Erik Skare

Academic interests
My disciplinary background is Arabic and Middle East studies, and my main academic interests are Palestinian armed and non-violent resistance, and Palestinian state-building. My PhD thesis (supervised by Dag Henrik Tuastad and Thomas Hegghammer) studied the history of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The thesis was published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press titled A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East and was awarded the Palestine Book Award (2021).
I am currently part of the research initiative on energy transition in the Middle East (GreenMENA) and will employ computational statistics to analyze whether there has been a shift in discourse in Norway and Kuwait the last two decades related to climate change and renewable energy, and, if so, why this shift has occurred and whether such a shift is caused and conditioned by the same set of variables. As such, I discuss what this potentially means for our understandning of how fossil fuel dependency impacts perceptions on climate change.
I am also an associate researcher at the Center for International Studies (CERI) at Sciences Po in Paris where I am part of the EU Horizon 2020-funded PREVEX project (Preventing Violent Extremism in the Balkans and the MENA). The overarching objective of PREVEX is to put forward more fine-tuned and effective approaches to preventing violent extremism in the broader MENA region by understanding how different drivers operate. Particular emphasis is placed on the non-occurrence of violent extremism in so-called "enabling environments".
Background
- Researcher, University of Oslo (2022- )
- Associate researcher, Sciences Po (2022- )
- Postdoctoral researcher, Sciences Po (2020-2022)
- Doctoral research fellow, University of Oslo (2020)
- Research assistant, Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (2015-2016)
- Master's degree in Arabic, University of Oslo (2015)
- Bachelor's degree in Arabic, University of Bergen (2013)
- Palestine and Arab Studies, Birzeit University (2012/2013)
Awards and scholarships
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Palestine Book Award (2021), A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
Appointments
- Editor of Babylon - Nordic Journal of Middle East Studies (2017-2019)
Books
I have authored the following books:
Publications
Books
Skare, Erik. A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Skare, Erik. Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Islamist Writings on Religion and Resistance. London: I.B.Tauris, 2021.
Skare, Erik (2016). Digital Jihad: Palestinian Resistance in the Digital Era. London: Zed Books.
Articles
Skare, Erik. “La Palestine s’est-elle islamisée?” In Araborama. Ce que la Palestine apporte au monde. Edited by Bertrand Badie, Christophe Ayad & Leyla Dakhli. Paris: Éditions du Seuil [forthcoming March 2023].
Skare, Erik & Stéphane Lacroix. "Les 4 R de la Déradicalisation.” In Politiques de Deradicalisation. Edited by Juliette Galonnier, Stéphane Lacroix & Nadia Marzouki. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po [forthcoming September 2022].
Skare, Erik. "Affluent and Well-Educated? Analyzing the Socio-Economic Backgrounds of Fallen Palestinian Islamist Militants." The Middle East Journal 76, no. 1 (2022): 72-92.
Skare, Erik. "Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad." Religions 12, no. 1010 (2021): 1-12.
Skare, Erik. "Insulated Eruptions of Discontent: Palestinian Protests in the Absence of Trusted Organisations." Contemporary Levant (2021). Online first: 09.09.21.
Skare, Erik (2018). "Digital Surveillance/Militant Resistance: Categorizing the “Proto-state Hacker.” Television and New Media 20, no. 7 (2018): 670-685.
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(2022). Affluent and Well-Educated? Analyzing the Socio-Economic Backgrounds of Fallen Palestinian Islamist Militants. The Middle East Journal. ISSN 0026-3141. 76(1), p. 72–92. doi: 10.3751/76.1.14. Show summary
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(2021). Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad . Religions. ISSN 2077-1444. 12(11), p. 1–12. doi: 10.3390/rel12111010. Show summary
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(2018). Digital Surveillance/Militant Resistance: Categorizing the “Proto-state Hacker” . Television & New Media. ISSN 1527-4764. 20(7), p. 670–685. doi: 10.1177/1527476418793509. Show summary
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Anderson, Jedidiah; Skare, Erik & Dorroll, Courtney (2018). Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear? Tools and Suggestions for Digital Data Protection. The Qualitative Report (TQR). ISSN 1052-0147. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
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(2015). "Du har blitt hacket av Gaza Hacker Team". Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier. ISSN 1503-5727. 13(1/2), p. 46–56. doi: 10.5617/ba.4184. Full text in Research Archive
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(2021). Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Islamist Writings on Resistance and Religion. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9780755635924. 256 p. Show summary
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(2021). A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108845069. 334 p. Show summary
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(2018). الجهاد الرقمي: المقوامة الفلسطينية في العصر الرَّقْمي. Almutawassit Books. ISBN 978-88-85771-71-0. 236 p.
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(2016). Digital Jihad: Palestinian Resistance in the Digital Era. Zed Books. ISBN 9781783607846. 240 p.
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(2021). Gjengjeldelsen volder død og ødeleggelse på Gaza. Hvorfor støtter folk fortsatt Hamas? [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
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(2021). Arrestert Hamas-topp til VG: – Vi betaler prisen for å hjelpe palestinerne. [Newspaper]. VG.
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Maktabi, Rania; Skare, Erik & Sogge, Erling Lorentzen (2018). Forord som redaktør for spesialnummer av Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier: "Stat, statsborgerskap og territorialitet" - Festskrift for Nils A. Butenschøn 70 år. Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier. ISSN 1503-5727.
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(2018). Comment le Hamas tente de jouer dans la cybercour israélienne. [Newspaper]. L'Orient le Journal. Show summary
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(2018). Påfallende mange palestinske kvinner deltok i Gaza-opprøret. Nå frykter Israel at opprøret sprer seg. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten. Show summary
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(2017). Motstandskampen er blitt digital: Unge palestinere hacker israelske nettsider. [Business/trade/industry journal]. Apollon.
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(2020). Faith, Awareness, and Revolution: A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Oslo 07-Media. Show summary