World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

In an audio clip posted online, the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State caliphate.  In so doing, the group joins other extremist groups in Libya, the Philippines, and other countries.  The attraction of a restored caliphate seems to be powerful to some Muslims in the world, although the actual number is hard to quantify.  The movement clearly qualifies as a supranational movement as the caliphate is a genuine alternative to the nation-state.

There are a number of popular resistance movements throughout the world right now, but very few of them attract much attention.  The absence of a sustained and global resistance to much of the inequality in the world is somewhat puzzling.  But there are some small signs that groups are becoming organized on the local level and addressing primarily local issues.  These issues, however, are not purely local–they are, in many respects, the product of globalization.  Whether these groups will begin to organize across national borders remains to be seen.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has issued a call for a common European army.  Such proposals have been made in the past, but the crisis in Ukraine appears to have stimulated quite serious talk of a single European army.  Germany has responded favorably to the proposal, but the British and the French have traditionally opposed any move which might erode their own national military power.