Schizophrenic Jihadism

My friend and KCL colleague Nick Michelson has a paper in the new issue of Critical Studies on Terrorism:

Nicholas Michelson, ‘Addressing the Schizophrenia of Global Jihadism‘, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Vol.2, No.3 (December 2009), pp.453-471.

This paper deploys Deleuze and Guattari’s AntiOedipus to critique discourses on radicalisation that call for a ‘public diplomacy’ to challenge a Jihadi meta-narrative or core identity. It argues that the Global Jihad should be reconceptualised as schizophrenic inasmuch as it is made up of a multiplicity of groups, aims, values, rationales and identities. The paper seeks to develop the utility of Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy for bridging critical and traditional terrorism studies by arguing that their schizoanalysis is a helpful aid to reassessing dominant identitarian conceptual frameworks for Jihad, and offers directions for reformulating our responses to radicalisation.

Coincidentally, I posted a piece at FREErad!cals yesterday that treads similar turf, although without such elegance or purpose. It also lacks the critical dimension Nick so usefully deploys here. Then again, that was just a blog post and Nick’s is a full-blown weighty academic paper. Go read.