There's a Bit of State in the Islamic State

From al-Qa'ida to IS: Has international terrorism become a state? This is the title of a recent paper by Arianna Vedaschi (Department of Legal Studies), which will appear in the next issue of Rivista Trimestrale di Diritto Pubblico.

"The purpose of my analysis", Prof. Vedaschi says in a video comment, "is to test whether the new phenomenon of the so-called Islamic State meets the three criteria necessary for us to talk of a genuine state, i.e. territory, people and sovereignty. In the first part of my article, I show that these three elements exist, although they reveal significant weaknesses".

In the second part of the study, Prof. Vedaschi examines whether a functioning state exists or not, i.e. she looks at whether IS provides public services (water, electricity etc.), a school system, medical and welfare support, security and police service and so on.

"I conclude with some observations. I think that IS is a state-building-oriented project, which is not simply presenting itself as an alternative to Western democracy", the author says, "but further denies all other models of organizing power; and above all provides a new model of society, following fundamentalist lines".