Understanding and Engaging the Muslims of the Southern Philippines

The 2011 US National Strategy for Counterterrorism maintains the focus of the United States on pressuring al-Qaida's core, while emphasizing the need to build foreign partnerships and capacity. The strategy states that the US is engaged in a broad sustained, and integrated campaign together wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dunham-Scott, Diana L
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
ANTHROPOLOGY
COUNTERTERRORISM
Government and Political Science
GOVERNMENT(FOREIGN)
INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
ISLAM
NATIONAL SECURITY
ORGANIZATIONS
PERSONNEL
PHILIPPINES
RELIGION
TASK FORCES
TERRORISM
THREATS
Unconventional Warfare
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Summary:The 2011 US National Strategy for Counterterrorism maintains the focus of the United States on pressuring al-Qaida's core, while emphasizing the need to build foreign partnerships and capacity. The strategy states that the US is engaged in a broad sustained, and integrated campaign together with the concerted efforts of allies, partners and multilateral institutions. Beyond al-Qaida, other foreign terrorist organizations threaten US national security interests. These groups seek to undermine the security and stability of allied and partner governments. Building strong enduring partnerships based on common understandings of the threat, the local culture, and common objectives is essential to every one of the strategy's overarching counterterrorism objectives, and the US endeavors to do so in the southern Philippines. In a remote province of the Southern Philippines, the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) has been working to support US national strategy in a whole-of-government approach fully partnered with the Government of the Philippines (GRP). The task force performs security assistance activities and foreign internal defense (FID) to combat the violent extremist organizations (VEOs) Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other groups in the area while working with USAID and other organizations to improve conditions, governance, and development in Mindanao. This dissertation is based on field work conducted in the southern Philippines to explore and compare how members of the US military, Philippine military and police, and populace of Mindanao understand Islamic beliefs and values, using anthropological research methods. This will shed light on the degree to which the task force shares an understanding of the local culture with its partners and populace and where any divergence of understanding may lie.