PRIN 2022 PNRR - Negotiating with Islamist and jihadi armed groups: practices, discourses and mechanisms across Asia and Africa - NIJAR

Over recent years, more and more instances of political dialogue between militant Islamist groups and states at the local, regional, and international level have emerged. The case of the Taliban, that in 2020 negotiated a deal with the US for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, is perhaps the most prominent one; but other cases of overt or covert talks between militant Islamist actors and states have slowly started to surface in other regions of the world. Nonetheless, academic literature still seems to be poorly equipped to decipher this phenomenon through a rigorous theoretical approach — as disciplinary silos and fragmentation of scholarship have prevented the development of a coherent research agenda on the topic. 

NIJAR is committed to addressing these scholarly gaps. It seeks to scrutinize the phenomenon by undertaking three endeavours: (1) broadly mapping cases of negotiation initiatives between militant Islamist groups and states over the last 30 years, so as to extract preliminary hypotheses; (2) understanding how militant Islamist actors normatively legitimize their political engagement with states, in the specific case studies of Afghanistan, the Sahel, and Syria; (3) corroborating and developing research hypotheses on the pre-conditions to negotiations in the case studies outlined above. 

To investigate these puzzles, NIJAR embraces an interdisciplinary, comparative, and innovative approach, combining insights from studies on peace and conflict, religious and area studies, and political sociology. It relies on a combination of mixed research methods, including intensive field research; face-to-face and remote interviews and focus groups involving different stakeholders; and a quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis of statements from militant Islamist groups and other relevant actors. NIJAR’s approach integrates context-sensitive analysis and fine-grained data with efforts to develop robust theory — allowing for rigorous yet nuanced interpretations of the phenomenon at hand. NIJAR will benefit from the robust expertise and the solid track record of the PI and the vice-PI, who have worked extensively on topics such as armed conflicts, political violence, Islamic studies, and religious dialogue — especially in the regions of the Sahel and South-West Asia. NIJAR can make an important contribution both theoretically and practically. On the one hand, it will stimulate cross-fertilization between different academic fields; it will contribute to developing a more coherent research agenda on the topic of negotiations with militant Islamist groups; and it will offer a better understanding of such actors. On the other hand, its findings can have an impact policy-wise too, as they will question and problematize the military-centered solutions that have been dominant (yet, also detrimental in several cases) since the launch of the Global War on Terror, helping outline creative strategies to conflict resolution.

ENTE PROMOTORE: Unione Europea - MUR
NOME PROGETTO: PRIN PNRR 2022 - Negotiating with Islamist and jihadi armed groups: practices, discourses and mechanisms across Asia and Africa – NIJAR
COD. MUR: P2022BSE7X
PERIODO E DURATA: 24 mesi
FINANZIAMENTO: Finanziato dall’Unione europea – Next Generation EU, secondo il PNRR, Missione 4 - Componente 2 - Investimento 1.1
CUP J53D23018820001
COORDINATORI: Prof. Francesco Strazzari, Scuola Superiore di studi Universitari e di perfezionamento Sant’Anna 
REFERENTI SSSA: Prof. Francesco Strazzari, Dott.ssa Laura Berlingozzi, Dott.ssa Marta Cavallaro