GWU Panel Surprisingly Acknowledges Resurgent Jihadism

Brigham Young University professor Quinn Mecham

In a welcome departure from the obfuscation and apologetics that typifies Middle East studies academics’ commentary on the Islamic State (IS), a recent panel at George Washington (GW) University provided a relatively straightforward look at IS and resurgent jihadism. In the latest Campus Watch research, Andrew Harrod reports on the GW panel, “New Challenges for Islamist Movements.” His article appears today at Jihad Watch:

Noting a “resurgence of various . . . jihadist movements,” George Washington (GW) University’s Marc Lynch, director of the Institute for Middle East Studies, opened a January 22 GW panel on “New Challenges for Islamist Movements.” The panel highlighted the Middle East’s growing and well-organized Islamist dangers with a refreshing minimum of politically correct Islamic apologetics before an audience of about forty.

Graduate international relations students in the audience corroborated a reporter’s impression that Brigham Young University political science professor Quinn Mecham was the most intriguing panelist. Using the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index, he evaluated the Islamic State’s (IS) “trajectory of increasing stateness,” ranking it as merely the seventeenth most failed state in the world, more stable than such countries as Afghanistan or Yemen. He observed that the IS’s “multiple large revenue streams,” such as oil and taxation, are the “envy of many poor states.”

To read the entire article, please click here.

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Cinnamon Stillwell

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.