MES presents: Darryl Li

Darryl Li on Jihad in a World of Sovereigns: Rethinking the 'Foreign Fighter' Problem

For over a decade, the enemy posited by U.S. foreign policy has been the Islamist 'foreign fighter,' seeking to wage jihad abroad without seeking the permission of any sovereign nation-state. Numerous studies have glossed this phenomena as 'radicalization' and attempted to explain it through various psychological, socio-economic, or institutional variables. In contrast, this presentation will emphasize transnational jihads as experiences of intercultural encounter, situated in deeper histories of diaspora and empire, which raise fundamental questions about sovereignty and the international legal order.

Darryl Li, an anthropologist and attorney, is a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar at the Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University

Lunch Will Be Served.

Sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs