The Rule is for None but Allah: Islamist Approaches to Governance w/ Dr. Joana Cook

Join Dr. Joana Cook, co-editor of The Rule is for None but Allah, for a book talk and panel discussion with Dr. Inga Trauthig, Dr. Nina Musgrave and Dr. Maro Youssef.

On Thursday, November 16th, the Strauss Center is hosting a panel and book talk on The Rule is for None but Allah: Islamist Approaches to Governance, edited by Joana Cook and Shiraz Maher. The event will feature a panel with Dr. Joana Cook, Assistant Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence at Leiden University, and Senior Project Manager at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, Dr. Inga Trauthig, head of research of the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Nina Musgrave, Lecturer in Terrorism and Security Education and Assistant Director at the Centre for Defence Studies. Dr. Trauthig will present on the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and other Libyan Islamists that sought to participate in party politics after 2011, such as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), and Dr. Musgrave will present on the case study of Hamas. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Maro Youssef, State Fragility Program Fellow with the Strauss Center.

About the book

The last four decades have been shaped by the rise of Islamist politics across significant swathes of the globe. Whether by gun or by ballot box, various Islamist movements—from as far and wide as the Malian desert and Indonesia’s archipelagos—have sought to obtain power and govern territories, in a bid to revive an Islamic ancient regime. With the regional privations produced by the ‘War on Terror’ and the political unrest following 2011’s Arab uprisings, the global march of Islamism has only accelerated in the twenty-first century.

Building on an established literature on rebel governance, The Rule is for None but Allah examines fifteen cases from around the world to consider the different ways Islamists have approached and implemented governance; the challenges they have faced; and how they have responded to obstacles. It brings new detail and insights on a wide range of themes, including legitimacy, constitutionality and social-welfare activism.

From the rise and fall of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, to Islamic State’s attempts to create its own currency, to the dramatic return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, this edited volume from two leading scholars of contemporary terrorism assembles an enviable array of international experts to explore these pressing issues.

About the speakers

Dr. Joana Cook is an Assistant Professor of Terrorism and Political Violence in the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. She is also a Senior Project Manager at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) and an Adjunct Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Her research more broadly focuses on women and gender in violent extremism, countering violent extremism, and counter-terrorism practices. More recent scholarly interests include non-state actor governance, and factors and pathways to radicalisation. You can find out more at www.joanacook.com.

Dr. Inga Kristina Trauthig is the head of research of the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement (CME) at UT Austin. She is also an affiliate fellow with the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) at King’s College London. Previously, she has been a research fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and received an MLitt from the University of St Andrews. She received her PhD at King’s College London for which she focused on post-Qaddafi Libya.

Dr. Nina Musgrave is Lecturer in Terrorism and Security Education and Assistant Director at the Centre for Defence Studies. She is also the course tutor for the MA programme in National Security Studies in the Department of War Studies. Nina holds a BA (Hons) from the National University of Ireland (Cork) in History and Economics, an MA in International Relations from the University of Exeter, an MSc in Global Governance and Ethics from University College London, and a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. Nina’s research focused on Western approaches to Hamas following Hamas’s political participation in 2006.

Dr. Maro Youssef is a Fellow in the State Fragility Program at the Strauss Center. Her expertise is in gender, intelligence, human rights, qualitative methods, US foreign policy, and the Middle East and North Africa. As an applied sociologist, she has 15+ years of research and policy experience, including at the US Department of State, World Bank, and University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was also a Brumley Graduate Fellow. She speaks Arabic, English, and French.