Broader, vaguer, weaker: The evolving ideology of the Caucasus Emirate leadership

Abstract

In October 2007, veteran Chechen field commander Dokka Umarov proclaimed the formation of the Caucasus Emirate (IK), formalising the victory of the North Caucasus insurgency's Islamist wing over its nationalist-separatists. During Umarov's time as leader, the North Caucasus experienced sustained violence and the IK claimed responsibility for multiple terrorist attacks in and beyond the region. However, despite the importance of ideology in understanding insurgent behaviour, the IK's ideology and Umarov's role in shaping it remain understudied. Using Social Movement Theory's concept of framing to analyse Umarov's communiqués throughout his lengthy tenure (June 2006-September 2013, this article identifies three distinct phases in Umarov's ideological positioning of the insurgency: nationalist-jihadist (June 2006-October 2007); Khattabist (October 2007(October -late 2010; and partially hybridised (late 2010(late -September 2013. The article contributes to debates over typologies of jihadist actors by highlighting the difficulties in applying them to the North Caucasus and provides a clearer understanding of the IK's ideological transformation and the limits to its engagement with external actors. The article also illustrates that weakness was a key factor in explaining that transformation and identifies several avenues for research that could further enhance our understanding of the IK's ideology and the role it plays.

La propaganda como termómetro de la lucha armada: el caso del Emirato del Cáucaso (2010-2019)

“…Otra fecunda línea de investigación es el estudio de los discursos y la propaganda de las guerrillas islamistas (Vergani y Zuev 2015), así como la contrapropaganda rusa (Le Huérou y Regamey 2008; Sieca-Kozlowski 2009; Litvinova 2014). Incluso, existen trabajos que analizan la comunicación oficial de los actores involucrados, como Dokú Umárov, fundador del EC (Youngman 2019), y el actual presidente checheno, Ramzán Kadírov (Avedissian 2016;Rodina y Dligach 2019). Por último, cabe mencionar algunos trabajos, menores en número, que muestran los reflejos del conflicto en el cine (Merrill 2012;Monastireva-Ansdell 2014), también desde la perspectiva del estudio de los imaginarios sociales reproducidos.…”

Bringing the war home: the strategic logic of ‘North Caucasian terrorism’ in Russia

“…Interestingly, despite Kebekov regularly presenting the war as being against 'kafirs' (infidels), 91 he upheld the ban on terrorism outside of the North Caucasus. This though did not stop discussions among the insurgents about the value of re-starting attacks against Russia.…”

Between Caucasus and caliphate: the splintering of the North Caucasus insurgency

“…Several problems have plagued this debate. Firstly, with some recent exceptions (Campana and Ducol 2015;Youngman, forthcoming), there has been an over-reliance on secondary sources, and approaches to material produced by the insurgency itself have often been selective rather than comprehensive, divorcing statements from their communicative context. Secondly, existing work has often imported simplistic understandings of jihadism without critical reflection on their applicability to the North Caucasus.…”