict was introduced the term “hybrid' to define in a better way the complexity of current conflicts, the number of actors involved and the ratio of net unconventional actions carried out against those classics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]