The U. S. Intelligence Community and the Fight against ISIS: Donald Trump Administration's National Security Policy

Fight against international terrorism remains one of the keystones of the United States’ foreign policy in the upcoming period. The threat of the Islamic State is still grave for the international security, so it is understandable that Donald Trump administration will remain in this course. In the presentation of the new administration’s program at the White House website, it is pointed out that “defeating ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups” will be of the highest priority, and that joint and coalition efforts will be needed. In the inaugural address, the new President stated that the United States intent to “unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism”. It is initially obvious that, differing from the notion of “fight against violent extremism” used by the Obama administration, the new administration talks about the fight against radical Islamism. In this paper, the authors will analyze and present the key shifts in the United States’ national security policy in the wake of the Donald Trump’s administration. Key positions of Trump’s presidential campaign regarding the foreign policy, national security policy, fight against the Islamic State, and the reform of the Intelligence Community, will be juxtaposed with decisions made during the beginning of the presidential term

Hybrid nature of extremism: Cohesive characteristics of ethno-nationalism and religious extremism as generators of Balkan insecurity

It will be no mistake to say that the region of the Balkans is the site with 'good soil' for conflicts. A significant number of scholars, who have analyzed the nature of conflicts in the Balkans, recognized the 1990s wars as religious conflicts. Others point out that the nature of these conflicts is based on ethnic and ethno-nationalist reasons. Taking into account the complex character of the 'Balkans powder keg', it could be said that both views are correct. But then again, each of these conflicts had (and has) certain differences that support the thesis by which this particularly sensitive issue must by analyzed with exclusive respect for the role of religion. Namely, the role of religion is prominent and significant in almost all Balkan conflicts inspired by ethno-nationalist ideas and passions. In this regard, the main objective of this paper is to emphasize the so called 'hybrid' character of the Balkans antagonisms and conflicts, which have extremist-religious and ethno-nationalist components at the same time

Religija kao faktor strateške kulture na primerima hrišćanstva i islama

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Religious and ethnic context of the Serbian strategic culture

In the paper entitled "Religion as a factor of strategic culture on the examples of Christianity and Islam" there is an analysis of the ideas and values that distinguish what is "allowed" and what isn't, primarily in the use of force. This paper has a global character, so there was the need to continue the research on how religion participates in the strategic orientation of specific countries. How does Serbia relate to this factor of strategic culture? To what extent does it participate in the current political reality? How does this factor communicate with the equivalent narratives in the surrounding countries, especially in the light of the conflicts during the 1990s? Where is the difference between the ethnic and religious context of the identity? To what extent do these two contexts support each other, and to what extent are they an obstacle to the identity profiling of our society? These are some of the research questions of this paper. The multidisciplinary approach and the referred literature represent a valid framework for correct and objective answers to the mentioned questions

Faktor gomile u navijačkom nasilju

In colloquial thought about the character of fan violence, there is an obvious trend of identifying hooligan groups with crowds. Furthermore, we can often hear expressions as hooligan crowd, hooligan mob, wild crowd, etc. Using a long-trodden path traced by Gustave Le Bon at the setting of the 19th century, the authors are trying to make a certain comparison between contemporary fan violence characterized with crowd elements, with the crowd viewed by Le Bon. Starting with the description of identity loss during the crowd formation, creation of the sentiment of invincible power, all that through suggestibility, credulity, and contagious character of the crowd, Le Bon revealed the main characteristics of crowds and their leaders through authoritativeness, intolerance, violence and exaggeration, and inevitable conservatism. Analyzing Le Bon’s viewpoints from this temporal distance, it could easily be concluded that a vast number of his statements have so-called timeless character. Unpretentious wish of the authors was to put Le Bon’s viewpoints in the context of contemporary crowds, especially through a prism of crowd – fan group. Main characteristics of crowds, as Le Bon viewed them, compared with some of the important characteristics of modern fan crowds, have some important similarities. Moreover, if crowd, and even mob (in context of fans) could be differentiated from hooliganism as obviously characteristic form of deviant behaviour, the concurrence with Le Bon’s postulates would be especially visible. Related to that, fan violence as a „disease” of contemporary world characterized by complete lack of matrices (in terms of East-West, rich-poor, black-white, religious divisions, etc.) could partly be explained through important crowd characteristics in a way Le Bon viewed them. Still, the behaviour with serious logistic elements as one of the characteristics of contemporary hooliganism could not be described or called irrational or chaotic. Preparation of pyrotechnics, pre-arranged fights, concealing of rocks and other objects for eventual use against the rival fan groups or persons of different political or sexual orientation, talk about destructive and, at the same time, organized character of hooliganism. Or, like Dragan Koković noticed: „Aggressive action (and hooligan behavior is certainly that sort of action, authors’ note) does not come from some spontaneous, aggressive energy, but is (…) a result of outer stimulation and authority” (Koković, 1990:159)

Differentiation between Definitions of Extremism and Terrorism as a Necessity in Contemporary Security Culture

Through elaborating the importance of differentiating extremism and terrorism as especially intriguing forms of political violence, the authors noticed that these notions are often intertwined, misused, or (most often) identified as equal. Correct differentiation between extremism and terrorism, and later between terrorism and terror, their historical context, understanding the circumstances in which they appear and exist, are of the utmost importance for preparation of appropriate counter-measures. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to put the precise theoretical definitions of all of these forms of political violence, into context of selecting the appropriate measures for prevention of and combating not only extremism as a precondition, but also the terrorism as the "final product" of extremist aspirations