Jihadist war or a challenge of disintegration?

In this paper we introduce some relevant research results about the roleof social embeddedness and social resources in the sphere of socialconflicts and violence. In accordance with the actual state of theinvestigation process the outcomes presented in this analysis are focusingon the activities of the so called ‘Islamic State’or ISIS – considered to bea rather effective terrorism exporter recently. After briefly outlining thebroader – global – context of terrorist organizations, the particularcharacteristics of the activities of ISIS and some elements of theconceptual frame, the study highlights empirically two potential explainingfactors of the success of the terrorist organization. On the one hand theinfluencing network – primarily linked to the cyber sphere – of the IslamicState is explored, demonstrating a notable focus on the developed countriesof Europe. On the other hand the paper summarizes the main conclusions froma case study on the recruitment base of the militants in Brussels of theterrorist organization investigating the relationship between theterritorial distribution of the ISIS foreign fighters in city and the extentof segregation of the Islamic population in the different districts,including also certain socio-demographic factors to shed light on thesignificance of the broader – unfavourable – social context.