Jihad or Security? Understanding the Jihadization of Chechen Insurgency through Recruitment into Jihadist Units

Drawing upon a range of ethnographic sources, this paper proposes an alternative micro-level explanation of the Jihadization process of the Chechen insurgency in that it explores individual motivations for recruitment into Jihadist units in interwar Chechnya (1996-99). First, it shows that enrolment into Jihadist units was sought by Chechen males who attempted to challenge the established forms of social organization. Second, it illustrates that membership in Jihadist units served as a means of providing security, particularly so for the members of weakened clans who found themselves increasingly discriminated against by their ethnic kin, and incapable of ensuring protection for themselves within the established clan-based networks. In both cases, the Jihadist ideology per se seems to have been of little or no real concern as regards prospective recruits to the Jihadist units.