Language Bias in Conflict Studies? Reviewing Trends in Jihadism Research, 2013–2023

To what extent does conflict research engage with non-English-language sources? Recent studies have highlighted the importance of language diversity and the consequences of excluding non-English-language sources from conflict research. Building on existing scholarship, this study analyzes the degree to which conflict scholars utilize sources published in languages other than English. To do so, I analyzed 857 articles published about jihadist actors in 14 high-ranking conflict, security, and terrorism journals between 2013 and 2023. Examining the contents of each article, I searched through bibliographies, tens of thousands of footnotes, and methodology sections to identify the presence of non-English-language sources. The results from this original dataset showcase notable developments in scholars’ use of non-English-language sources over time as well as variation in citations of materials published in different languages. Arabic-language sources were the most frequently cited non-English-language sources. However, English-language jihadist magazines, such as Dabiq and Rumiyah, received significantly more attention than their Arabic counterparts. While scholars often engaged with materials from multiple European languages, they rarely cited sources published in languages like Hausa, Somali, and Urdu. These findings have important implications for understanding data quality, empirical findings, and language bias in conflict studies and scholarship surrounding jihadist actors.