State capacity and political violence: the case of ISIS and Libya

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1857559 (Table of Contents)

This study examines how factors such as a fragile / failed state and religiously motivated terrorism are related. In the introduction of the study, the focus is on the definition of the concept of weak state and the sufficient conditions to term a state as a weak state. Then, the relationship between the weak state factors on the one hand and radicalization and terrorism on the other are going to be clarified. In the second part of the thesis, weak state radicalism and terrorism are evaluated in terms of the political context of post-civilian administration, the incapacity to institute strong institutions and central authority, the inability to provide a minimum level of security, and insufficient public services in the Libyan case. Following a brief history of Libya and Gaddafi rule with respect to predominant factors undermining the power of the state, the post-Arab Spring Libya is going to be scrutinized in terms of weak state factors that allowed the rise of ISIS and other Islamist movements such as the fragile economic conditions, the deinstitutionalized justice system, security vulnerabilities, border security failure, and the trajectory of Islamic radicalism. This study seeks to provide an answer to the following questions: a) What are the weak state factors that are present in the case of Libya? b) What is the extent of relationship between weak state capacity and terrorism with respect to the case of Libya?