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About Christopher Anzalone

Christopher Anzalone is a doctoral student in the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University where he studies modern Muslim socio-political movements, Shi'ite Islam, contemporary jihadi movements, and Islamist visual culture. He has published articles in Foreign Policy magazine's AFPAK Channel and several academic encyclopedias including the Princeton University Press' Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (forthcoming) and Oxford University Press' Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (2009), Encyclopedia of the Modern World (2008), and Encyclopedia of Islam and Law (forthcoming).

Articles by Christopher Anzalone

Nigeria and Boko Haram in jihadi media discourse

Christopher Anzalone 1 March 2012
Boko Haram, a violent islamist group operating in Nigeria, is often linked to Al-Qaeda and Somalia jihadists Al-Shabab, though there is no evidence to support these claims. Christopher Anzalone investigates the position of Boko Haram in international jihad looking at its profile in jihadi media sources

Taliban leadership decries sectarian attacks

Christopher Anzalone 16 January 2012
Recent bombings in Afghanistan have raised fears of mounting violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites. This cannot be in the Taliban's strategic interest, argues Christopher Anzalone.

The rapid evolution of Al-Shabab’s media and insurgent “journalism”

Christopher Anzalone 16 November 2011
The evolution of Al-Shabab’s media arm provides a window into the group’s overall maturation as an insurgent movement that has endorsed key elements of Al-Qaeda Central’s ideology while still focusing primarily on waging a domestic insurgency inside Somalia.

Al-Shabab: Between the battlefield & the famine

Christopher Anzalone 21 October 2011
Despite its military setbacks and pressures from the famine, Al-Shabab remains a formidable and adaptive force and insurgents continue to control most of central and southern Somalia.

Dangerous liaison? Evaluating relations between Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda

Christopher Anzalone 13 August 2011
The detention of Ahmed Warsame in the US has renewed the discussion about possible cooperation between the powerful Somali Islamist insurgent movement Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Christopher Anzalone assesses the links.

Who are Somalia’s ‘al-Shabab?’

Christopher Anzalone 3 August 2011
Continuing our examination of fundamentalist Islamic groups in Africa, Christopher Anzalone looks at Somalia’s Al-Shabab insurgents, describing how they relate to the country’s more conventional governance structures, and the difficulties the East African famine has thrown up for the group.

Military success but political failure: the fight against Al-Shabab in Somalia

Christopher Anzalone 28 June 2011
While cooperation between international forces, the Somali army and allied militias have delivered victories against Al-Shabab this spring, the political infighting and corruption of the Transitional Federal Government prevents further successes.

This week's guest editors

openGlobalRights editors

Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:

Emerging powers and human rights.

A Turkish Spring?

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Woolwich - terror or conflict?

Secret Courts: 8 nightmare scenarios now possible in Britain
Jo Shaw

Iran myths

Iranian presidential candidate and chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalill

Myths, falsehoods and misrepresentations about Iran
Peter Oborne and David Morrison

Palestinian borders

Palestine, peoples and borders in the new Middle East map
Ahmad Samih Khalidi

Nobel Women's Initiative

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Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

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The media in Europe

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Mali: the plot thickens

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Remote control war

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oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

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