Highly-educated individuals are over-represented among violent operatives of insurgent organizations in the Middle East. This suggests four inter-related questions: (1) Why do those who seem to have good prospects willingly endanger their own lives? (2) What incentives drive these highly...

This paper examines Islamic law on the punishment of apostasy and its use and abuse by State and non-state actors to justify the taking of human life. It highlights the traditional view of Muslim jurists that apostates must be killed. This approach is contrasted with the growing body of juristic...

Transnational terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS/ISIL or Daesh) have shown an ability to attract radicalized individuals from many countries to join their ranks. Using a novel data set that reports countries of residence and educational levels of a large...