Chapter in SIPRI Yearbook 2017

2017-11-10

Project leader Professor Isak Svensson and project Core Group member Associate Professor Desirée Nilsson have contributed with a chapter to the SIPRI Yearbook 2017: Armaments, Disarmaments and International Security. The chapter is title "Mapping armed conflicts over Islamist claims: exploring regional variations".

Armed conflicts over Islamist claims have increased dramatically over the past couple of decades. In 1975, there were no Islamist conflicts. By 2015, however, their proportion of all conflicts worldwide had risen to 56 percent. In other words, more than half of all conflicts in 2015 were Islamist conflicts. Yet, little is known about the regional variations of these conflicts. This is what the authors explore in their chapter. 

They show that two-thirds of all Islamist conflicts have occurred in the MENA and sub-Saharan Africa regions, with the rest distributed throughout Asia. Interestingly, they point out, East Asia has defied the larger trend. There, Islamist conflicts have instead decreased over time. They call for future research to examine why that is.

Subscribers can browse the online version of the SIPRI Yearbook here.

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