Syria and Iraq

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Photos by Alice Martins

Territory has long been the motivation for war and controlling a geographic area has been the ultimate index for winning and losing.
The rise, fall, and persistence of ISIS, however, at once reinforces but complicates the centrality of territorial conquest to warfare.

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Actors, Impact on Civilians The Trans-Border Fight Against ISIS Territory has long been the motivation for war and controlling a geographic area has been the ultimate index for winning and losing. The rise, fall, and persistence of ISIS, however, at once reinforces but complicates the centrality of territorial conquest to warfare. Born out of the same genealogy that gave rise to Al-Qaeda, going back to Soviet-occupation Afghanistan, ISIS, which was born of subsequent rivalries between jihadist factions, illustrates the logic of viral mutation so central to… Actors, Impact on Civilians The Politics of Images: Understanding Change in Armed Conflict through Photography ​This article demonstrates how integrating the disciplinary approach of International Relations with visual arts in the form of photojournalism and documentary photography enhances understanding of dynamic change in armed conflict. We argue that photo-essays are a powerful methodological and epistemological tool of knowledge production because of their potential to (i) allow us to understand dynamic change in armed conflict as a process, rather than a static phenomenon; (ii) contribute to an… Actors, Impact on Civilians, Environments, Methods, Resources Conflict in Syria and Iraq Actors, Impact on Civilians The Law and Practice of Cross-border Humanitarian Relief Operations: Syria as a Case Study Dapo Akande, University of Oxford and Emanuela-Chiara Gilliard, University of Oxford, European University Institute The extremely severe restrictions on humanitarian operations have been one of the defining features of the Syrian conflict. Humanitarian operations have been severely impeded by a range of constraints, including active hostilities, repeated attacks against those providing humanitarian and, in particular, medical assistance, shifting front lines, proliferation of parties to the… Actors, Impact on Civilians Visualizing Change in Armed Conflict: Complexity in the Eyes of the Beholder Violent conflict evolves and adapts to ever-changing conditions motivated by interactions between actors involved in conflict and the places in which it develops. Such a multifaceted interplay of variables complicates the understanding of dynamic conflict and requires sophisticated tools to explain the processes it involves. Challenging hegemonic epistemological processes in conflict studies and related fields, we argue that visualization offers opportunities to explore dynamic conflict in a…