‘Behead, burn, crucify, crush’: Theorizing the Islamic State’s public displays of violence

Abstract

The militant group known as the Islamic State has become notorious for its public displays of violence. Through slick high-definition videos showing beheadings, immolations and other forms of choreographed executions, the Islamic State has repeatedly captured the imagination of a global public and provoked vehement reactions. This article examines the Islamic State’s public displays of violence. Contrary to the public constitution of the Islamic State’s violence as an exceptional evil, the article argues that the group’s staging of killings and mutilations is not an unprecedented phenomenon, but a contemporary version of a distinct type of political violence that has been mobilized by various political agents throughout centuries. However, what is new and significant about the Islamic State’s choreographed executions is the public visibility of the acts and the global spectacle that the group has created. Thus, if the Islamic State is introducing a new dynamic in global politics, it is not a new form of violence or brutality, but rather a transformation of how spectacles of violence unfold on the global stage. Subsequently, the article highlights three dimensions of the Islamic State’s public displays of violence that have facilitated the creation of the global spectacle: the Islamic State’s technological skills and professional use of media ( technology); the Islamic State’s mobilization of acts of violence that transgress prevailing sensibilities ( transgression); and the violent acts’ function as not only a form of terror, but also an integral element of a state project and a visual manifestation of an alternative political order ( politics).

The containment of the Islamic State: A realist case to engage a hybrid actor

“…ISIS seeks to press its opponents into polarization and obedience (Byman, 2016, p. 150;Friis, 2017;Stern & Berger, 2015, p. 243). Pursuing a counter-narrative thus reinforces the polarization ISIS seeks.…”

“…"New" is the global visibility of ISIS's violent spectacle. Its brutal violence mobilizes victims to enact the perpetrator's political superiority (Friis, 2015(Friis, , 2017). ISIS's violence works as its call for self-sacrifice in the cause for a devoted commitment to the Caliphate (McCants, 2016, pp.…”

Micro-Sociology and New Wars: Visual Analysis of Terror Attacks During the “Intifada of the Individuals”

“…The web is infested by the content of numerous video clips shot by security devices, pedestrians, or bystanders in the vicinity of the crime. Communication news agents cheerfully collect and present them over and over again, empowering their negative emotional effects (Friis, 2018). Here is a recent example,On January 8, 2017, a medium-sized lorry rampaged into a group of Israeli officer cadets in Jerusalem, killing 4 and wounding 13.…”

The everyday at the border: Examining visual, material and spatial intersections of international politics along the ‘Balkan Route’

“…Whilst there is now a rich body of literature examining the visual in IR (Bleiker, 2001; Friis, 2017; Hansen, 2015; Heck and Schlag, 2013; Moore and Shepherd, 2010), there is less consideration of the spatial or material dimension of visuals and visual objects, or how spaces and material objects themselves can be visual or produce visual effects. In IR, there is also less of an emphasis on the visuality of the banal (e.g.…”