PUBLICATIONS
March 7, 2012
Call for Applications: Religious Violence Summer Program at Columbia University
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs
The Hertog Global Strategy Initiative seeks talented undergraduate and graduate students for its 2012 seminar on the History and Future of Religious Violence and Apocalyptic Movements.
April 8, 2008
Monica Duffy Toft Named 2008 Carnegie Scholar
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy and director of the Belfer Center’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, has been named a 2008 Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Toft is one of 20 scholars to receive the prestigious Carnegie Scholar designation for 2008 "for compelling ideas and commitment to enriching the quality of the public dialogue on Islam."
March 2011
God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah
Is religion a force for good or evil in world politics? How much influence does it have? Despite predictions of its decline, religion has resurged in political influence across the globe, helped by the very forces that were supposed to bury it: democracy, globalization, and technology. And despite recent claims that religion is exclusively irrational and violent, its political influence is in fact diverse, sometimes promoting civil war and terrorism but at other times fostering democracy, reconciliation, and peace. Looking across the globe, the authors explain what generates these radically divergent behaviors.
November 2010
The Jihadis' Path to Self-Destruction
By Nelly Lahoud, Former Associate, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program
Jihadi ideologues mobilize Muslims, especially young Muslims, through an individualist, centered Islam. Appealing to a classical defense doctrine, they argue that the mandates of jihad are the individual duty of every Muslim and therefore transcend and undermine both the authority of the state and the power of parental control.
April 2010
Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979
By Thomas Hegghammer, Former Associate, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program, 2009–2010; Former Research Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program, 2008–2009
This book presents the first ever history of Saudi jihadism based on extensive fieldwork in the kingdom and primary sources in Arabic. It offers a powerful explanation for the rise of Islamist militancy in Saudi Arabia and sheds crucial new light on the history of the global jihadist movement.
October 2009
Securing the Peace: The Durable Settlement of Civil Wars
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs
Timely and pathbreaking, Securing the Peace is the first book to explore the complete spectrum of civil war terminations, including negotiated settlements, military victories by governments and rebels, and stalemates and ceasefires. Examining the outcomes of all civil war terminations since 1940, Monica Toft develops a general theory of postwar stability, showing how third-party guarantees may not be the best option. She demonstrates that thorough security-sector reform plays a critical role in establishing peace over the long term.
December 2008
The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks
By Assaf Moghadam, Former Associate, International Security Program (ISP)/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs (RIIA), 2009–2010; former Research Fellow, ISP/RIIA, 2007–2009; former Research Fellow, ISP, 2004–2006
This groundbreaking volume examines the rise and spread of suicide attacks over the past decade. Sorting through 1,270 terror strikes between 1981 and 2007, Assaf Moghadam attributes their recent proliferation to the mutually related ascendance of al Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi Jihad, an extreme interpretation of Islam that rejects national boundaries and seeks to create a global Muslim community. This unflinching analysis provides new information about the relationship between ideology and suicide attacks and recommends policies focused on containing Salafi Jihadism.
2003
The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs
This book addresses the crucial role of territory in explaining ethnic violence. The theory of indivisible territory is explored in an attempt to explain why some conflicts turn violent and others do not. The case studies consist of Russia in relation to the Chechens and Tartars and Georgia in relation to the Abkhaz and Ajars, roughly from 1990 to 1994.
October 2008
"Islamic Responses to Europe at the Dawn of Colonialism"
By Nelly Lahoud, Former Associate, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program
"Whether Renan's views of Islam were defined by a predisposition to an ideological and systematic framework or not is difficult to say, but they did nevertheless grow into an ideological worldview. Despite the numerous flaws in his ideas and the subsequent scholarship that has since discredited him, Renan's ideas have survived to the present day."
July 2006
"Religion, Civil War, and International Order"
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs
This article addresses the question of why religion becomes a central issue in some civil wars whereas in others—even many of those whose primary combatants identify strongly with a particular religion—it has not.
