Getting the Caucasus Emirate Right: Global Jihadism in Russia's North Caucasus
The Russia and Eurasia Program hosted the launch of our new report "Getting the Caucasus Emirate Right: Global Jihadism in Russia's North Caucasus," authored by the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program Senior Associate, Dr. Gordon Hahn. The discussion also featured Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Schaefer, the author of "The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, From Gazavat to Jihad."
Dr. Hahn's report aims to set straight a rather distorted record. It demonstrates the veracity of three vitally important facts usually obfuscated in discussions of the subject: (1) the longstanding and growing ties between the Caucasus Emirate (CE) and its predecessor organization, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya, on the one hand, and al Qaeda and the Global jihad, on the other hand; (2) the importance of the CE jihadi terrorist network as a united and organized political and military force promoting jihad in the region; and (3) the salience of local culture and the Salifist jihadist theo-ideology and influence of the Global jihadi revolutionary movement as key, if not main, factors driving the "violence in the North Caucasus."
Dr. Hahn is author of the well-received books Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), Russia’s Revolution From Above, 1985-2000 (Transaction Publishers, 2002) and numerous articles in academic journals and English and Russian language media. He has taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. Dr. Hahn also has been a fellow at the Kennan Institute and the Hoover Institution. Dr. Hahn writes and edits the bimonthly 'Islam, Islamism, and Politics in Eurasia Report.'
