Terrorism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the problems Iraq and Syria will face as Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) is gradually rolled back from its territorial acquisitions is that it will demobilize its conventional forces and return to being a terrorist organization. It may be in some ways more dangerous under the […]

Counter-Terrorism

Politics, not just Bombs, will defeat ISIL/ Daesh

contributors

By Frank-Walter Steinmeier | (Project Syndicate) | – – BERLIN – The November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris – which struck at the heart of France and of Europe as a whole – have brought the terrorist threat posed by the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (ISIS) to the forefront of the foreign-policy agenda. For me, […]

Featured

Russian Strike on al-Qaeda Lair kills 51 at Prison, as US hypocritically slams Moscow

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Russian air war against al-Qaeda in Syria (the Nusra Front or the Support Front) took a tragic turn on Saturday when a missile hit a downtown government building complex and prison in Maarat al-Numan. It left some 51 or more dead and 70 wounded. The […]

Featured

ISIL/ Daesh Threatens to attack Saudi Arabia after Executions

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) has pledged to attack and destroy the two Saudi political prisons, al-Ha’ir (Riyadh) and al-Tarfiya (Qaseem region), where Muslim radicals are typically held, and release their inmates. These prisons hold several thousand Saudis accused of involvement in terrorism. It was the organization’s first […]

Authoritarianism

Do Drug Gangs in Mexico kill more than ISIL? & other Big Security threats that will Surprise You

contributors

By Natasha Ezrow | (The Conversation) | – – This has been a remarkably violent year – and many of the worst threats to human security that have dogged people all over the globe are no less a problem than they were a year ago. Here, in no particular order, are some of the biggest […]

Counter-Terrorism

How his Syria Intervention brought Putin in from the Cold in 2015

contributors

By Carl Schreck | ( RFE/ RL | – – In December 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama fielded a question about Russia while addressing a group of American business leaders in Washington. President Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine and “backward-looking” policies, Obama said, are “isolating Russia completely internationally.” If it was Russian expansionism last year […]

Featured

In Retrospect: A Year of Sharpening Contradictions

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) Reprint, revised Note: The horrific murder of 12 persons and the wounding of 11 in the attack on the staff of the satirical weely Charlie Hebdo by terrorists on January 7 this year was followed on the evening of 13 November by six coordinated attacks, killing 130 people, including […]

Iraq

What It Takes To Defeat ISIL’s Ideology

contributors

By Charles Recknagel | RFE/RL Daniel Koehler is among a handful of people in the West who work with Islamist militants returning from Syria in an effort to reintegrate them into normal life. A native of Germany, he works with such former fighters and their families in countries across Europe and in North America and […]

Counter-Terrorism

Year in Review: Paris Attacks must not become Pretext for a new ‘Global War on Terror’

contributors

Petra Gümplová | (Open Democracy) | – – It will only exacerbate the causes of terrorist attacks, diminish society’s capacity to cope rationally with risks, and permanently damage freedom, democracy, and international law. For more than a decade, European societies have criticized and resisted the American approach to terrorism. France, once one of the most […]