The Islamic State: The Manifestation of a Violently Intimate Utopian Imaginary

This thesis seeks a complex understanding of the Islamic State through a multi-layered analysis of its territorial construction and physical form, its ideology, and its virtuality. By analyzing the way each of these aspects is constructed, influences, and in turn is influenced by the other aspects, I offer an integrative perspective on the Islamic State. Specific elements under consideration include the organizational structure, membership, tactics, and factors driving the territorial construction of the Islamic State, the religious concepts and socio-political narratives assimilated into its Salafi-jihadist ideology, and its use of violence and virtual networks. My research combines primary source analysis with theoretical analysis. Sources consulted include media output of the Islamic State itself, personal correspondence and writings of key IS and other Salafi-jihadist thinkers, and existing expert analysis of the Islamic State. My own analysis leads me to propose that the Islamic State, as seen through its physical and ideological forms, is actually the manifestation of an imagined utopic vision animated and spread through virtual networks and the threat and seduction of intimate violence. Thus, this thesis complicates existing understandings of the Islamic State, which tend to see it as a fundamentally physical threat, a combination of a pseudo-state and terrorist organization acting according to an extreme Salafi-jihadist ideology, which employs sophisticated virtual methods. While valuable in some regards, such an understanding misses the scope and power of the Islamic State as a virtual entity. Ultimately, static, rationalist frameworks, many of which developed out of the Cold War context and are tied to the nation-state system, are insufficient to provide a complete understanding of the Islamic State. New frameworks must be developed that can account for continual change, transformation, and the manifestation of the virtual forces of individual and collective imaginaries.