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International terrorist organization ‘Islamic State’: history, modernity. by Vladislav V. Krasinskiy & Vladislav V. Mashko, INFRA-M, Russia, 2019, 108 pp., ₽570.-/US$8.00 (paperback)
The authors state thatIslamic State: history, modernity is an attempt to fill omissions in the Russian scientific literature on the Islamic State (10), commonly known as IS. The monograph contains three chapters, focussing on structure and tactics, external factors, and problems in countering the ASIAN STUDIES REVIEW 551 IS. There is also a supplement in the book that lists the leaders and ideologues of the Islamic State (103–106), but the authors do not mention Abu Omar al-Shishani and some other terrorists. The length of the work (108 pages) hints at its superficiality: it is difficult to study the IS comprehensively in such a compressed format. Also, the book completely lacks a theoretical section, and superficially examines the historiography of the problem. The theory of terrorism and works on the classics of that field of knowledge are not mentioned. Unfortunately, this is one of the key problems of Terrorism Studies – the terminology of terrorism is not even mentioned. However, the work is not devoid of scientific novelty, academic methodology and a desire to understand the essence of the problem. The study notes that the activities of the IS affect the interests of Russia (5). The authors refer to official Russian sources, and report that more than 4,000 Russian citizens are involved in the financing of the IS: more than 9,000 people from the former USSR have joined the organisation, of whom about 4,000 are Russians and 5,000 from Central Asia (55–56). According to the authors, Russians make up 9 per cent of the total IS manpower. It is rightly noted that, for Russia, the main threat from the IS is associated with the possibility of destabilisation in the North Caucasus, from militants who have gained experience in combat operations and returned to Russia (45). The article examines the propaganda materials of IS in Russian. The authors write that the Russian-language IS magazine Istok depicted both Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, which ‘attests to the perception of Russia as the main enemy along with the USA’ (42).