Projections of statehood : the disciplining of transnationalism and the attempted (self)legitimisation of the so-called Islamic State

Abstract

This thesis investigates one of the most salient instances of transnationalism to date: the unprecedented rise of the violent terrorist organisation self-branded as the Islamic State. From 2014 to 2016, the Islamic State project rapidly became a global public enemy. It inspired violent acts of terror, claimed a substantial amount of territory and attracted the largest influx of migrants ever recorded by a non-state actor. As a result, researchers have been concerned with understanding its unparalleled transnational appeal. The Islamic State’s identifications of transnationalism, however, are situated within a centralised projection of statehood. In contrast to current perspectives, this thesis demonstrates that transnationalism has been utilised as a discursive resource within a territorial state project. Through an affordance-driven approach to the semiotics of the most comprehensive and widely distributed publication produced by the Islamic State, this study critically analyses the multimodal discourse of Dabiq (published from June 2014 to August 2016). It establishes that the semiotic resources of language, imagery and genre have been utilised to strategically position the Islamic State as both a global enemy and a competitive transnational alternative to existing nation-states. This realisation opens up a new line of enquiry by demonstrating the need to critically rethink conceptions of transnationalism that have framed studies conducted throughout the social sciences. This thesis, therefore, has multidisciplinary implications that contribute to both terrorism studies and an understanding of the affordances allotted to non-state actors operating in an era of intense mediatisation.