Research on the “new” crime-terror nexus points out a recent trend of criminals turning to Islamist terrorism in Western Europe, assumes this is due to an overlap of criminal and terrorist milieus,...Show moreResearch on the “new” crime-terror nexus points out a recent trend of criminals turning to Islamist terrorism in Western Europe, assumes this is due to an overlap of criminal and terrorist milieus, and argues this is significant because former criminals make more effective terrorists (Basra, Neumann & Brunner 2016). Despite being left out of Basra, Neumann and Brunner’s study, Bosnia’s militant Islamists possess well-developed criminal capabilities. This research draws on the explanatory power of the concept of legitimacy to analyze the development of the Islamist movement in Bosnia and how it uses crime. Through contextualizing and synthesizing open-source information on five post-war terrorist attacks in Bosnia, I argue that the leaders of the Bosnian Islamist movement have since the Bosnian War effectively established and drawn on local and international networks to recruit for and fund terrorist activity, thus diminishing the significance attributed by Basra, Neumann and Brunner to the role former criminals play in financing the Islamist movement and carrying out terrorism. This research encourages a reassessment of some of the main assertions of the new crime-terror nexus and suggests a need for its further study in Bosnia, a country of particular significance to the global jihadist movement.Show less
This paper tackles the question of state-initiated identity construction at home, which is integral to the CCCP’s regime legitimacy. The main focus of the article is a case study on the World Expo...Show moreThis paper tackles the question of state-initiated identity construction at home, which is integral to the CCCP’s regime legitimacy. The main focus of the article is a case study on the World Expo held in Shanghai in 2010. This project investigates how iconic images from the Shanghai Expo 2010 (slogan, opening ceremony, logo, and venues’ architecture) form a visual narrative in which Chinese history and identity are configured to meet the political goals of the Central Communist Party. This paper contends that, during the staging of Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Chinese ruling elite propagated official image in a continuous effort to reproduce the beliefs of the population in the Communist Party’s leadership qualities. This paper suggests that the attempts of the Chinese government to strengthen its legitimacy can be connected to the process of national identity creation.Show less
