The jihadist group that proclaimed a caliphate in June 2014 – the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

ASSIGNMENT#3 ON GLOBALIZATION

Order Description

3rd Assignment, Winter 2015

Assignment procedures:

This assignment counts for 10% of your final grade!

Your answers must be printed in Times New Roman, font 12, and single-spaced.

You are allowed a maximum of one page of a Word document (not counting used bibliography/references). Exceeding pages will be disregarded. I know there is a lot to be

said and argued, but succinctness is a precious skill to be developed.

All questions must be answered in your own words! Do not copy-paste the slides presented in class nor the articles you’ve read for this assignment as this constitutes

academic fraud!

Assignment must be submitted through Blackboard Learn no later than March 17th, 2015 (10am). No exceptions! You have only one chance to submit it, so make sure you

submit the right and complete file.

In addition, make sure your uploaded document follows one of the following formats: Word (DOC, DOCX), PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX) or PDF (PDF). No other formats will be

accepted as the BlackBoard Learn’s system Crocodoc will not display it.

Assignment:

The jihadist group that proclaimed a caliphate in June 2014 – the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) –

seems to be making daily appearances in the most important newspapers in the world.

Mainly acting in Iraq, Syria and Libya, this group is allegedly a faction of al-Qaeda and is headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (declared by his followers to be the

Caliph). The group became notorious for the brutal manslaughters of civilians and other hostages perceived as enemies of the caliphate. The operations of this group go

beyond the Syrian and Iraq area. They are also known for recruiting westerners of different ages, sexes and nationalities to join their fight.

You must read the following news articles:

https://time.com/3533581/canada-ottawa-shooting-lone-wolf-terrorism/

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/foreign-fighters-how-real-is-the-threat/article20360923/

After reading the three articles, you must answer the following questions:

Karin Knorr Cetina (2005) characterized al-Qaeda as a global microstructure. Do you think that the group proclaiming the Islamic State is also a “global

microstructure”? Why?
The ISIS group uses technologies to pursue what sort of goals?
What is the “lone wolf phenomenon”?
Do you agree with Thomas Friedman’s argument that ISIS is a by-product of “failed governance” (a.k.a. failed states) in the Arab world? Why? (tip: remember our

discussions in class)
What is homegrown terrorism? How is the Canadian government facing this increasing threat?