Dr Lia Brynjar, Associate Professor, University of Oslo, Norway

The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has drawn renewed attention to the notion of “a jihadi state” as a real world experience. Comparing the “Islamic State” with previous jihadi “emirates” and proto-states, his lecture discusses how militant Islamists cope with the dilemmas of state building. Particular attention is devoted to explaining the apparently irrational behavior of many jihadi groups in situations where adaptation and pragmatism would have seemed more logical.