Cybersecurity Abroad

As states increasingly use cyberspace to sophisticatedly influence and interfere in elections abroad, the question arises whether international human rights law (IHRL) obligations relevant to such operations—such as the rights to privacy and self-determination—apply extraterritoriality in that context, thus limiting the ability of that state to engage in such activity when it infringes on the rights of foreign individuals. Existing spatial and temporal notions of IHRL’s applicability are difficult to effectuate when transplanted to a domain that lacks physical territory, and where no single state or nonstate actor may claim to be in exclusive effective control of it. This chapter argues that the focus on territoriality may undermine the ability to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights in cyberspace. The growing involvement of states in election interference operations in cyberspace will necessarily mean that more individuals will be affected, giving rise to a concern about the efficacy of IHRL in the wake of technologies that defy territorial boundaries. To conclude, this chapter proposes an alternative method of thinking about IHRL in cyberspace, focusing on a standard of “virtual control” supported by an assessment of the adverse effects experienced by foreign individuals.

Gangsters and Other Statesmen

Separatism has been on the rise across the world since the end of the Cold War, dividing countries through political strife, ethnic conflict, and civil war, and redrawing the political map. This book examines the role transnational mafias play in the success and failure of separatist movements, challenging conventional wisdom about the interrelation of organized crime with peacebuilding, nationalism, and state making. The book demonstrates how globalized mafias shape the politics of borders in torn states, shedding critical light on an autonomous nonstate actor that has been largely sidelined by considerations of geopolitics, state-centered agency, and ethnonationalism. Blending extensive archival sleuthing and original ethnographic data with insights from sociology and other disciplines, the book argues that organized crime can be a fateful determinant of state capacity, separatist success, and ethnic conflict. Putting mafias at the center of global processes of separatism and territorial consolidation, the book raises vital questions and urges reconsideration of a host of separatist cases in West Africa, the Middle East, and East Europe.

Lures and Endures: How ‘Sinai Province’ Fights in Egypt

The chapter focuses on the case of ISIS in Sinai (Sinai Province or SP) and its military capacities. It overviews the development of the predecessors of IS in Sinai, including Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM or Supports of Jerusalem) and al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad in Sinai (TJS or Monotheism and Struggle in Sinai). Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, ISIS in Sinai and its predecessors have survived ten years of brutal counterinsurgency and conventional tactics (2011-2021). This makes the case of ISIS in Sinai perhaps the most puzzling. SP has limited resources, even compared with other ISIS provinces. Geographically, its strongholds in the Northeast are not rugged (the peninsula’s high mountains are located in South and Central Sinai). Moreover, SP has limited support among a small, divided population, and it is surrounded by hostile authorities (Egypt, Palestinian Hamas, and Israel). The chapter develops an explanation of SP’s endurance by focusing on its tactics and by drawing upon interviews with former Egyptian army officers and security officials, Sinaian tribal leaders. The chapter also analyzes the Battle of Sheikh Zuweid of July 2015, in which SP executed the most complex military operation conducted by an Egyptian armed nonstate actor in the last one hundred years.

WAR AGAINST TERORISM IN SWAT: A COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS OF THE HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES OF THE WARING PARTIES

Humanitarianism is war’s philosophy to treat the enemy as a human after becoming dysfunction to fight further. So far, humanitarian law is clear- at least in codes- regarding international and traditional wars. After 9/11 the world experienced a total new war where, at least one party is nonstate actor. How to deal the injured, captured and dead combatants and non-combatants during the war became unclear and debatable. The war was fought in the parts of Pakistan including Swat that witnessed a huge displacement and destruction. People suffered hugely at the hands of the combating parties. It made it debatable to study whether there is a set of humanitarian codes, owned and practiced by military and militants. An intellectual work therefore, is mandatory to know the roots, sources and codes of humanitarian principles of the war on terror and its relevance with the fighting in Swat.