The Universal Enemy

Politics and International Relations (PIR) at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

A book launch with Darryl Li, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Social Sciences, Lecturer in Law, University of Chicago

No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so-called jihadists seem opposed to universalism itself. In a radical departure from conventional wisdom on the topic, The Universal Enemy argues that transnational jihadists are engaged in their own form of universalism: these fighters struggle to realize an Islamist vision directed at all of humanity, transcending racial and cultural difference.Anthropologist and attorney Darryl Li reconceptualizes jihad as armed transnational solidarity under conditions of American empire, revisiting a pivotal moment after the Cold War when ethnic cleansing in the Balkans dominated global headlines. Muslim volunteers came from distant lands to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina alongside their co-religionists, offering themselves as an alternative to the US-led international community. Li highlights the parallels and overlaps between transnational jihads and other universalisms such as the War on Terror, United Nations peacekeeping, and socialist Non-Alignment. Developed from more than a decade of research with former fighters in a half-dozen countries, The Universal Enemy explores the relationship between jihad and American empire to shed critical light on both.Speaker&#x27;s bio: Darryl Li is an anthropologist and attorney working at the intersection of war, law, migration, empire, and race with a focus on transregional linkages between the Middle East, South Asia, and the Balkans. Li is the author of The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity (Stanford University Press, 2020), which develops an ethnographic approach to the comparative study of universalism using the example of transnational &quot;jihadists&quot; -- specifically, Arabs and other foreigners who fought in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia Herzegovina. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research conducted in Bosnia and a half-dozen other countries, the monograph situates transnational jihads in relation to more powerful universalisms, including socialist Non-Alignment, United Nations peacekeeping, and the U.S.-led &quot;Global War on Terror.&quot; He is at work on a second project on migrant military labor (frequently called &quot;mercenaries&quot; or &quot;military contractors&quot;) across the Indian Ocean. Li has participated in litigation arising from the &quot;War on Terror&quot; as party counsel, amicus, or expert witness, including in Guantánamo habeas, Alien Tort, material support, denaturalization, immigration detention, and asylum proceedings. He is a member of the New York and Illinois bars.This event is organised by the PIR Contemporary Middle East Series in collaboration with Social Anthropology and the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global and Law. Discussant: Professor Nehal Bhuta, University of Edinburgh Law School.AccessThis event will take place on Zoom. The event link and the passcode can be accessed from your confirmation emails (which you will receive several, including one 2 hours before the start of the event; if you haven&#x27;t received them to your inbox please check your junk filters). The event details will be avaialble to registered attendees through a secure feature on Eventbrite, shortly before the start of the event. Please note that in order to view these details, you must be signed in to your eventbrite account with the same details as you used when signing up for the event. For security reasons, we do not send passcode details via email nor display them publicly.

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The Universal Enemy

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The Universal Enemy

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