Abstract：

In the context of the sweeping rise of the “Islamic State”, as one of the important peripheral areas in the Islamic world, Southeast Asia deserves closer attention and further research in regard to the development patterns and paths of terrorism.Since the 1970s, owing to historical and religious tensions and contradictions between the central government and local governments, a massive separatist movement of the Moros in the southern Philippines had erupted.Since then, stimulated by both internal elements like national, religious and extremist ideologies and external factors as the Afghanistan War in 1979, separatist terrorism gradually developed into Islamic extremist terrorism and began to play an important role in the southern Philippines.As the global war on terrorism was launched at the beginning of the 21st century, terrorist activities in Southeast Asia laid low for some time.In 2014, the rise of the “Islamic States injected a new “vigor” into the resurgence of terrorism in this region.Under the direct influence of the “Islamic State”, terrorism in the southern Philippines, represented by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) , started to escalate once again.With the involvement of the “Islamic State” and the returning of the local terrorists from the Middle East, the Malawi armed confrontation marked the “international escalation”of terrorism in the southern Philippines.In the future, the interaction between regionalization and internationalization of terrorism in the southern Philippines may be further intensified, and the pattern of Malawi armed confrontation may be replicated or imitated in other regions.To settle the problem in the southern Philippines once and for all, the Philippines government should handle properly the domestic issue of separatism and call for anti-terrorism support at the regional and international levels.

Keyword：

terrorism; southern Philippines; the “Islamic State”; internationalization; regionalization;